Shortbread cookies "Lovers"

I found the basic recipe for this cookie over 30 years ago in a book by R.P. Kengis "Home-made cakes, pastries, cookies, gingerbread, pies" (1959 edition), which still belonged to my mother. I immediately liked it for the simplicity of its preparation and original form, as well as the romantic name - "Lovers". I hope that the taste and unusual shape of such cookies - soft-crumbly, with a light aroma and taste of cocoa, with small pieces of nuts, will not leave you and your loved ones indifferent. P.S. Such cookies are also good because they can be stored for quite a long time, so you can cook them even a few days before serving.

Ingredients

• eggs - 1 medium (weighing about 65-70 gr.)
• granulated sugar - 100 gr.
• butter - 150 gr.
• salt - a pinch
• baking powder for dough - 1 teaspoon without a slide
• wheat flour of the highest grade - 280 gr.
• vanilla sugar - 1 teaspoon with a medium slide
• cocoa powder - 2 teaspoons with a medium slide (about 6 gr.)
• almond kernels peeled from dark skin - 8-10 pcs. or halves of walnuts - 3-4 pcs.

Directions

1. Remove the butter from the refrigerator in advance (2-3 hours before cooking the cookies) so that it becomes very soft, creamy, or just before cooking, soften it in the microwave.
2. Turn on the oven and heat it to number 3 (about 170 ° C).
3. Chop nuts
4. Grind the nuts in a mixer into fine grains or grate on a fine grater by hand. Measure out the required amount of flour (adding baking powder to it) and sugar in separate containers.
5. Beat eggs with butter to make shortbread cookies
6. In a large bowl, beat the egg with a mixer with regular whisks until a firm, fluffy white foam forms, gradually adding granulated sugar, vanilla sugar and salt. Then add soft butter and mix thoroughly until a creamy mixture is formed.
7. Sift the flour into an egg-oil mixture
8. Sift about ½ the total amount of flour with baking powder into the egg-oil mixture and mix the dough until smooth with a mixer at low speed. Then enter, sifting, the remaining flour. Knead the dough quickly with your hands so that it begins to lag behind them and the walls of the dishes.
9. Divide the dough into two equal parts (it is better to do this with a scale) and place them in separate bowls. In one part, add 2 teaspoons with a medium slide of cocoa, sifting it through a sieve, in the other - finely ground nuts. Knead each part of the dough thoroughly with your hands.
10. Line a large aluminum baking sheet (21 x 32 cm, 5 cm high, or any other similar or slightly larger area) with non-stick baking paper.
11. Making sausages from cookie dough
12. Pinching off a piece from each half of the dough, roll them into balls, preferably of the same weight, the size of a medium walnut (about Ø 2-2.5 cm). The number of balls of both colors should be the same (about 19-20 pieces of each color). Then form small (about 10-11 cm long) sausages from two balls of different colors. Twist them tightly together. Do the same with the rest of the balls.
13. We spread the cookie blanks on a baking sheet
14. Spread the cookie cutters out on a baking sheet at a distance from each other, because during baking, they will increase in volume (about 12 pieces are placed on a baking sheet of the specified size at a time). Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake the cookies at number 3 (about 170 ° C) for about 20 minutes until the bottom is slightly golden. Place the pieces that are not on the baking sheet on a sheet of parchment paper for baking and leave at room temperature while they wait for their turn in the oven.
15. Shortbread biscuits "Lovers" with a light aroma and cocoa taste
16. Using a spatula, transfer the finished cookies to a flat plate or other flat surface and let cool, because hot they are very soft and brittle. And place the remaining blanks on the empty baking sheet directly on the paper and bake in accordance with the recommendations in paragraph 9 of the recipe.
17. If necessary, carefully scrape off the overburned bottom of completely cooled cookies on a fine grater and serve them to the table or store until use at room temperature for up to 5-7 days in an open or sealed container. In the open they will be dry and crumbly, starting from the second day of storage (which I personally like more), in a closed (for example, a tin box) - they will remain softer.