Almond Delights With Chocolate Almond Filling Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with lightly greased parchment paper.
• Soak dates in hot water until soft, 6 to 10 minutes. Drain.
• Combine dates, almond pulp, oats, almond milk, almond flour, coconut flour, coconut oil, applesauce, vanilla extract, cacao nibs, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg in a food processor. Process to the consistency of cookie dough, adding water if needed.
• Roll 1 tablespoon of cookie dough with your hands. Pinch sides with your fingers to form a square. Place on the prepared baking sheet and press down with your fingers or a fork to flatten slightly. Repeat with remaining dough.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool.
• Melt dark chocolate in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl in 15-second intervals, stirring after each interval, 1 to 2 minutes. Drizzle melted chocolate over cookies.

Steps:

• Set a pot of water over medium heat and bring to a boil. Add a double boiler to the top of the pot and lower heat to a simmer.
• Add chocolate and coconut oil to the double boiler. Stir until chocolate is melted.
• Place a drip rack over a parchment-lined pan. Place almonds on top of the drip rack. Pour chocolate over the almonds. Allow chocolate to dry.
• Once dry, store almonds in a resealable container.

Steps:

• In a small bowl, combine the first 5 ingredients. Beat on low speed until well combined, 2-3 minutes. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9-in. pie plate. Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack., For filling, combine sugar and eggs in a small saucepan until well blended. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture coats the back of a metal spoon and reaches 160°. Remove from the heat. Stir in chocolate and almond extract until smooth. Cool to lukewarm (90°), stirring occasionally., In a large bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add cooled egg mixture; beat on high speed for 5 minutes. Pour into cooled pie shell. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving. Garnish with whipped cream and almonds if desired. Refrigerate leftovers.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned 8 to 10 minutes remove from the oven and let cool. Use the metal blade of a food processor to chop the almonds finely 6 to 8 pulses reserve. Process the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy about 20 seconds, stopping to scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add the flour, salt and almond extract and pulse 8 to 10 times or until well mixed, stopping to scrape down the bowl as necessary. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll a rounded half tyeaspoon of dough at a time into a ball the size of a marble. Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake the cookies in the center of the preheated oven until firm but not brown 10 to 12 minutes. Place them on a wire rack to cool Spread about 1/2 teaspoon of the Chocolate Almond Filling on the bottom of 1 cookie. Place anothe cookie bottom side down on the filling and press lightly

Steps:

• For the ganache: Combine the chopped chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pot with 1-inch of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. Stir in the cream, vanilla and salt, and then remove from the heat. Set aside until cooled and thickened, stirring occasionally, 30 to 45 minutes.
• For the cookies: Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a small glass or cookie cutter (1 1/4 to 1 1/2-inch wide), trace 15 circles on each piece of parchment paper, leaving about 2 inches between each round. Flip the parchment over; the lines will be visible through the paper but you will not have to pipe directly onto the ink. Fit a pastry bag with a round tip about 1/4-inch wide.
• Sift the confectioners' sugar and ground almonds into a bowl and discard any larger nut chunks. (If you have more than a tablespoon of bigger chunks, grind those until powdery and then resift.) Combine the egg whites and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or in a large bowl with the whisk attachment of a hand-held electric mixer). Whip on medium-low speed until frothy, and then add the granulated sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip until very soft peaks form. Add the almond extract and a few drops of food coloring if using. Whip until stiff peaks form. Fold about one-third of the sugar-nut mixture into the egg whites until blended, and then fold in the remaining two-thirds. The batter should be a bit fluid but not runny. It should slowly drip off the spatula and sit on top of the batter in the bowl for a bit before eventually oozing back into it. If it seems a bit stiff at this point, fold once or twice more until it relaxes, although be careful not to over fold. This correct texture is the key to the macaron and it is better to have a stiffer batter than a looser one.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pastry bag. Holding the bag perpendicular over the baking sheet, squeeze until the batter fills a circle drawn on the paper. Release the pressure on the bag and pull towards you to prevent a pointy tip on the center of the cookie. Repeat with the remaining circles. Gently flatten any points on the cookies with a damp fingertip.
• Firmly rap the baking sheets against the counter to release any air bubbles and let stand at room temperature until the tops of the cookies no longer feel wet, 10 to 15 minutes. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the macarons are slightly crisp and the bottoms release from the parchment paper, about 15 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the baking time. Cool on the sheet 5 minutes, and then peel off the cookies and cool completely on a wire rack.
• To assemble the cookies, spread a thin layer of the chocolate ganache on the bottoms of half of the cookies, about 1/4 teaspoon per cookie. Top with a second cookie, gently pressing to squeeze the ganache to the rims.
• TIP: The weight of the batter in the pastry bag will force some of the batter out. To stop this, you can stick a mini marshmallow at the end of your pastry tip to block to the batter from running out the end.
• TIP: You can use store-bought almond meal in place of the whole almonds. Sift 2/3 cup with the confectioners' sugar and, if necessary, grind the larger chunks and sift until a tablespoon or less of larger chunks remain in the sifter.
• TIP: You can also spoon the batter onto the parchment lined baking sheets. The cookies may not be as perfectly round but will still taste great.

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar together.
• Add in egg yolks.
• Whisk egg whites until smooth.
• Fold in sieved flour, ground almonds, egg whites and the melted cooking chocolate.
• Bake in a loaf tin for 350 degrees Fahrenhit or 180 degrees celcius for about 30 minutes.
• For the topping, melt 200g cooking chocolate over hot water and pour onto cake.
• Decorate with almond flakes and cherries.