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!
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.
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.
Is it too early to talk about Christmas cookies?
Hazelnut Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle
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
- Preheat the oven to 400.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the hazelnut meal, flour, salt, baking soda and powder.
- 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.
- Stir in the heavy cream and egg yolk until a soft dough forms.
- Scoop out 12 balls of dough, rolling in your hand lightly to form balls.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake for 10 minutes.
- 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.
- 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 :)
hazelnuts and chocolate are two fav. combo!! i want to know more about nettle tea..and can we take rest of this month little slow because i still have 500 things i want to accomplish by the end of the year (and its not happening)..send help or these cookies.
Oh my goodnes, Yes please!!! These cookies look incred!!!
Love how hazelnuts taste..and with chocolate drizzle these cookies are even more amazing!
Hazelnuts are dangerous to me. I could eat this whole batch of cookies in one sitting!
I bought that same bag of hazelnuts (and a bag of hazelnut meal) last week. And I have heavy cream in the fridge. It’s a sign :)
Oh yummy!! These look amazing!
I love all things hazelnut, and the chocolate-hazelnut combo is my absolute favorite! :) Need to give these cookies a try!
Dani | http://www.styledvariety.com
So gorgeous and noms looking! I really, really, am trying to clean up my plate and eat less refined. Even in treats. Mostly because I treat myself every day with a small indulgent. And it adds up. I know….party pooper.
So, my question, and I know you’ll roll your eyes and groan, but how do you think w.w. pastry or white whole wheat flour would work if subbed for the a.p. flour? Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! I know! I really do! They’re so beautiful!
Hahahaha, Kit! I’m so not rolling my eyes! I do think whole wheat pastry flour would work! I don’t even think you’d notice a difference. I fully support your quest to eat more whole grains :)
Happy baking,
Christina
Hey! Thanks bunches! I’ll be tryin ’em out today then! Thanks for being so sweet (you are always so kind) about my messing with your recipe! I’m sure if it mine and I worked out such a thing of beauty, I probably would groan and roll my eyes when yahoos like me want to change it right away AND have it taste just as good, hahaha!
I’m totally scones over muffins — in heartbeat. But I’ll also take cookies any day. And actually any baked good with hazelnuts has my heart, since I’m a serious hazelnut fiend!
Alabama FINALLY got a Trader Joes. FINALLY! Although it’s still about 2 hours away from me… I’m totally hitting it up soon. And buying that $7 bag of hazelnuts.
This is a serious moment in your life! TJ’s rocks! You’ll never be the same (nor will your grocery bill hahahahaha!)
What a pretty little cookie! And yes, thank goodness for TJ’s reasonable prices! Great job seeing the cookie potential in your non-scones. ;)
Big, puffy cookies sound amazing! I love adding hazelnut meal to cookies and just about any other baked good. Like you, I’m a scone gal. Love these!
These are delicious with w.w.pastry flour! However, I’m not as talented at making such a pretty cookie, nor taking photos! (I’d never photograph my best food!)
I will tell you that in my question I mentioned something about ‘enjoying a treat every day’. Well shucks! These lasted about a minute! The drizzle hardly set, and I think, don’t make me swear, my mr. Had more me.
#1 rule of Christmas cookies: it’s never too early to talk about Christmas cookies!
I love that these cookies are a reminder to always look on the bright side – the sweet side! I love hazelnut cookies and I can’t wait to bake these up to fill my little cookie jar :)
I base love your blog and would love to subscribe to it .by email,which you have a prompt on top,but when I submitted my email address it said you deactivated the email subscription, I’m so sad,how can I get your recipes and content otherwise,please let me know.
Hi Danae!
Sorry for the confusion. The best way to subscribe is using the little pop-up that comes up in the lower right corner of the site. You could also go to this post (https://www.dessertfortwo.com/2015/11/just-checking-in-10/) and scroll down and subscribe when yo see the black text bar that says ‘click here to sign up!’ Sorry for the trouble! Thanks for reaching out to me :)
Enjoy!
Christina
These are so good! Probably one of the best cookies I’ve made in a while. I’m going to try it with more hazelnuts next time. ( probably tomorrow ;) )
Thank you so much for letting me know, Morgan :)
I may be the only one who had this problem but did want to say something in case someone else does the same.
I printed this recipe to save in my collection and I added the picture of the finished cookies with the chocolate drizzle. As I am preparing to make these cookies, I could not for the life of me find when and/or how much chopped hazelnuts to add to the batter. I had to log back on to your website and go through the recipe and your post to find “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.” Just saying, as I would have been disappointed if I had not know to add chopped hazelnuts to cookie!
With that said, I off to make some cookies!!