Witches' Hats

To prepare the witches' hats, start with the cocoa shortcrust pastry. Put the sifted flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and finally the cold butter cut into cubes in a mixer 1. Blend everything until you get a sandy and floury mixture, then transfer it to a pastry board, add the 3 egg yolks, and knead vigorously with your hands 2 until you get a compact and elastic dough. Form a dough ball, wrap it in plastic wrap 3, and let it rest in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate ganache cream: put the fresh cream in a large saucepan on the stove 4, add the butter 5, and when it is very hot, remove it from the heat and add the grated dark chocolate 6. Stir very well until the chocolate is well melted and combined.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and place it in an ice water bath (you can help maintain the temperature by placing ice cubes in it) to quickly lower the temperature and stop the cooking 7. With an electric mixer, whip the cream until it is very firm, with the consistency of a mousse (8-9), and then place it in the refrigerator to firm up.

Roll out the cocoa shortcrust pastry with a rolling pin 10 to a thickness of about 1/4 inch, from which you will cut 6 discs with a diameter of about 1 2/5 inches 11 and 6 discs with a diameter of 3 1/7 inches 12.

Place the obtained discs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper 13 and bake for about 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 350°F. Once baked, remove the cookies and let them cool on a wire rack 14. Take the ganache cream from the refrigerator and transfer it to a piping bag with a star tip; take the smaller cookies one at a time and place the ganache cream on them, adhering well to the surface, then squeeze the ganache out to form a cone 15. Keep them in the refrigerator for at least an hour to cool and harden the ganache.

After this time, melt the dark chocolate in a double boiler 16, and when it is well melted, dip the ganache-covered cookies into it, so that they are entirely covered 17. Place them on a wire rack to let them drip; then dip the larger cookies, which should also be entirely covered 18.

Move the larger cookies to the wire rack and place a smaller cookie in the center of each: this operation must be done immediately after dipping the larger cookie in the dark chocolate, so that as it cools, it will bind the two cookies together (19-20). Your witches' hats are almost ready, let's move on to the decoration: cut 6 licorice strings from the rolls, each about 1 1/2 inches long 21.

Cut 6 rounds from the filled licorice candies 22. Decorate the well-cooled hats with the licorice strings, wrapping them around the cone 23, and attach a small candy to the center of the string with a bit of jam 24. Keep the witches' hats in the refrigerator before serving.