Hazelnut Cookies With Chocolate Smear
These nutty, melt-in-your mouth shortbread hazelnut cookies topped with a chocolate smear and crushed hazelnuts are a treat for any tea, shower or holiday spread.
Servings (change as needed): 40 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups softened butter (2 1/2 sticks)
- 1 1/3 cups icing/powdered sugar
- pinch salt (or 1/2 tsp if using unsalted butter)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup ground toasted hazelnuts (Note 2)
Topping (optional)
- 1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips or other chocolate for melting
- 1/2 cup ground toasted hazelnuts
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325F/163C. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- MAKE DOUGH: With an electric mixer, beat butter. Add icing sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Gradually add flour a bit at a time, beating in until well incorporated. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the dough from the sides of bowl. Stir in ground hazelnuts. Chill dough in fridge for 30 minutes or more.
- FORM COOKIES: Use your hands to make small balls (36-44) with the dough (about 1-1 1/2 inches/2.5-3.8 cm diameter) and place them on the lined cookie sheet. Use bottom of small glass to lightly flatten each ball to about 1/3 inch0.85 cm thick. Dip glass bottom in flour periodically to avoid glass sticking to dough. (Alternatively, use tines of fork to flatten in criss-cross pattern).
- BAKE: Bake cookies for 10-13 minutes until bottom of cookies are light golden brown. Tops remain fairly pale. Cool on racks. Note 2.
- ADD CHOCOLATE/NUT TOPPING (OPTIONAL): If desired, melt chocolate chips in glass pyrex measuring cup or bowl in microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between. You will have to do this about 3 times. The last few pieces will melt on their own when you stir until creamy smooth. Use a knife to spread chocolate on half the top of each cookie. Sprinkle with ground hazelnuts. Instead of chocolate and nuts, you can dust cookies lightly with icing sugar.
Notes
- To make your own ground toasted hazelnuts: Heat oven to 350F/177C. Place about 2 cups/230 grams hazelnuts on lined baking pan. Roast for 10-15 minutes until fragrant. They will darken a shade. Don't let them burn. Let cool enough to handle. Over the pan, take a handful at a time and rub between two hands - skins will flake off. Alternatively, place in towel and rub together. Repeat with all hazelnuts. Don't worry if a bit of skin remains but try to get most off as skins can be bitter. Put in food processor and process until finely ground. Or place in a zipper lock bag and crush with the bottom of a pot or glass.
- Variations:
- Substitute toasted walnuts, pecans or macadamia nuts for the hazelnuts if you can't find them.
- For the chocolate smear, use dark chocolate, semisweet or milk chocolate chips. Or you can use chunks of a chopped chocolate bar and melt it.
- You can skip the chocolate smear and nut topping and just dust the plain hazelnut cookies with powdered sugar.
- Make ahead/freeze: These cookies will keep at room temperature in a sealed container for about a week. They can be made frozen (up to 6 months), when cooled completely, in a sealed container. If you want to store them in a sealed ziploc bag, you can store them plain (to prevent the chocolate from smearing), then add the chocolate and nuts (if desired) the day of or day before serving.
Calories: 150kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 52mg | Potassium: 58mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 181IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 1mg