"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of the telescope." (Dr. Seuss) In the childhood of my dreams I would come home from a long day of and even longer walk from school to find a June Cleaver clone standing with a plate of freshly made cookies. Warm out of the oven would be nice, but this fantasy isn't that fussy. It doesn't matter what kind of cookies they were, although they absolutely needed to contain some chocolate. Milk, dark, or white chocolate, it doesn't matter. However, as my cookie preferences have shifted over the years, there have been some revisions to this childhood school day fantasy. In its' current iteration Ina Garten has taken on the role of June Cleaver and the cookies...well they are still homemade with chocolate in them, but now they also contain some kind of nut. Walnuts, pecans, pistachios, almonds, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, it really doesn't matter. Because one of the nice things about indulging yourself in a fantasy, without risking being perceived as someone who has completely lost touch with reality or worse yet, confuses reality with the fantasy, is being able to make changes to it as your life experiences change.
Whenever I see a recipe for a 'no-bake' cookie or bar (Rice Krispie Treats exempted), I am a little hesitant to try it. From some reason when I see 'no bake' I hear 'instant', as in 'instant pudding', 'instant potatoes' and all of those other 'instant' foods that really don't compare to their 'real' counterparts (with a few exceptions). For months now I have been fighting the urge to make a 'no-bake' cookie recipe published in Food and Wine sometime last year. But then I saw Ina Garten make a similar version of this cookie from her Make it Ahead cookbook and well, if it was good enough for Ina to make, how could it not be good? No let me take that back. How could it not be great? As an Ina seal of approval in 2015 might possibly be a more highly coveted endorsement than the Good Housekeeping seal of approval created more than a century ago.
After comparing the two recipes, I thought I would try my hand at creating a hybrid of the two while adding my own spin to it by combining my love of both chocolate and nuts into a single cookie.
If making a 'no bake' cookie wasn't enough of a significant departure from my cookie baking preferences, then making one using corn flakes would make anyone question whether or not I had truly lost my mind. 'Breathe', I kept telling myself, 'If making cookies using cornflakes is good enough for Ina, it is good enough for you can too'.
There are two kinds of nuts in this cookie: hazelnuts and pistachios. Roasting the hazelnuts further deepens the chocolate nuttiness taste to them as well as aids in removing their bitter tasting skins. There are also two kinds of chocolate: milk and dark. Use good quality chocolate, the kind you would use for candy-making, the kind that after melted it hardens to a beautiful sheen (in other words, the chocolate chips you use for baking don't necessarily lend themselves to having this cookie set up and look beautiful).
The cornflakes, dried fruits, salt and chopped nuts are mixed together in a large bowl. The melted chocolate is poured over the mixture and gently folded until everything is coated in chocolate.
For more bite-sized Hazelnut English Chocolate Crisps use either a tablespoon or an small ice cream scoop and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. For larger crisps use two tablespoons and mound them onto the baking sheet.
Allow the crisps to come to room temperature and completely cool until you can easily remove them from the parchment paper before serving.
Waiting for them to harden may be the hardest part of this recipe.
Just like the size you make these crisps does not matter, the dried fruits you use does not matter as well (although I don't think dried apricots would be a good choice). Whether you choose to use a combination of golden raisins, cranberries, dried blueberries, and currants or simply choose one of them (hint: go with cranberries as a first option), these crisps are bound to be delicious. They are crunchy, salty, chocolately, nutty, and a little bit sweet. In other words, they are a cookie having the ability to satisfy almost every possible cookie fantasy. Honestly, as active as imagination operating in my head on a regular basis, I wasn't even close to predicting how good, um, I mean great, these would be. Nor did I think they would be slightly addictive. And depending on your opinion of a cookie with the ability to become an obsession, this could be the only their only flaw.
The start of the new school year is just around the corner. For those of you with children, these Hazelnut English Chocolate Crisps might turn you into the parent of their fantasies (that is, if you are not that already). But don't let me mislead you into thinking these cookies are for children only. Make them for your partner and well, who knows what fantasies you will fill for them. Or better yet, what fantasy they will turn into a reality for you.
Recipe
Hazelnut English Chocolate Crisps (inspiration from Ina Garten's English Chocolate Crisps from the Make it Ahead Cookbook and Nicolas Berger's Milk Chocolate, Nut and Raisin Clusters shared in Food and Wine, February 2014)
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups corn flakes (recommend Kellogg's)
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
1/4 cup pistachios, chopped
1/2 cup mixed dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, blueberries) or golden raisins or dried cranberries
1/4 cup currants (optional, but they add good flavor)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
7 3/4 ounces milk chocolate
5 3/4 ounces dark chocolate
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Place hazelnuts on a small pan and place in oven for 7-8 minutes. Allow to cool. Rub hazelnuts in a kitchen towel to remove skins. Coarsely chop.
2. In a large bowl combine cornflakes, chopped hazelnuts, pistachios, dried fruit, currants, and kosher salt. Set aside.
3. Melt chocolate in either the microwave or over a double boiler. Note: If using microwave method, combine 3/4 of the chocolate and microwave at medium-high power in 30 second bursts, stirring in between, until melted (approximately 2-3 minutes). Stir in remaining chocolate until smooth.
4. Pour melted chocolate over the hazelnut/cornflake mixture. Using a spatula, gently fold until chocolate evenly coats cornflakes, dried fruit and nuts.
5. On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, scoop heaping tablespoons of the mixture.
6. Allow the crisps to cool completely. Peel firmed up crisps from the parchment paper and serve. Store crisps in a sealed container at room temperature.
Notes: (1) If you want them to be nut free, increase the amount of cornflakes to 3 cups. (2) You can replaced the combination of dried fruits, with a single dried fruit option. Dried cranberries and/or golden raisins would be two great options.
Notes: (1) If you want them to be nut free, increase the amount of cornflakes to 3 cups. (2) You can replaced the combination of dried fruits, with a single dried fruit option. Dried cranberries and/or golden raisins would be two great options.
