For most home cooks, the holiday season is serious cookie baking time. They get a jump — too much of a jump — on their cookie production, usually start right after Thanskgiving, baking, wrapping and freezing a small bakery’s worth of interchangeable butter cookies (Mom, if you’re reading this, consider yourself exempt).
Most home cooks don’t serve cookies in their optimum state—right out of the oven.
At home, we prefer to make a small variety of cookie doughs, freeze them, and then bake them at the last minute, so they are usually a little crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
My wife, Yasmin, created these warm chocolate pillows while she was pastry chef at Quilty’s in New York. The owners, Sam and Jim, wanted a mignardise, a little nibble, to drop along with the check. Because this was the last thing to come out of the kitchen, it had to be memorable, delicious and, like the whole experience, leave a long, pleasant aftertaste.
The restaurant was called Quilty’s, not, as many New Yorkers assumed, as a tribute to the Quilted Giraffe, that ’80s chefs’ atelier where Katy Sparks got her start, but after Quilty, a character in Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita.” (Sam was an English professor and serious Nabokov fan.)
Yasmin decided to call these cookies “Lolitas.” They get their light crunch and moisture from almond flour and their deep flavor from Venezuelan bittersweet chocolate and the one-two punch of Grand Marnier and orange zest.
John Broening cooks at Duo restaurant, .
Lolitas
Makes about 48 1-inch cookies.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup almond flour
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Zest of an orange
FOR ROLLING:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Directions
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the almond flour. In a double-boiler or glass bowl set high over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate with the butter, stirring until smooth. Lightly whisk together eggs, liqueur, orange zest and granulated sugar in another bowl. Stir in flour mixture and chocolate. The batter will feel pretty soft at this point. If you’re planning to bake soon, just cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 2 hours. If you’re planning to bake later, roll dough into a log or disc and wrap tightly in plastic. Freeze for up to two months.
Preheat oven to 350. Remove dough from freezer and lightly defrost, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, sift confectioners sugar into a large bowl and place granulated sugar in another one. Using a small cookie scoop or a teaspoon, drop the dough into the granulated sugar bowl and roll into a small ball, then drop it into the confectioner’s sugar to generously coat. Arrange balls 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and bake 10-12 minutes or until just puffed and cracked; centers should be a bit soft. Do not overbake. Transfer to racks to cool.
