MiCa Thaler (Chocolate-Dipped Linzer Cookies)

Today I should be at my host-daughter’s wedding. Carina was our au pair for two years and quickly became a member of the family. When she returned to university in Austria, she soon met Michael, they fell in love, they got engaged, they planned a wedding and! Covid.

So, dream Alpine wedding in a town prophetically called “Corona-am-Wechsel,” had to be cancelled.

This cookie is in honor of Carina and Michael (whose nickname is “MiCa”). It’s a sandwich cookie with symbolism: Two halves, brought together with sweetness, just as I know their life will be. It’s dipped in chocolate because Carina loves chocolate (but not as much as she loves Michael).

Also, the recipe is from Carina’s family. I adapted it and turned it into “thaler,” aka, coins.

It’s a very elegant cookie, not-too-sweet and subtle with hazelnuts, apricot jam and dark chocolate.

So, bake these up and raise a glass in Carina and Michael’s direction.

These are a bit time-consuming, but nothing you can’t do while watching a good romantic comedy. Carina might suggest “Love Actually.”

MiCa Taller (Chocolate-Dipped Linzer Cookies)

What You’ll Need:

1 cup (2 sticks) /220 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

3 egg yolks (save the whites to make meringues another day!)

1/2 cup/ 75 grams skinned, roasted hazelnuts, ground (if they’re not entirely skinned, don’t fret)

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons/110 grams confectioners’ sugar

2 cups/ 250 grams all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup (or so) apricot jam

6 ounces dark chocolate

1 tablespoon flavorless vegetable oil

What You’ll Do:

With a hand or stand mixer, beat the butter, confectioners sugar, salt and cinnamon until smooth and creamy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, scraping down the bowl before each addition. Beat until the batter looks less like scrambled eggs, and more of a unified batter. Add the flour and hazelnuts and blend to combine.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

On a lightly dusted pastry board, roll out a quarter of the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. Using a circular cutter (mine was 1 1/2-inches wide), cut as many coin-shaped cookies as you can. Lay them carefully on the baking sheet, spacing them about an inch apart. Continue rolling and re-rolling dough until you’ve used it all

Bake them for about 10 minutes, or just golden in color. These are thin cookies and I don’t know how your oven works. To ensure even cooking, make sure you rearrange the pans up and down and back to front at least once.

Once cool, sandwich about 1/4 teaspoon of jam between two cookies. Repeat, repeat and try not to lick the jam off your fingers, because then you and I both know you need to stop to wash your hands. #germs

Return the sandwiched cookies to a baking sheet, wrap the sheet in plastic wrap/foil and let sit for at least 12 hours before dipping them in chocolate. This gives the jam time to glue the cookies together.

To dip them in chocolate: Over a double-boiler or in the microwave, melt the dark chocolate (I used Guittard extra dark chips) in a bowl with 1 tablespoon flavorless vegetable oil. The oil is there to help the chocolate maintain its shine and prevent the melting chocolate from seizing up and suddenly turning into a bowl full of dull-covered sludge. When the chocolate has melted, dip half the cookie and lay the finished cookies on a baking sheet lined with clean parchment or wax paper.

Let the cookies dry in a cool place. When the chocolate is dry, transfer to an air-tight container, or to the freezer, which is what I have to do to stop me from eating all of these.