Well this weekend, D. and I are painting our new apartment, which we will be moving into on May 26th (or rather we'll be spending every free minute from now until then spackling and painting because the walls are in TERRIBLE shape).
Perhaps you remember last month the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Balls I made to help sustain us while we cleaned up a little before the heavy construction? Now, much of that has been done (no, not by us and there's still plenty to go), and we're starting the painting in one of the rooms.
Yesterday we spent 5 hours straight sanding, dusting and applying the base paint and then came home and collapsed into bed before 11pm (yes, on a sat. night). Today might be even longer, so I knew that my Sunday baking had to be something easy to munch on, not too messy and portable to help us get through today's 2nd coat! I had been meaning to try Joanna's Almond-Chocolate Balls (remember her? she's the creator of the amazing Red Wine Chocolate Cake that has pretty much become a staple of my diet), and I thought, well here's a good occasion! They're rolled in confectioners sugar so if they get plaster dust on them like everything else in the apartment, we'll hardly even notice!
Pour mes lecteurs français, vous allez pouvoir suivre la recette en VOF avec les commentaires de Joanna sur son site jenesuispasunecourge.com. Je vous rassure, pas besoin d'avoir de cups ni de teaspoons à portée de main pour la réaliser ! (Un petit conseil, pourtant : Joanna fait cuire les boules à 140C. Je les mettrais plutôt à 180-190C, ce qui correspond mieux aux marques de température 4-5 qu'elle utilise.)
Almond-Chocolate Balls
(translated and adapted by Hopie's Kitchen)
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups almond powder (ground almonds)
4 Tbsp flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 - 1/2 cup confectioners sugar (you might call it icing sugar, if you're not American)
1. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar until the mixture gets a bit lighter and foamy on top.
2. Add the almond powder, flour, chocolate chips, cinnamon and mix until you get a soft dough.
3. With wet hands (helps the dough not stick to you), make dough into little balls (1/2 - 1 inch), roll in confectioners sugar, and place on a greased cookie sheet (they don't rise or spread, so you can put them pretty close together).
4. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. The cookies will crack open slightly on top while cooking and harden some as they cool.
Stick in a tin and take painting with you, or wherever else you'd like to go. We're getting close to picnic season, no? These would also be GREAT dipped in a hot cup of tea or coffee.
6 comments:
These look so good! Did you use an actual product called almond powder or did you just grind a big batch of almonds? I've never seen/heard of almond powder...
Mel - Yup, I used something called almond powder. It's often found in Asian supermarkets or the baking section here. That said, you can stick a bunch of almonds in the Cuisinart (or whatever you use) and grind them up small if you can't find almond powder. The balls might be crunchy - which could be interesting. Or you could try a combo of ground almonds and almond paste?
What kind of chocolate chips did you use? Usually I just chop up a bar of good chocolate, but sometimes (like if I were to make chocolate chip cookies, say) I like to slum it with Hershey's or Nestlé. I am, admittedly, a bit of a chocolate snob.
Camille - you got me, I didn't actually use chocolate chips because they can be hard to find and too expensive for the quality in France. I chopped up a bar of dark chocolate for baking (patissier). In the US, I like Ghiradelli chocolate chips - but for chocolate chip cookies, I usually just buy Nestle. I guess for this recipe, it's not really the quality of the chocolate that makes or breaks it (not like for a chocolate cake or mousse or something), but nothing wrong with being a chocolate snob when it counts!
De routard13 :
Deux escabeaux ! tes recettes prennent de la hauteur : bientôt Grand Chef !
Bravo
Routard 13 - Tant que mes recettes prennent de l'hauteur mais que je ne prends pas la grosse tête ça va ;-)
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