Modern Mexican Wedding Cookies

I got my cacao nibs from Nativas Naturals, but I’ve also seen them in natural food stores. They’re packed with nutrients and give a wonderful spin to anything you bake, because people will be impressed that you’re using a fancy pants ingredient that they most-likely don’t have in their cabinet. They, of course, would be wonderful in anything chocolate (like the simple but perfect Scharffen Berger “Nibby” chocolate bar, which has become one of my favorites), but I wanted to use them in an unconventional manner.

Modern Mexican Wedding Cookies

1/3 cup butter, softened at room temperature

2 Tbs. unsweetened applesauce

½ cup powdered sugar

1 cup flour (I use white whole wheat)

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp. water

½ cup coarsely ground hazelnuts*

2 Tbs. cacao nib pieces

1/3 cup powdered sugar, for rolling cookies in

*I buy my hazelnuts in bulk. I toast them in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 10 min, and then rub them between my fingers to remove the outer skin. Then, I grind them in the food processor until they are fine, but not a powder.

~In your mixer, cream the butter until it is smooth. Then, add the applesauce and the powdered sugar, and continue to cream together. After a minute or so, slowly add the flour, cinnamon, and salt. It will become thick dough. Then add the vanilla and the water. Finally add the hazelnuts and the cacao nibs, mixing until the dough is just incorporated. Place the dough in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Put the last 1/3 cup powdered sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

~Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Prepare two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. Use a teaspoon (from your set of measuring spoons) to scoop the dough into even balls, rolling them in your hands after you scoop them to make them more round. You can place a lot more cookies on each baking sheet because they are pretty small and won’t spread while baking (I fit 20-23 cookies per sheet). Bake for 18-20 min, but don’t let the cookies get very brown (I pulled mine out when they were just starting to get golden). Transfer the cookies, a few at a time, immediately into the powdered sugar, rolling them until they have a thin coating, then placing them on a cooling wrack to cool (I put some paper towels under my cooling wrack to collect the powdered sugar that will fall). Finally, after they are cooled, use the last of the powdered sugar from the bowl (or you may have to get 1-2 Tbs more), to sprinkle over the top of the cookies (I used a small sifter). Enjoy!

Strike up a conversation: 10 points to anybody who has the best description of the taste of cacao nibs! Have you ever used or eaten cacao nibs? How did you use them? Besides these cookies, I most recently stirred some into my oatmeal…and my yogurt!