Chocolate Coins (Monete di Cioccolato)

These tiny, soft, intensely chocolate cookies are packed with pine nuts, while a little grappa gives them a welcome bite. Called Fava of the Dead in Rome, they mark All Souls night. The dark, almost black color gives these innocent little coins a threatening edge. In the Rome of the Caesars, people believed fava beans held the souls of the dead.

Dark little cookies play with the same idea. I think they're the soul of dark, deep chocolaty flavors and are made to nibble with espresso, creamy Panna Cotta, or vanilla ice cream. Toasted almonds are a good substitute if pine nuts are too expensive.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups (11 ounces) pine nuts, toasted

• 1 cup (7 ounces) sugar

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose unbleached flour

• Generous pinch salt

• 5 large egg yolks

• 1/4 cup dark rum or grappa

• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper or butter and flour it. (Cookies bake in 3 batches. Spooning them out onto sheets of parchment makes the process easier.)

2. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, puree 2/3 of the pine nuts with the sugar and flour. Add the salt, egg yolks, liquor, melted chocolate, cocoa, and vanilla and process until combined. Dough will be very soft. Turn into a bowl and stir in the remaining pine nuts.

3. Drop by 1/2 teaspoonfuls onto 3 sheets of parchment cut to fit your cookie sheet. Space cookies 1/2 inch apart. Set a parchment sheet on cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes. Cookies will be soft when pressed. Remove from oven. Repeat two more times with remaining dough on sheets of parchment. Cool cookies completely on the parchment paper set on a rack. Store in airtight container.