Buttery melt-in-your-mouth petit fours cookies are dipped in chocolate and toasted almonds for one delicious and fancy treat! Simple to make, but so impressive to serve, they make for perfect Christmas gifts!
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Petit fours sound super fancy and complicated to make, and often, they are! But these chocolate dipped cookies are surprisingly simple to make at home!
Buttery sweet vanilla and chocolate cookies are sandwiched together and dipped in chocolate before being rolled in roasted almonds. These one bite treats are heavenly with different textures and flavors that melt in your mouth.
Perfect to enjoy anytime of the year, they are especially great for Christmas, and perfect for gifting to friends and family.
Be sure to try my Chocolate Rice Krispie Balls and Chocolate Pretzel Pots too!
Why you will love this recipe!
- Simple: This recipe is deceptively easy to make. There's not a huge list of ingredients, and you can make up a big batch in a fairly short amount of time.
- Fancy: I mean, who doesn't love making show stopping fancy treats?! These will wow anyone you serve them to!
- Long shelf life: You can easily make these beauties days ahead of when you want to enjoy them and make for perfect gifts.
- Delicious: Of course they look gorgeous, but they also taste amazing! The buttery cookie and rich chocolate are so indulgent!
- Dietary info: These petit fours cookies are vegetarian.
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter: The butter must be softened, so be sure to take it out of the fridge in plenty of time.
- Powdered sugar: Because these cookies have a short baking time, powdered sugar is used as it is very fine and melts quickly.
- Egg yolk: To help bind the dry ingredients together. You can use a whole egg, but it will make the cookies more crispy, just using the yolk creates that melt-in-your-mouth sensation.
- Flour: Use regular all purpose flour.
- Salt: Just a pinch.
- Vanilla extract: For sweetness and flavor.
- Cocoa powder: To make the chocolate petit fours cookies.
- Chocolate: To dip the cookies in and sandwich them together. A mix of dark and milk chocolate is perfect!
- Vegetable oil: Added to the chocolate to thin it out and make it smoother.
- Almonds: The chocolate dipped cookies are rolled in toasted almonds for a delicious crunchy texture.
How to make petit fours cookies
Be sure to scroll down for the full recipe!
- Whip the butter with an electric whisk til light and fluffy (photo 1).
- Whisk in the powdered sugar (photo 2).
- Whisk in the egg yolk and vanilla. Mix the flour and salt together and fold into the wet ingredients to make the cookie dough (photo 3).
- Split the dough in half and mix cocoa powder into one half (photo 4).
- Add a Wilton 4B piping tip (open star) to a silicone piping bag and fill with the cookie dough (photo 5).
- Pipe the cookie dough onto a baking sheet (photo 6).
- Bake until set (photo 7).
- Sandwich the cookies, dip and roll in the nuts (photo 8).
Recipe Variations
If you prefer, you can make the whole batch of these cookies cocoa or vanilla. We love the mix of dark and milk chocolate, but you can use just dark or milk. They work great with white chocolate too, and you can add a bit more fun to them by coloring the white chocolate.
This recipe calls for toasted almonds, but other nuts will work great too. Pistachio, hazelnut, walnuts and peanuts are all great options.
Perfect for Christmas!
Whether you are looking for a sweet treat to wow house guests over the holiday season, or looking for a cute homemade gift, then you can not go wrong with these bad boys!
Place some in a cute Christmas box or tin to gift, or decorate them with festive colors and sprinkles to make them extra Christmassy.
Make Ahead and Storage
Once you have made your petit fours cookies, place them in the fridge to let the chocolate set. You can keep them in the fridge til serving, or store them in an air tight container.
At room temperature they will keep for around 2 weeks, and a little longer if you keep them refrigerated. Make up a big batch of these and enjoy them throughout the holiday!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can freeze the cookie dough once you've made it, or you can freeze the baked cookies and they will keep well for a couple of months. I don't recommend freezing them once decorated as the texture and appearance of the chocolate can alter.
You can melt the chocolate in a bain-marie - add a small amount of water to a pot and place a pyrex bowl in the pot so that it's not touching the water. Put t on a medium heat on the stovetop and put the chocolate in the pyrex bowl. The steam from the water will gently melt the chocolate. Stir as you go.
You can also quickly melt the chocolate in a microwave in short intervals, stirring in between.
This French treat, that is popular in the Middle East, is wonderful when served with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Of course, you can eat them straight out of the tin too!
Recipe Notes and Tips
- Make sure that your butter is softened for this recipe.
- Only use powdered sugar.
- For melt in your mouth cookies, just use the egg yolk. Using a whole egg will make the cookies crispier.
- Take care not to over mix the dough as this can activate the gluten and you will have chewy cookies. Fold the wet and dry ingredients together til combined.
- There is no need to grease the baking sheets.
- A silicone piping bag, or plastic bag, is best to use for piping the cookies as the dough is sticky. Use a silicon or plastic spatula too.
- These cookies take minutes to bake. The cooking time will vary depending on what baking sheets you use.
- It's a GREAT idea to bake two or three cookies before the big batches to check timings and make sure that the dough is correct. If they spread and don't keep their shape, stir in an extra spoonful of flour into the dough.
- When ready, the vanilla cookies will be a very light brown and will be set. It's hard to tell the color difference of the dark chocolate cookies, so it's best to bake a mix on each baking sheet so you know when they are done.
- Make sure that the cookies are fully cooled before adding the chocolate.
- Don't over do the chocolate when you sandwich the cookies together. You only need a small wipe and it shouldn't be oozing out the sides.
