Vegan Bueno Cookies
Vanilla crescents, thumbprint cookies, cookie cutters, cinnamon stars – we love classic cookies (and have nearly 30 of them in our recipe collection. But every year, we're also looking for a few new ideas – most recently, we had Christmas Tim Tams from Australia, Black Forest cherry cookies, and crème brûlée cookies. This year, we're transforming one of our favorite chocolate bars into a cookie recipe.
Kinder Bueno, but make it Christmas
A few years ago Katja developed a recipe for vegan Kinder Bueno – a proper little craft project with wafer sheets and the right mold. The bars were incredibly delicious, but we totally get that they require quite a bit of patience and effort – plus the right mold. For everyone who wants the same flavor but less work, this recipe comes just in time, because you're getting that bar in a much more relaxed cookie form today.
We're transforming the wafer crunch and chocolate shell into a shortcrust pastry base à la thumbprint cookies (Husarenkrapfen) with a cocoa dough that we'll also decorate with those typical Kinder Bueno stripes after baking. Once cooled, the cookies are filled with a mix of hazelnut butter and vegan white chocolate.
Fantastic vegan ingredients and where to find them
You'll find all the ingredients for the dough at pretty much any supermarket or organic store. For the hazelnut butter and vegan white chocolate, it's best to head to an organic store or look for them online – and yes, we're just as disappointed as you that vegan white chocolate isn't available in stores more often.
While we've always used firmer vegan butter for our vegan thumbprint cookies, we found margarine worked a bit better for this recipe, making the cookie base super tender without being too dry. But feel free to experiment – a few cracks in the cookie dough are totally manageable if needed.
Vegan Bueno Cookies
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 200 g (1.66 cups) wheat flour (type 405)
- 1 tsp baking cocoa
- 50 g (0.25 cup) sugar
- 50 g (0.5 cup) ground hazelnuts
- 8 g (1.5 tsp) vanilla sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 125 g (0.5 cup) vegan margarine
For the hazelnut filling:
- 75 g (2.66 oz) vegan white chocolate
- 100 g (0.33 cup) hazelnut butter
- 1 pinch salt
For the chocolate decoration:
- 100 g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate
Instructions
For the dough, mix wheat flour, baking cocoa, sugar, ground hazelnuts, vanilla sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add vegan margarine and combine everything into a smooth dough. Shape the dough into a long, thick roll and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C / 355 °F (convection heat). Remove the chilled dough roll from the refrigerator and cut into approximately 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) thick slices. Shape each into small balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper – leave some space between the dough balls. For the hollows, carefully press either the handle of a wooden spoon, your thumb, or American measuring spoons into the center.
Bake the cookies at 180 °C/ 355 °F (convection heat) for 12–15 minutes until they're lightly browned on the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Carefully press the hollow in the center a bit flatter again.
While the cookies are cooling, melt vegan white chocolate over a double boiler and stir together with the hazelnut butter and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Place the filling in the hollows of the cooled cookies and refrigerate for about 5 minutes to allow the cream to set.
Melt dark chocolate and let it cool slightly. Either transfer to a piping bag or use a spoon to drizzle the typical Kinder Bueno chocolate stripes onto the cooled cookies and let them set briefly.
Finally, use a piping bag or spoon to fill the hollows in the center with the creamy hazelnut filling.
