Italian Cocoa Honey Spice Cookies

Um yum, yum. These cookies are good! They are a little different style for me, I usually go for chewy sweet cookies with or without delicious chunks, but these were more like a tea cookie, denser, toothy, almost like a cross between a cake and a biscuit. They were also more richly chocolatey than I expected considering the only chocolate in here is cocoa powder and the only fat (!) is from the almonds.

That's right. I am on a diet so that I am not mistaken for Godzilla when Favorite and I make our momentous trip to Japan at the end of the month. That means I had to break out my "Perfect Light Desserts" book when Favorite's parents came over this past weekend.

Italian Cocoa Honey Spice Cookies

3/4 c. cocoa
1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 cup whole almonds, processed until fine
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 c. water or red wine

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Make a well in the center and pour in water and honey.
4. Incorporate wet mixture until a soft dough forms.
5. Break dough into 6 pieces and roll each piece into a 12 inch log on a lightly floured surface.
6. Use the palm of your hand to gently flatten the logs and then slice the log diagonally to make 2 inch diamonds.
7. Place on parchment 2 inches apart in every direction.
8. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until they are well risen and feel firm but springy when touched.

So the recipe makes a note of being sure not to overcook them because they don't have much liquid and, again, not fat but what's in the almonds. I actually ended up taking mine out at ten minutes and though I was a little nervous that they would be liquidy somewhere in the middle, they came out perfectly. They were in fact firm with a little give, but not dry at all.

I recommend, if you are not being too cheap with calories or time, that these cookies with drizzled with melted dark chocolate.