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Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

These cookies started out as not very good scones. I’m a huge scone lover, though most people you share an elevator with will say muffins all-the-way. I like dense, crumbly scones made with so much cream, the crumb is almost cool on your palate. You know what I’m talking about?

Well, when you incorporate the amount of hazelnut meal needed to actually make scones taste like hazelnuts, the scone gets overly soft and fluffy. And very cookie-like. I piled the hazelnut scones o’ failure on a plate and set them to the side in the kitchen. Then, I made my afternoon cup of herbal tea (soooooo into nettle tea right now), and I grabbed a piece of failure to accompany it. As I dunked it into my tea, I realized that these hazelnuts wanted to be cookies, not scones, after all!

 

Hazelnut Cookie recipe

I buy the big one-pound bag of hazelnuts at Trader Joe’s. I thin they were $7 or so? I know hazelnuts everywhere else can be expensive, so if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby you might hit the internet for hazelnuts instead. (Why is TJ’s so affordable on so many items? I swear my local grocery store has pecans for $1 each.)

What can you do with the rest of the bag of hazelnuts? I’m so glad you asked! You can double this recipe, or or OR you can make yourself some nutella from scratch. I’ll get to work on homemade nutella and report back.

Hazelnut Chocolate Cookies

See the cracks in the cookie above? That means the insides are fluffy and chewy. And these little babes really taste like hazelnuts because they have finely ground nuts as part of the flour mixture and then a handful of chopped babies, too. I kinda think these are going to be on my Christmas cookie list this year!

With a drizzle of chocolate, of course.

Chocolate Hazelnut (Nutella) Cookies

Is it too early to talk about Christmas cookies?

Yield: 1

Hazelnut Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle

Hazelnut Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup hazelnut meal*
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1 large egg yolk

For the chocolate drizzle:

  • 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
  • 2 teaspoons coconut oil (or shortening)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the hazelnut meal, flour, salt, baking soda and powder.
  3. Next, dice the butter, and add it to the flour mixture. Work the butter into the flour using your fingers or a pastry blender. The butter should be evenly incorporated and roughly the size of rice grains.
  4. Stir in the heavy cream and egg yolk until a soft dough forms.
  5. Scoop out 12 balls of dough, rolling in your hand lightly to form balls.
  6. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake for 10 minutes.
  7. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes (the cracks will develop as they cool), and then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
  8. To make the chocolate drizzle, heat the chocolate chips and coconut oil at 50% power in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds until melted. It takes me about 3 pulses. Drizzle the chocolate over the cookies with a spoon.

Notes

*It takes a scant half-cup of hazelnuts to make a 1/2 cup of hazelnut meal. Just pulse it in a food processor until a meal forms. Don't pulse too much, or you'll make hazelnut butter. But if you do, add chocolate and honey to make Nutella and call it a day :)

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