- Once decorated, place in the fridge to allow the chocolate to set.
- For this recipe, ingredients are measured in grams to ensure accuracy. A kitchen scale is a must!
If you want to treat yourself, or someone you love, then these petit fours cookies will hit all the right spots! So pretty and fancy, and pretty easy to make, these are sure to impress! Buttery cookies, rich chocolate and crunchy nuts together in one perfect bite, what's not to love?!
More Sweet Treats!
- Soft Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies
- Baked Cranberry and Orange Cheesecake
- Sweet Puff Pastry Pinwheels
- Lemon Raspberry Pound Cake
Recipe Created by Aliaa Aly
Aliaa was born and raised in Cairo where she studied medicine and worked as a professor of audiology in Cairo university.
When she left her professional life to join her husband who was working in Europe, she found her love for cooking and baking, searching for, and recreating the food she grew up with.
Aliaa's mother was her inspiration for everything delicious and her cooking was the deepest, purest act of love. She loves sharing her traditional recipes and show stopping bakes with her friends whenever she gets a chance!
Aliaa lives in Quebec with her husband and 3 children.
Chocolate Dipped Petit Fours Cookies
Equipment
- 2 large cookie sheets
Ingredients
- 250 grams unsalted butter (softened)
- 66 grams powdered sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 312 grams all purpose flour
- pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 50 grams dark chocolate
- 50 grams milk chocolate
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 50 grams roasted almonds (either store bought roasted almonds, or place almonds on a baking sheet and place in the oven at 380F for around 10 to 15 minutes)
Instructions
How to make the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 180c / 360F.
- Place the room temperature softened butter into a large bowl. Use an electric whisk, and whisk the butter for around 2 minutes untile it is a very pale yellow and light and fluffy.
- Add the powdered sugar to the butter. Starting on a low speed, whisk the sugar into the butter. Whisk for around two minutes until incorporated.
- Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar and whisk to combine.
- Scrape off the excess mixture from the beaters into the bowl, but leave some on. Set the whisk to one side as you will need a small amount of the butter mix for later in the recipe.
- In another bowl, mix the flour and salt. Add this dry mix to the butter and sugar mixture in the large bowl.
- Using a spatula, gently start folding the mixture together. Don't stir or use a whisk as this can cause the gluten to activate. Fold well until you have formed a dough. This will take several minutes and the finished dough will be sticky.
- Measure the dough and split it in half i.e. if it weighs 360g, make two dough balls of 180g each and place in two separate bowls.
- Sieve the cocoa powder into a small bowl. Scrape the butter mix that was left on the beaters from earlier into the cocoa. Stir til incorporated.
- Place the cocoa mixture into one of the bowls of dough and fold in gently til well combined. Again, do not over mix. These will be your chocolate cookies.
- Place a 4B piping tip (open star) into a silicone piping bag and fill with the vanilla cookie dough. Pipe the dough on to half of one cookie sheet, and then half on another. Clean the piping bag (or use a new one!) and repeat with the chocolate dough.
- Place a baking sheet with the cookie dough in the preheated oven. You will need to bake them in a couple of batches - do one tray, then the next.
- Bake for 4 to 6 minutes until the vanilla cookies are a very light brown and the cookies are firm. Timings will vary between ovens and the baking sheets that you use, so keep an eye on them!
- Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool fully before decorating.
How to decorate
- Put the toasted almonds n a blender and pulse a few times so that they are broken up. Don't blitz them into a fine powder - it's good to keep some crunchy bits! Place in a bowl.
- Line a tray with plastic or wax paper - this is so that the cookies won't stick and are easy to remove once set.
- Melt together the dark and milk chocolate. Stir in the vegetable oil.
- Take one cookie, and using a knife or spoon, wipe a small amount of chocolate on the flat side of the cookie. take another cookie and place it on top so that the flat sides are in the middle and the decorative shapes are on the outside.
- Dip half of the cookie sandwich into the chocolate and let any excess drip off / wipe away with a spoon.
- Dip the chocolate into the crushed almonds to cover and then place on the plastic lined tray.
- Repeat with all of the cookies.
- Place the tray in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to set.
- Petit fours cookies can be stored in the fridge or at room temperature in an air tight container. They keep well for at least 2 weeks.
Notes
-
- Make sure that your butter is softened for this recipe.
-
- Only use powdered sugar.
-
- For melt in your mouth cookies, just use the egg yolk. Using a whole egg will make the cookies crispier.
-
- Take care not to over mix the dough as this can activate the gluten and you will have chewy cookies. Fold the wet and dry ingredients together til combined.
-
- There is no need to grease the baking sheets.
-
- A silicone piping bag, or plastic bag, is best to use for piping the cookies as the dough is sticky. Use a silicon or plastic spatula too.
-
- These cookies take minutes to bake. The cooking time will vary depending on what baking sheets you use.
- It's a GREAT idea to bake two or three cookies before the big batches to check timings and make sure that the dough is correct. If they spread and don't keep their shape, stir in an extra spoonful of flour into the dough.
-
- When ready, the vanilla cookies will be a very light brown and will be set. It's hard to tell the color difference of the dark chocolate cookies, so it's best to bake a mix on each baking sheet so you know when they are done.
- Make sure that the cookies are fully cooled before adding the chocolate.
-
- Don't over do the chocolate when you sandwich the cookies together. You only need a small wipe and it shouldn't be oozing out the sides.
-
- Once decorated, place in the fridge to allow the chocolate to set.
-
- For this recipe, ingredients are measured in grams to ensure accuracy. A kitchen scale is a must!
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