Maida Heatters Chocolate Cookies with Gin Soaked Raisins Recipe. Gourmet magazine claims that these cookies pack a punch. You won’t taste the gin, but you’ll feel its effects.
This recipe is part of the Virtual Cookie Exchange, courtesy of Coco Cooks and Gourmet.com.
Cook’s Notes:
You can soak raisins in gin up to 1 week.
Cookies keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/3 cup gin
- 3 cups sifted confectioners sugar (sift before measuring)
- 2/3 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process (sift before measuring)
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (unsifted)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 large egg whites
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 8 ounces pecans (2 1/4 cups), toasted, cooled, and coarsely chopped
Preparation
- 1 Combine raisins and gin in a cup and let stand at least 8 hours to macerate.
- 2 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour 2 large baking sheets, shaking off excess flour.
- 3 Mix confectioners sugar, cocoa, espresso powder, flour, and salt with an electric mixer at low speed. Add egg whites and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth.
- 4 Drain raisins in a sieve, without pressing, then add raisins to dough with pecans. Stir until thoroughly mixed. (Dough will be thick and sticky.)
- 5 Working quickly, drop 1/4 cup dough for each cookie onto a baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 3 inches apart, and gently pat down each mound to about 1/2 inch thick.
- 6 Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, in middle of oven, rotating sheet halfway through baking, 15 to 17 minutes total, or until cookies appear cracked and centers are just set. Cool cookies on sheet 1 minute, then transfer carefully to a rack to cool completely.
