Monochromatic Mole and Black Cocoa Linzer cookies
I failed to mention in earlier blog posts that I used to have an online seasonal linzer cookie shop. There was the dark brown and toasted walnut cookie with an apple butter and salted caramel drizzle for the fall; a summery corn cookie with peach and Key West lime jam that is still one of my favorite cookies I’ve ever made, a cute toasted pecan with apricot and crystalized ginger jam for the spring, and an orange and nutmeg cookie with a simple chocolate ganache filling that I kicked off the opening of the cookie shop with. This was back in 2017-2018 and the novelty quickly wore off.
As anyone who has ever turned their hobby into a way to make money will tell you, the fun is the first thing to go. Dealing with extremely heavy personal shit on top of keeping up with orders — although I never made bank on these cookies, I did have loyal customers who ordered from me every season — was just too much for me and I shut down the shop about a mere year after opening. The website for the cookies was called Milagro Kitchen and was basically version 1.0 of this website, except where I had a cookie shop I now have a blog. I let that url expire because I couldn’t afford it anymore. Freelancing! I don’t know that I learned anything life-changing from this experience, except perhaps turning my hobby into a “business” is not something I’d do again.
I actually received an email from one of those customers, (Cathy in Chicago, who spent that whole year I had the shop open ordering literally dozens and dozens of cookies) back in January inquiring about whether I’d reopen my shop. “Remembering cookies”, she titled the email and ended it with “know that your talent is forever seared in our taste bud memories”, which still makes me tear up. When the idea for this website and blog came to mind, I was toying around with the idea of doing the cookies again. Never all that seriously though, and I decided that sharing my recipes would be a good way to still get my food into the hands of people who wanted it. Having someone eat and love my food is one thing; having someone make one of my recipes and be happy with the results produced by their own work is something else entirely. Something a bit more satisfying.
These are monochromatic cookies in both color and flavor. I was thinking of making mole for enchiladas a few weeks ago and then my friend Patricia in Los Angeles sent me a care package full of goodies (including a joint inside of a baggie of hibiscus, something I am still so enamored with/will forever be so enamored with). In the package was also a jar of mole negro paste from the Los Angeles institution Guelaguetza, which is recognized as being the first traditional Oaxacan restaurant in L.A. Patricia’s package absolutely felt like kismet, and my mind went to how to use the mole in a sweet application. Some of the ingredients in the Guelaguetza mole negro include black chilhuacle chile, plantains, sesame seeds, garlic, onion, thyme, oregano, and raisins which add that savory hit in a baked good that I absolutely love. I’m actually quite obsessed with using savory ingredients in cookies especially; see also: these snickerdoodle-adjacent cookies I made using Fly by Jing’s Mala (signature flavor of Sichuan cuisine) Spice Mix.
I modified this recipe from the Kitchn’s Roll-Out Chocolate Cookies which also uses black cocoa, an ingredient I typically use in my chocolate cake. The black cocoa gives any baked good a really striking black color, and in this cookie dough works really well with the mole. I have not tested these cookies with another brand of mole paste, however I don’t see why you couldn’t use any mole paste from your local mercado or grocery chain. Here, the ganache-esque filling (I say “esque” because it’s not true ganache with the addition of both confectioner’s sugar and black cocoa powder, however delicious it is) drives home the point of the mole and black cocoa in addition with the 60% semisweet chocolate. I added confectioner’s sugar to sweeten things up a bit; I added the black cocoa to darken things a bit to make the filling similar in color to the cookie (monochromatic!). The second time I tested this recipe I added ground chili powder to the filling and thought it was great, but this is definitely optional. Even with sifting the confectioner’s sugar and black cocoa powder the filling is not quite as smooth as ganache should be, so keep this in mind. This is why I’m not calling the filling a ganache; words mean things. I think if you had an immersion blender (I need one) you could blend the chocolate filling to help smooth it out a bit.
The filling will not be ready for piping or spooning at this point. You want It to thicken up a bit, like a truffle, and to speed this process up I put the filling in my fridge to chill. It’s usually ready to go in about 20 minutes.
Having a bunch of little linzer cookie cutters leftover from my cookie shop days gave me a lot of options for the cookie shape. I’d suggest using smaller cookie cutters for this recipe, in the 1 1/2-inch - 2-inch range, but definitely feel free to use whatever shape you like. A little square cookie would be adorable. Any cookie cutter bigger than 2 inches though and I think the richness from the mole and the chocolate would be right on the edge of too much.
While I can’t fault you if you live in the United States and your knowledge of mole comes from Rick Bayless alone, I do encourage you to seek out other, more appropriately authoritative voices on the history and importance of mole. I’d start with “The Colonial Origins of Mexico’s National Dish”, a podcast episode from The Atlantic featuring the Guelaguetza Lopez family, among others (on the famous story of mole originating from 18th century nuns scraping up what little ingredients they had on hand to prepare for the arrival of an archbishop: “That, to me, just sounds like propaganda.” - Fernando Lopez).
I think next week I will make my own mole. Definitely will spoon some over enchiladas, but I really cannot help myself and will probably also add it to a cake or maybe chocolate chip cookies. If you make these, please tag me on Twitter or Instagram where I unfortunately can usually be found.
