Basler Brünsli

Since this is a new recipe for me, I followed Luisa’s recipe and made no changes. The recipe is thrown together in no time but rolling out the dough was a little bit of a challenge. I used a small wine glass  that I dipped in sugar as a cookie cutter. For chocolate, I used Trader Joe’s Pound Plus chocolate. Luisa recommends 60-70% cacao in the chocolate.  According to Luisa, the cookies will last for a month if kept in a tin.
Ingredients:

(makes about 35 cookies)


1 2/3 cups /250g raw almonds
​9 ounces /250g bittersweet chocolate
1 ½ cup /180g confectioners’ sugar.
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 egg whites
2 TBS kirsch or dark rum
granulated sugar, for rolling out the dough
Instructions:

Grind the almonds in a food processor until very fine, but do not let them turn into a paste. Transfer to a bowl. Break or cut the chocolate into pieces and grind them in the food processor until finely ground. Add the ground chocolate to the almonds and mix together.
Add the confectioners’ sugar, salt, cinnamon and cloves to the bowl and mix until combined. Stir in the egg whites, one at a time, and then add the kirsch or rum. The alcohol will burn off in the oven. Stir until well combined, cover with plastic and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 300˚ F.  Prepare two cookie sheets by covering them with parchment paper. I sprinkled some sugar on plastic wrap and rolled out the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap. Be careful, the dough is very sticky. I used a small 1½ -inch wide wineglass for a cookie cutter. I dipped the rim in sugar before I cut the dough. I had to roll out the leftover dough several times. Putting the dough in the freezer for several minutes helps. I baked each cookie sheet for 18 minutes in the center of my oven. The cookies will be dry but soft to the touch when they are done. Cool the cookies completely before putting them into a tin. They will last for a month if they’re not gone by then.


Guten Appetit
recipe by Luisa Weiss from her book Classic German Baking
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