Esther Eskelson's Danish Raspberry Cookies
Submitted by browny
Danish chocolate shortbread cookies shaped into finger-thick ropes, filled with raspberry preserves, and drizzled with melted chocolate. An elegant holiday cookie with a buttery cocoa base.
YIELD
1 BatchPREP
25 minCOOK
8 minREADY
35 minThese Danish cookies are a labor of love that pays off beautifully. A rich chocolate shortbread dough gets rolled into finger-thick ropes, baked with an indentation down the center, piped full of raspberry preserves, and finished with a drizzle of melted chocolate. Every bite is buttery, fruity, and chocolatey.
The dough starts with unsweetened chocolate melted into creamed butter and sugar. Cake flour keeps the cookies tender and delicate rather than tough. After chilling for an hour, the dough firms up enough to roll into long ropes on a floured board. That chill time is not skippable; warm dough sticks to everything and won’t hold its shape.
The raspberry preserves go in after the first bake, then back in the oven for just two minutes to set. While still warm, melted milk chocolate (or white chocolate, or both) gets drizzled across the top. Cut on the diagonal into one-inch pieces for that classic elegant look.
Kitchen Tips
- Melt the unsweetened chocolate over hot, not boiling, water. Boiling water can cause steam to drip into the chocolate and seize it into a grainy mess.
- Use seedless raspberry preserves. Seeds get caught in the piping tip and make piping frustrating.
- Pipe the preserves while the cookies are hot from the oven. The warmth helps the jam settle into the indentation smoothly.
- Refrigerate the finished cookies until the chocolate drizzle sets firm. Room temperature chocolate stays tacky and smears during storage.
Variations
- Use apricot or strawberry preserves instead of raspberry for a different fruit flavor with the same technique.
- Drizzle with white chocolate only for a more visually striking contrast against the dark cookie base.
- Add a pinch of espresso powder to the dough for a mocha-raspberry combination.
Ingredients
Directions
Melt chocolate in top of a double boiler over hot not boiling water.
Remove from heat and cool.
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until light.
Add egg and melted chocolate; beat until fluffy.
Stir in cake flour, vanilla and salt until well blended.
Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hr.
Preheat oven to 400.
Lightly grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
Divide dough into 4 equal parts and divide each part into two pieces.
Roll each piece into a rope 12” long on a lightly floured board.
The ropes should be about the thickness of a finger.
Place 2 incehs apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
With your finger tip, make an indentation along the length of each rope.
Bake 8 min or until firm.
Meanwhile melt the chocolate chips in a small bowl over hot If you are using both kinds of chocolate, melt separately. Stir until smooth. Stir preserves and spoon them into a pastry bag fitted with a ¼ inch tip. [You can use a plastic bag with a corner snipped off with scissors.] When you remove the cookies from the oven, press preserves down the indentation in each cookie strip. Return to the oven for 2 min and remove to wire racks. While cookies are still warm, drizzle melted chocolate over the tops and cut into 1” diagonal pieces. Refrigerate until the chocolate has set.
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