Monochromatic Mole and Black Cocoa Sandwich Cookies
Modified slightly from The Kitchn’s Roll-Out Chocolate Cookies
Yield: about 2 1/2 - 3 dozen, depending on size of cookie cutter
Active time: 10 minutes
Chill time: 30 minutes - 1 hour
Bake time: 10-11 minutes
Total time: about 1 hour, 20 minutes
For the cookies:
342 grams (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
40 grams (1/3 cup) black cocoa, such as King Arthur Flour Black Cocoa
11 grams (2 tablespoons) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 grams (1/2 teaspoon) kosher salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
150 grams (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
220 grams (about 1/2 cup) packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 teaspoons (8 ml) vanilla extract
1.94 ounces (54 grams; about 2 tablespoons) mole paste
For the mole chocolate filling:
8 ounces semisweet (around 60%) chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon mole paste
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon black cocoa, sifted
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon ground chili powder, optional
sea salt, optional
To make the cookies:
In a medium-size bowl whisk the flour, black cocoa powder, Dutch-processed cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt just to combine.
In the bowl of a stand mixer set to medium speed (speed 6 on a Kitchenaid mixer) cream the butter and both sugars until the mixture is very light and fluffy, about a good 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl about half way through and continue mixing.
Add the mole paste and mix; it’s okay if you notice small flecks of mole paste that haven’t been fully incorporated entirely into the dough, they will sort themselves out in the oven. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and continue mixing just until ingredients are incorporated.
With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. If the dough feels too sticky, add in a bit more flour a tablespoon at a time. You want the dough to feel malleable but still firm enough that it holds its shape. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead just to help the dough come together a bit more.
Divide dough in half and shape into discs. Wrap both dough disks in plastic and chill for 30 minutes to one hour (you can keep the dough chilling in your fridge for up to three days).
Set a large piece of parchment paper on your work surface. Once dough has chilled, set a dough disk on top of the parchment paper so the dough does not stick to your work surface and let cookie dough soften a bit, about 30 minutes, before attempting to roll out.
Roll cookie dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Remember you’re making cookies, not crackers so you don’t want to roll the dough too thin. If the cookie dough cracks at all during the rolling out stage, you haven’t done anything wrong. The dough could be too cold still from chilling, in which case, simply let it come to room temperature a bit longer before attempting to roll again. If the dough has been sitting at room temperature for a while and it still cracks, simply roll your rolling pin gently over the cracked dough helping it to stick together. You’re not going for a perfect circle, and if your dough cracks at all, I promise it will be fine.
Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible. These will be the bottom halves of your sandwich cookie. Using either a butter knife or an offset spatula, carefully and gently transfer each cookie cut-out to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Transfer the entire baking sheet to your fridge to chill the dough for about 30 minutes to an hour before baking. This will help firm up the cookie dough, ensuring the cookies don’t spread while in the oven.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Gather remaining cookie dough and re-roll, cutting out as many additional cookies as you can. Remember to chill the cookie cut-outs before baking.
Bake cookies straight from the fridge for 11 minutes or just until the edges have begun to crisp up. Let cookies cool directly on the baking sheet for a good 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Repeat steps 6-11 with the second dough disk, except use a 2-inch cookie cutter, then a 1/2-inch cookie cutter to cut little inserts onto the top halves on your sandwich cookies, like you would for a linzer cookie. You could also skip this step and use only a 2-inch cutter for both the bottom and top halves if you’d like, (in which case they’d simply be a sandwich cookie).
Bake the top halves for 10 minutes if you used a 1/2-inch cutter for the insert; 11 minutes if you did not.
To make the chocolate filling:
Place chopped chocolate and mole paste in a heat-proof bowl.
In a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, heat the heavy cream until steaming and has reached a very gentle simmer; this happens pretty quickly. If your cream has come to a boil, it is too hot and could separate the temperamental chocolate.
Pour warmed cream over the chopped chocolate and mole paste and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Using a rubber spatula (or a whisk), gently stir the chocolate, mole paste, and cream until the chocolate has fully melted, the mole paste has been incorporated, and ganache is smooth. If there are any larger pieces of chocolate that are not melting into the cream, set the entire bowl over a small saucepan that has about an inch of simmering water in it. Stir continuously until ganache is smooth, and all chocolate has melted. Keep in mind once you add the confectioner’s sugar and black cocoa you will lose some of that smooth consistency.
Set a fine-mesh strainer over the bowl and sift in the black cocoa and confectioner’s sugar. Carefully stir to combine with a rubber spatula. Add ground chili powder to the ganache now, if using.
To assemble cookies:
Flip the bottom cookie halves over. Spoon or pipe about a teaspoon of chocolate filling onto each bottom half. Sprinkle a little sea salt on the chocolate filling, then top each cookie bottom half with a cookie top half.
To store the cookies:
Cookies will stay fresh for about four days in an air-tight container, after which they will begin to dry out. The dough can sit in the fridge for about 3 days, or in the freezer for much longer although I have not tested the length of time.