It's not Easter without chocolate, so we've enlisted the help of Hunted and Gathered to provide us with a sweet treat to bake for your family and friends!
Ingredients:
Walnut Brittle
142g toasted walnuts
130g white sugar
2 tablespoons leatherwood honey (we use Miellerie)
57g unsalted butter
2g teaspoon baking soda
2g teaspoon kosher salt
Cookie Dough
225g plain flour
20g cornstarch
155g brown sugar
75g white sugar
174 unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.
4g salt
4g baking soda
1 egg + 2 egg yolks
100g 70% cooking chocolate, rough chopped. (reserve some for the top of the cookie)●100g walnut brittle (reserve some for the top of the cookie)
Flakey sea salt to finish
Method:
Walnut Brittle
Line a small baking tray with parchment
In a small pot, combine the honey, sugar, butter, and 28 grams of water and cook over medium heat, stirring gently to dissolve the sugar. Bring the mixture to a rapid simmer and then cook for 8 minutes until it turns a dark caramel colour. Ensure you keep swirling the pan to prevent burning.
Working quickly, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the walnuts until fully coated. Add the baking soda and salt and stir quickly to incorporate. As soon as the mixture has aerated, tip it onto the baking tray and spread into an even layer as thin as you can. Cool for 15 minutes then cut into 1cm pieces.
Cookie dough
In a medium bowl, combine all purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Whisk until combined.
Put half the butter in a small pot and place over medium heat. Stir constantly until the bubbles stop and the mixture begins to foam or turns an amber colour. Before it turns black ensure you remove it from the heat and pour the browned butter into a bowl. Leave it to cool for 3 minutes before adding the rest of the butter.
In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and white sugar in a bowl and give it a brief whisk to combine. Add the cooled butter and whisk for 1 minute. Add the vanilla extract, whole egg, two egg yolks and whisk to combine until glossy and emulsified.
Add the flour mixture into the eggs and sugar and fold through with a spatula until there are no more visible dry spots. Add in the chopped chocolate, and walnut brittle and mix through until evenly dispersed.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
To bake
Preheat the oven to 190C. Scoop out cookies to 40g portions and roll into balls. Top each cookie with some of the reserved chocolate and walnut brittle. These cookies will spread so make sure you leave at least 10 cm between each cookie.
Bake for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven. They will be ready when the edges are brown and the middle is still a bit soft. Top each cookie with a pinch of flakey sea salt. 3. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes once they come out of the oven to set and then enjoy.
