Hazelnut Christmas Cookies with Dark Chocolate
Buttery hazelnut cookies, pressed with a Christmas cookie stamp, finished with melted dark chocolate and toasted hazelnuts.
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Equipment
- Food Processor
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
- 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ⅛ tsp ground cardamom
- ½ cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp milk
- 4 oz milk, semi sweet or dark chocolate
Instructions
Toast the Hazelnuts
- First, toast the hazelnuts (this step is optional, but adds more depth of flavor). Preheat the oven to 350 F, and place the hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for about 5-7 minutes, until fragrant, but don't let them burn. Let the hazelnuts cool completely before adding them to the dough. You don't want hot hazelnuts that will melt or soften the butter in the dough.
- If you like, you can remove the skins by rubbing the hazelnuts between two towels. Note that you'll be using half the hazelnuts in the dough, and half later.
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, combine 1/2 cup of the toasted, cooled hazelnuts with the flour, powdered sugar, salt and cardamom, and pulse for about a minute until the hazelnuts are very finely ground.With the processor running, drop in the pieces of cold butter, one at a time. Pulse until well distributed.Add the vanilla and milk, and pulse just until the crumbs come together into a dough.
- Dump the dough out, and knead a few times with your hands, just to incorporate any stray floury bits, until you have a soft, supple dough. Shape into a flat disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Cut the Cookies
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough (dusting with a little more flour as needed), to just under 1/4 inch thick. Cut as many cookies as you can with your cookie cutters, and place the cut cookies 1 1/2 inches apart on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.Gather up the dough scraps, roll again, and finish cutting all of the dough. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter, you should be able to cut around 15 cookies.
- Set the baking pan in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour, or in the freezer for 30 minutes. Chilling helps prevent the cookies from spreading while baking.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11-12 minutes. They should be pale golden, with flaky edges. When turned over, you shouldn't see any wet or raw dough underneath.
- Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Decorate
- Finely chop the remaining 1/2 cup hazelnuts in your food processor.
- Using a double boiler, melt the chocolate until smooth.
- If your cookies have a decorative top that you don't want to cover up, like mine do, turn the cookies over so the bottom is facing up. Use a spoon to spread a thin layer of melted chocolate on the cookies.
- Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts over the chocolate, then place the cookies in the refrigerator for several minutes until the chocolate has firmed up again.
Notes
- Cooled cookies should be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
- They can also be baked in advance, and frozen for 3-6 months.
- The cookie dough can also be made in advance, wrapped in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen for 3-6 months. Let thaw in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature until pliable enough to roll out.
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