Bird's Nest Cookies
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- Yield Makes 2 dozen
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out dough
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- Gel-paste food coloring
- 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 6 candy-coated chocolate eggs
Directions
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Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar.
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In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; mix on low speed just until a stiff dough forms, about 2 minutes. Transfer dough to a piece of plastic wrap, wrap tightly, and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
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Place chocolate, heavy cream, and espresso powder in a medium heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, stirring occasionally, until chocolate has melted. Remove bowl from heat, and set the chocolate ganache aside to cool, stirring occasionally.
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On a lightly floured surface, roll out chilled dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/4-inch-round cookie cutter, cut out 24 cookies; place them on lined baking sheets. Chill cookies until firm, about 20 minutes.
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Bake cookies until set, about 14 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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For colored coconut, combine a few drops of food coloring with 3 tablespoons water in a medium bowl. Stir in coconut; mix until evenly colored. Spread on an ungreased baking sheet; bake just until dry, about 12 minutes, being careful not to brown. Let coconut cool; transfer to a small bowl.
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When the ganache has cooled to room temperature, whisk until it becomes stiff enough to pipe. Transfer ganache to a pastry bag fitted with a 3/8-inch-round tip, and pipe around perimeters of cookies. Dip each cookie, ganache-side down, into plain or colored coconut. Fill "nests" with candy-coated chocolate eggs, 2 or 3 eggs per nest.
Cook's Note
Store cookies in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to 3 days.
Here we go again....preheeat oven and you have almosst an hour of chilling to do before actual baking time. Also I think
that there is an error in listing 6 chocolate eggs when you need
2 to 3 chocolate eggs per cookie and you are to get 24 cookies..
Sound delicious and will make. Mykele
These were SO GOOD. The chocolate cookie part was so chocolaty and very rich. The addition of the coconut was excellent! They looked adorable too. Will def make these again.
super cute - but I'll toast the coconut instead of coloring it.
Can anyone recommend a non-perishable substitute for the ganache? I want to send these to relatives with other Spring/Easter cookies, but I fear the frosting won't make it three days outside of the fridge.
Beautiful cookies, but with the coconut and candy on the top they turned out too sweet for my taste. Anyhow, the idea is lovely, and they were a huge hit on the Easter lunch.
The chocolate cookie by itself is excellent, my husband has devoured many undecorated cookies, and have been asking me to bake them again (just the plain cookies, no chocolate ganache or decorations).
These cookies were a big hit at the baby shower I gave for my nephews wife. They were so cute! I also made the Hummingbird Cake. Everything came out fantastic.