Christmas Baci di Dama
Gnomes and Snowmen Cookies AKA Baci di Dama, which means "lady's kisses" in Italian, are delightful hazelnut cookies sandwiched together with a layer of chocolate. Here's a simple recipe for you:
Ingredients:
For the Cookies:
- 6 tbsp ground almonds or hazelnuts
- 180g cake flour
- 115g unsalted butter, softened
- 50g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- ½ tsp salt
For the Filling:
- Candy melts – red, black and white
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 160c. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, cream together the softened butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt, and mix well.
- Gradually add the ground almonds/hazelnuts and flour, mixing until a soft dough forms.
- Divide the dough in 3 portions, approximately 130g each and colour the portions in red and green.
- Take small portions of the dough and roll them into small balls, approximately 6g (I weigh them so they match nicely when baked).
- Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet, leaving some space between them.
- For the Gnome nose I rolled a small amount and added to the uncoloured cookie dough ball.
- Each colour you should be able to yield 18 balls.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for approximately 10-12minutes, or until they are just lightly golden. Keep a close eye on them to prevent over-baking.
- While the cookies are cooling, prepare and melt the candy melts and put in piping bags.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, pair them up according to size.
- Pipe a small amount of white candy melt onto the flat side of one cookie and sandwich it with another.
- If you are feeling adventurous you can make them into adorable Snowman and Gnomes.
- See the below Instagram video for how to decorate them
- Enjoy & Merry Christmas!!!