These chunky cookies are melt-in-your-mouth shortbread packed full of creamy gianduja and crunchy macadamias. This recipe originally calls for hazelnuts, which ties in with the gianduja, but I only had macadamias on hand when I made this and it was still glorious.
Recipe adapted from: Chewy Gooey Crispy Cruncy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich
Ingredients
225g butter/margarine
125g white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter/margarine)
310g flour
125g chopped gianduja (or milk chocolate if you don't have gianduja on hand, though I highly recommend getting some because it's so good)
3/4 cup macadamias or hazelnuts
Method
1. Chop your gianduja into largish chunks. Roughly chop the macadamias and toast them in a frypan or in the oven on the grill setting, then set them aside to cool.
2. Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt until blended.
3. Stir in the flour until moistened.
4. Stir the gianduja and nuts into the dough. At this point, my dough was kind of bitsy and didn't really look like a normal biscuit dough; but have no fear!
5. Refrigerate the dough for a few hours or overnight if you can.
6. When you're ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 160C (325F).
7. Using your hands, take roughly tablespoons of dough and pat them together to form a ball. Due to the sheer amount of nuts and gianduja, you may need to do a bit of squishing to make sure the cookies stick together!
8. Place the dough balls on baking paper or silicone mats, making sure they have a little space to spread (about 5cm).
9. Bake for about 20 minutes or until they are lightly golden on the top.
10. Cool the cookies and consume at your leisure. If desired, sift some icing sugar on top for that extra touch of sweetness.
I am often surprised by how many foods are so well known in Australia and are relatively or completely non-existent overseas. Tim Tams, for one; Tiny Teddies, Vegemite and the glorious fairy bread.
If you are unfamiliar with fairy bread, it is rainbows, happiness and very easy to make. It's popular in Australia at children's birthday parties - I made it for my Mum's birthday and we had it for lunch. (Super nutritious and totally age appropriate, obviously).
All you need for fairy bread are 100s and 1000s (rainbow sprinkles - the more artificial colouring, the better...), fresh white bread and butter/margarine. Place the sprinkles in a shallow dish, spread the bread with butter, dunk the bread into the sprinkles and cut into shapes of your choosing. It'd be really cute to use cookie cutters and have fairy bread in hearts and stars!
In all seriousness, fairy bread is fun and delicious - I definitely recommend it for celebratory occasions!
