Chocolate Orange Roundies
Like most of your favourite Swiss Christmas cookies, these roundies can be found in Betty Bossi’s classic 1978 cookie cookbook Guetzle mit Betty Bossi (and the updated Das neue Guetzlibuch). There they are known as Orangen-Schokolade-Tropfen, but I couldn’t find a drop-shaped cutter, so I made mine round.
And like Orangenschnitli, their orange cousins, they are part of the second-tier of Swiss Christmas cookies—ever present on my mother-in-law’s cookie tray, but not quite as ubiquitous as Mailänderli, Brunsli, Zimtstern and Spitzbuben.
They are also the perfect vehicle for homemade candied peel.
These are lovely, orange-y chocolate biscuits, but they really reach their full potential after being dipped in chocolate. Add the candied peel and they become an elegant addition to your cookie tray.
225 g flour
salt
zest of one orange
100 g dark chocolate, grated
100 g butter, room temperature
100 g sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tbsp orange juice
1 shot Grand Marnier or Cointreau
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
To decorate:
100 g dark chocolate, melted
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, orange zest, and grated chocolate.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar, then add the egg, orange juice and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and mix just until it comes together.
Divide the dough into two discs, and wrap well with plastic. Cool in the fridge for at least an hour and up to a day.
When you are ready to roll:
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4
Roll out the dough to be about half a cm thick, then cut out into rounds (or any shape, really).
Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes, or until you can smell them and the tops are set.
Once they are cool, melt the chocolate and dip the cookies. Sprinkle with chopped candied peel.
The original recipe calls for spelt flour, which you can buy in most Swiss supermarkets, both light (hell/clair/chiara) and classic, which contains 20% of the Schrot, or unprocessed grain (what would be used when making whole wheat flour). I’ve made it with spelt and regular flour with good results.
My favourite chocolate to use is Coop Naturaplan Bio Backschokolade 64%, but any nice dark chocolate would work.
