Baci di Dama

This is not my kitchen. This bothers me more than you can possibly imagine. Despite how much I might dislike the one I have (share?) at home, especially when there are literally four cooks in the kitchen.

But at least at home, I have reliable cooking things, like food processors, and I know where all the measuring cups and spoons and such are. Let's just say that without a food processor, I had to make an archaic-like mortar and pestle with a mixing bowl and metal ice cream scoop. Like MacGyver. Or Jack Bauer. Except with cooking.

So, the actual recipe. Bci di Dama. It's an Italian cookie, made in the 1800s. It translates to "lady's kisses," because, supposedly, it's like kissing a lady, or, when bitten into, has the appearance of a lady's lips.

These were really good. And pretty easy to make, if you're not attempting (well, being forced to attempt) to be the Jack Bauer of cooking. But I love almonds, and chocolate, and cookies. All good.

(Please ignore my chocolatey hands.)

Baci di Dama

(Taken from Pandas and Cupcakes)

Makes about 20 assembled cookies

For the cookies:

3/4 cup hazelnuts, roasted and peeled (I used almonds, which were probably just as good, and cheaper) 1 cup powdered sugar 9 tablespoons butter, softened 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup flour For the ganache: 6 oz dark chocolate, chopped 6 oz heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grind hazelnuts (or almonds) and powdered sugar together in a food processor.
2. Beat butter, vanilla, and hazelnut/sugar mixture in a bowl until fluffy. Add flour and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
3. Shape dough into half teaspoon balls and place on parchment paper lined baking sheets. Bake one at a time for 12-15 minutes until golden.
4. While the cookies are baking, make the ganache. Heat the cream to just boiling, pour over chocolate.
5. Let sit until thickens. When both cookies and ganache are at room temperature, put about half a teaspoon in between two cookies, sandwiching them together.

After step five, I dipped an entire cookie back into the ganache, just because I had a lot of extra.

But they were all really good, with or without the extra chocolate. Also, be aware that these cookies are fairly small. I doubled this recipe and made about fifty total, and most people ate two to three each.