Hailing from Italy's Piedmont region, baci di dama have a darling name (they translate to “lady's kisses”) and an even more darling appearance. Hailing from Italy's Piedmont region, baci di dama have a darling name (they translate to “lady's kisses”) and an even more darling appearance. The sandwiches consist of two diminutive hazelnut cookies surrounding a rich chocolate filling. Baci di dama are a textural marvel, at once crisp and meltingly tender. The hazelnut cookies get their texture from rice flour, which gives baked goods crispness—and since it doesn't contain the protein gluten like wheat flour does, doughs made with it don't run the risk of becoming tough if overworked. But we don't usually have rice flour on hand, so to replicate the crisp texture with staples, we used a combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch. We also found that cutting cold butter into the dry ingredients rather than creaming the butter and sugar resulted in a crispier cookie (and a dough that was easier to handle). We used chocolate chips for the filling rather than bar chocolate; chocolate chips contain emulsifiers so once they're melted, they have a thicker consistency—making them an ideal filling for holding the tiny, bulbous cookies together.
