Mostaccioli - Italian Cookies
Mostaccioli are diamond-shaped, spiced chocolate cookies that are covered in dark chocolate. They're a perfect Italian Christmas cookie - and practically scream 'tis-the-season!'
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour (500 g)
- 1 cup sugar (200 g)
- 1 cup water (240 g)
- 1 1/4 cup almond flour or pulverized almonds (125 g)
- zest of 1 orange
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder (30 g)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/3 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 10 oz dark chocolate of your choice, at least 60% and up to 80% (285 g)
Instructions
- If you need to pulverize the almonds, do so with the help of a food processor. Do this carefully, being careful that the almonds don’t become almond butter. Pulse until finely ground.
- In a medium bowl with your finger tips or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the sugar with the orange zest to release the natural oil. Add the almond flour or pulverized almonds and mix well. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, spices, salt and baking powder.
- Add the water slowly with the mixer running on low and mix until fully incorporated. You can also do this by hand but it’s a very stiff dough similar to a gingerbread dough.
- Turn out the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, shape into a disk and cover with the plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
- With a rolling pin and just a tiny bit of flour on your board and on the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking, roll the dough out to about ⅓-½ inch (1 cm) thick.
- When ready to cut the cookies, preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C).
- Using a knife, cut long strips of dough at an angle or on the diagonal and then proceed to cut diamonds cutting the strips in the other direction. You can make these as large or small as you like (this will affect the baking time) but I tend to make them about 2 ½ -3 inches long (from pointy tip to tip).
- Place the cookies on a lined baking sheet with about 1 ½ inch between the cookies. Place any remaining cut cookies and dough in the fridge until it's time to bake them.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 15-18 minutes for cookies about 2 1/2 inches long.
- While the cookies are baking, melt the chocolate either in a double boiler on the stovetop or in the microwave at medium power for increments of 15 seconds until fully melted and smooth.
- Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When the cookies are cool, ice them with the melted chocolate with a small spatula or spoon or dip the cookies on one side into the melted chocolate.
- Let cool completely on a wire rack with parchment paper underneath to catch the chocolate drips.
- Repeat with the remaining dough. Keep in mind that the flavor of these cookies improve with time. They are even better the next day!
Notes
Notes and Tips
- Be careful not to work the dough too much when mixing and handle it lightly when shaping to avoid tough cookies.
- You can really make any shape when making these mostaccioli cookies, including cut outs. In this case, be sure to refrigerate the cutout cookie shapes at least 20 minutes right before baking.
- Make the dough up to 3 days before you are ready to bake to better organize your busy holiday baking schedule.
Substitutions And Variations
- Add just a pinch of star anise (powder) or allspice to the dough along with the other spices.
- Use milk chocolate, white chocolate or your favorite chocolate (up to 80% dark) to decorate these cookies.
- Instead of covering the entire cookie in chocolate, consider just drizzling each cookie using a spoon.
- To make rum mostaccioli, simply replace 2 tablespoons of the water with 2 tablespoons of rum.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!