Guys, I found an honest-to-god dust bunny the other day. And, instead of being grossed out, like I’m sure most regular people would be, I was delighted. It was so round and cute! It wasn’t actually made of dust, it was more of a hair ball that came out of our dryer then got covered in dust. I saved it to show Mike, but he didn’t think it was cute like I did…I guess it was more of sign that we should do a better job vacuuming?!
Anyway, it totally reminded me of the soot sprites, orSusuwatari, in Totoro. I think it’s due to the magic ofStudio Ghibli that I’m not at all freaked out by soot sprites. I mean, they’re essentially little black fuzzy balls with eyes. And they move! Hmm, if I think about too much, I think I will get freaked out so let’s just move on and talk about these chocolate cookies instead.
They’re called chocolate sparkle cookies and they’re basicallychocolate, butter, eggs, ground almonds and sugar. They come together into a sort of chocolate truffle-like cookie with a crisp-chewy exterior that gives way to a rich chocolatey interior. They’re incredibly good and gluten-free to boot. I’d say the most troubling part of this recipe is waiting for the dough to chill overnight. But, you need to let it chill otherwise you won’t have cookies, you’ll have a sheet of chocolate – I’m speaking from experience.
I popped some candy eyes on these guys and called them soot sprites and they made me happy. I have a pile of them waiting for me and Mike to snack on while we watch a scary movie. Or maybe we’ll just watch Totoro!
Chocolate Sparkle Cookies Recipe
makes about 18 cookies
- 1/4 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1.5 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
- 6 tablespoons ground almonds
- turbinado sugar to roll
by Thomas Haas via The LA Times
Over a double boiler, melt the chocolate, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, until melted. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer (or hand mixer) whisk the egg until light and foamy. Pour the sugar in a slow stream and continue to whisk on high until the mixture is very pale, fluffy, and triples in volume, about 5 minutes. When you lift the whisk, the eggs should fall down in a ribbon pattern that sits on the surface of the eggs before sinking.
Take a bit of the egg mixture and mix it into the chocolate. Add the egg-chocolate mixture to the remaining eggs and fold in. Gently fold in the ground almonds. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day (or the day that you’re baking), heat the oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop the cookie dough and form into 1 inch balls. Roll in turbinadosugar, placing on the baking sheet at least 2 inches apart. Very lightly flatten.
Bake until the edges are set and the centers are done, but still moist, about 10-14 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!
To make into soot sprites, push the candy eyeballs in right after they come out of the oven and are still soft. I made some where I put the eyeballs in the oven while they were baking and let me say, those were way more scary than cute >_<
13 Comments
October 30, 2017 at 5:18 am
Adorable. What else can I say? Sometimes you are looking at your food and find it peeking right back at you =)
Stephanie says:
October 30, 2017 at 1:09 pm
thank you laura! i LOVE how they peek back at me :)
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Gangnam says:
October 30, 2017 at 12:38 pm
Why did you make your website so full of advertisem*nts? They are literally all over your pages. You used to have such clean and beautiful layout on your website, that was exceptional and which I really adored and now it is ruined by all of those advertisem*nts that popping from all sides, even inserted near your ingredients list. What a shame…. :(
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Stephanie says:
October 30, 2017 at 1:06 pm
hi gangnam,
it’s a trial run; truth is, people (that’s me and my husband) gotta eat.
thanks for the input, it’s very helpful, also, you’re free to use an ad blocker :)Reply
Nikki says:
October 30, 2017 at 7:43 pm
I use an ad blocker, so I didn’t notice the ads. However, I like supporting my favorite sites and you provide so much AWESOME FREE CONTENT, that I want to help a lady out. Consider yourself unblocked, and thank you to the original commenter to alerting me to this :)
Em says:
November 4, 2017 at 12:10 pm
these are so cute!! The soot sprites were one of my favorite parts of Spirited Away (which I should definitely rewatch one of these days). Adding these to my to-make list — thanks for sharing :)
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Jessica says:
November 27, 2017 at 4:46 pm
Thanks for all the great recipes and awesome food-with-faces ideas! I made the pumpkin cheesecake totoros for Halloween with my husband and ended up eating four whole totoros. It was a slaughter.
I want to make these cookies to send in Christmas packages, because they are so cute, plus, sparkles. Do you think they’d be sturdy enough to ship without getting banged up? How long will they taste fresh?
Happy Holidays!
P.S. My husband made your pumpkin ricotta pancakes for me and they were delicious!
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Stephanie says:
November 27, 2017 at 4:52 pm
happy holidays!
they should stay fresh for about a week in an airtight container, but they won’t be as soft as fresh out of the oven. i think they’ll ship okay as long as you wrap them airtight, either with double saran or those clear bags with ties, have lots of tissue around them and put them in a box within a box, but they aren’t as sturdy as a sugar cookie or gingerbread. hope that helps!Reply
Amy says:
June 4, 2019 at 9:43 pm
Great for my daughter’s 10th birthday Totoro party, as she is on the FODMAP diet. Easy, cute and delicious and gluten-free! Mine turned out flat- maybe I didn’t beat the egg long enough? Also, I didn’t want to spend $6 just on the candy eyes, so after the cookies cooled I pushed in upside-down white chocolate chips and added black icing pupils and they turned out great!
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Stephanie says:
June 5, 2019 at 10:37 am
hey amy,
great tip on the white choco chips with black icing! those eyes can get expensive!
happy 10th birthday to your daughter! :)Reply
Wynne says:
November 19, 2023 at 3:34 pm
is almond flour an acceptable substitute for ground almonds?
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Stephanie says:
November 21, 2023 at 9:03 am
hi,
how finely ground is your almond flour? this recipe works best with a slight corse grind.Reply
