Abbracci

Hugs.  These cookies are called "hugs".

I've talked of my love for Mulino Bianco before.  It's an Italian cookie/breakfast/snack food brand.  It's owned by Barilla, which you may know better -- pasta and sauces? 

So Mulino Bianco's a charitable organization as they put a bunch of their cookie recipes online for people to make at home.  For less fortunate people like me, who cannot gain access to these cookies in my small little town in Scotland,

Okay, to be fair, we have an Italian deli here that does stock Mulino Bianco cookies but they only store like 3 kinds. 
It was time to make cookies again, for procrastination, and to gain the affection of my friends, so I decided to make these.

Here are my two different doughs -- very similar in terms of ingredients, the cream dough, though, contains honey and cream, and less butter, whereas the chocolate dough contains cocoa, milk, and an egg.

Here's them before the oven.  Don't the little chocolate dough pieces look like dog poop? :P 

They reminded me of my dog, Gigi.  Gigi and her poop.

On a more appetizing note, they're very delicious on their own, but please dunk them into your milk/coffee/tea in the morning for even better results.

Recipe from here
Ingredients
for the cream dough
250g plain flour
8g baking powder
100g sugar
50g butter
45g margarine
3 tbsp double cream
1 tbsp honey
a pinch of salt

for the chocolate dough
250g plain flour
8g baking powder
120g sugar
60g butter
40g margarine
30g cocoa powder
40g milk
1 egg
a pinch of salt

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.  Line and grease a large baking tray. 

For the cream dough
Beat the butter, sugar, and margarine together until fluffy.  Add the cream, honey and salt and beat until smooth.  Stir in the flour and baking powder until a dough forms.

For the chocolate dough
Beat the butter, sugar, and margarine together until fluffy.  Add the milk, cocoa powder, egg, and salt and mix until well combined.  Stir in the flour and baking powder until a dough forms

Roll the doughs into little balls, about the size of your pupils I suppose.  Then shape them into 5cm-long sticks.  Shape the cookies by bending the sticks so that they're C-shaped, and then pressing the cream one lightly over the chocolate one.  Make sure the hole in the middle isn't too small, because the dough will expand in the oven.

Place them 3cm apart from each other on the baking tray, and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden. You may need to do a couple of batches because it's quite a lot.