Raphio Farwalker’s Entish Beech Treats

This recipe is based on the New York Times Cooking Recipe Bȗche de Noël (as illustrated on YouTube) using products from Raphio Chocolate in Fresno, California. It has a Mexican Chocolate flair.

Note: I realized that I have been inconsistent in my tagging. All Hobbit/Lord of the Rings recipes are now tagged “Lord of the Rings.”

Imagine an adventurous Ent, Raphio Farwalker, whose travels introduced such exotic plants as chocolate from the cacao tree and the orchid vanilla from the southern climes, cinnamon bark from the southern coasts. Outside of Middle Earth, we know they come from Mexico and Southeast Asia respectively.  His special tree is the beech, or in French, bȗche.  So it is not surprising that he created this delicious treat for long Entmoots.  These rolled cookies look like cuttings from a tree in winter.

Meanwhile, Jan captured their essence by adapting the New York Times recipe linked above. She used only chocolate from Raphio Chocolates to honor this gifted family of chocolatiers, but she lists other options.

This recipe does not take long to bake, but the soft dough requires chilling between steps, so plan for a full day of intermittent preparation. It is easiest to make these cookies using a food processor, a spice/coffee grinder, and a lot of parchment paper.

Note: This is my wife Jan’s recipe.

Ingredients

Note: Gather all ingredients before starting to mix.

For the Bark Coating

½ cup Raphio cacao nibs and/or cacao husk tea. (other brands of nibs can be substituted)

½ cup partially ground crystal beet sugar (muscovado or demerara sugar can be substituted)

Pinch of kosher salt

For the dough

2 ½ cups of sifted all purpose flour

1 cup of sifted powdered sugar

3 tablespoons of freshly ground nibs (unsweetened cocoa powder can be substituted)

½ teaspoon kosher salt

12 Tablespoons of chilled unsalted butter cut into domino sized pieces.

1 large egg

2 Tablespoons of freshly made yogurt (Any plain European yogurt will do)

2 teaspoons vanilla paste (or vanilla extract)

For the Filling

4 ounces (1 3/4) bars 72% Raphio Chocolate.  Consider using Fresno Chili Olive Oil Chocolate if you want to live dangerously).

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

6 MORE Tablespoons of unsalted butter

2 Tablespoons

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla paste (you can use vanilla extract but the paste works well in chilled conditions)

For the Assembly

A bit more flour for rolling the dough

Egg white for prepping the logs to roll.

Directions

For the Coating: 

1. Grind the crystal beet sugar lightly in a food grinder until it has the texture of large grains of sand.

2. Combine the sugar, the cacao tea/nibs, and salt in a food processor and pulse for several seconds at a time until the mixture is the consistency of sand of different textures.

3. Set aside.

For the dough: 

4. Grind the nibs into cocoa powder or purchase unsweetened cocoa powder.

Note: Freshly ground powder packs a flavor punch!

5. Combine the flour, powdered sugar, nib/cocoa powder and salt to pulse in a food processor.

6. Add butter and pulse until the butter breaks down into a sandy texture.

7. Whisk wet ingredients together (egg, yogurt, and vanilla)

8. Sprinkle the wet ingredients over the dry mixture in the food processor.

9. Process on low until the dough clusters around the blade away from the side.

Note: It will be VERY soft.

10. Chill the mixture until you can easily divide into three portions of equal weight.

11. Use a piece of parchment or plastic wrap to roll each portion into a 9-inch log.

12. Chill again until you can easily flatten each log into a 11 x 3 inch rectangle.

13. Chill it again!

14. Put each log on its own parchment paper, rolling into an even 11 x 6 rectangle.

Tip: Straighten the edges now and lift the dough so it won’t stick.

15. Chill it again.

Spreading the Filling:

16. Use a third of the filling for each rectangle.

17. Spread the filling across the whole rectangle, except for a half inch margin across the long edge.

18. Roll each filled rectangle tightly, so that you have an 11 inch log.

Tip: New York Times Cooking has a YouTube that illustrates the rolling technique well.

19. Then chill again.

20. Paint each log with egg white and roll in the “bark coating.”

21. Cut each log in half.

22. Then cut each half log in thirds.

Tip: It is not vital that each segment be exactly the same size.

23. Cut each segment diagonally to show the “tree rings.”

24. Distribute the cookies on a large cookie sheet so that the roll seam is on the bottom.

Bake:

25. At 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes.

26. Cool and let powdered sugar lightly snow on the bark sections, leaving the spirals exposed.

Note: Eat during your Lord of the Rings marathon, or any other time you want to honor the legacy of the tree-loving Ents!