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Basler Brunsli (chocolate almond biscuits)

Also searched as: Swiss chocolate almond cookies, flourless chocolate cookies

In short: Almonds, chocolate, sugar and egg white without flour: baked short and hot they stay soft inside and turn slightly firm outside.

Picture it

Like a chocolate with a coat: a thin crust outside, soft as marzipan inside.

The decisive moments

  1. 1
    Knead almonds, sugar, cocoa or melted chocolate and egg white into a dough

    The egg white binds, the sugar holds moisture. Without flour no gluten forms, and the dough stays tender.

    Sugar holds on to moisture
  2. 2
    Roll out on sugar and cut out

    Sugar instead of flour stops sticking and gives a fine, crisp surface.

    Sugar
  3. 3
    Leave to dry for a few hours or overnight

    The surface dries into a skin that holds the shape in the oven.

    Evaporation
  4. 4
    Bake at high heat, about 250 °C, for just 3–5 minutes (as a guide)

    The short, strong heat only firms the outside. Baked longer, they would turn hard.

    Heat conduction
Sources · 1
  • Harold McGee: On Food and Cooking (2004), Kapitel Teige und Gebäck