Mentally, we are there: ready to open the first Femmes Solaires Café. But before we can turn this vision board into reality, let me share with you the recipe for “the best cookies” (my son said it, so it’s true, because la vérité sort de la bouche des enfants) — with dark chocolate + grounded cardamom + pink salt (and because we are French, quite some butter).
This will be divine, with an Iced Latte:
The good thing is you probably already have the ingredients at home, and it doesn’t take long to bake those cookies.
Maybe it’s your sign to take a break from whatever you’re doing, and get rewarded with a fresh batch of 10 cookies.
Ingredients:
85 g French butter with sea salt crystals
60 g cane sugar
1 egg
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp baking powder (levure chimique)
130 g white all-purpose flour (I used T630)
80 g dark chocolate (70% cacao or more)
Pink Himalayan salt (or Maldon salt) for sprinkling
Steps:
Preheat the oven to 180°C (or thermostat setting 6).
Soften the butter in a large mixing bowl. It should be creamy but not completely melted. (Tip: You can place it in the sun to soften.)
Add the sugar to the softened butter and mix well.
Mix in the ground cardamom!! It’s truly the secret ingredient here.
Add the egg!!!
Gradually add the flour + baking powder:
Add 1/3 of the flour and mix.
Add the baking powder.
Add another 1/3 and mix again.
Add the remaining flour and mix until well combined.
Chop the dark chocolate into large chunks and add them to the dough.
Prepare your baking sheet:
Butter a baking sheet or cover it with a silicone mat.
Using two tablespoons or your hands, form walnut-sized balls of dough. Space them out on the sheet because they will spread during baking.
Carefully bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 180°C. Stay close to the oven!! Remove the cookies from the oven as soon as the edges start to brown.
Sprinkle with pink Himalayan salt (or Maldon salt) while the cookies are still warm.
Enjoy your cookies!
If you try the recipe, please share pictures in your stories on Instagram, and tag us @ femmessolaires.co
STEP BY STEP, with the pictures
Melt the butter (French butter with salt crystals). I boil some water in a pot, and then let the butter melt over it like this:
Prepare the sugar. 70 gr max.
Add the cardamom. I didn’t have cardamom, so I used cinnamon (also good in combination with dark chocolate). It works:
Pre-heat the oven now, in case you forgot to do it early.
Mix sugar + cardamom (or cinnamon) + soft / half-melted butter:
Add the flour:
Don’t forget the egg. Now it’s the time:
Add the baking powder:
Add the chocolate chips:
It starts to look very good (like the cookie dough in the Ben & Jerry’s icecream).
Make little balls of cookie dough:
Bake in the oven, but please stay close to the oven. It goes fast.
Have the sunniest day ever,
Ardas Chandra, 1/2 of Femmes Solaires
I forgot to say:
8 to 10 minutes in the oven might be too much!! Best tip is to stay in front of the oven and watch the cookies closely.