Right around the holidays I bought a big ol’ bag of hazelnuts from Trader Joe’s. It was an impulse buy right before the checkout so I dumped the bag in the cart…besides it was hubby’s turn to pay for the groceries..mwuahaha.
I figured I’d make some hazelnut cookies as part of my Christmas cookie spread. Well that didn’t happen, mainly because I was too busy making other goodies (as shown here and here and here and here).
So this lonely bag-o-nuts has been gathering dust in the pantry until this weekend when I finally decided to go for it.
Hazelnut Cookies:
- Grind hazelnuts in a food processor or magic bullet until you have 2.5 cups of finely ground hazelnuts (nearly flour like — some chunks are A-OK). Set aside in a bowl.
- Beat 2 large eggs by hand in separate bowl
- Add 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 heaping tsp vanilla extract, dash of cinnamon, and a dash of salt (<1/8 tsp)
- Mix well.
- Gradually add in your ground hazelnuts and continuously stir and incorporate
- Refrigerate dough for 8 hours (or overnight)
- Preheat oven to 325 deg and grease a baking sheet with PAM
- Round dough into balls using a melon baller or tsp. Note dough is fairly sticky.
- Bake for approx 11 minutes until top of cookie is very slightly firm to the touch
- Let cool on baking rack
Chocolate Dip:
- Pour ~3/4 cup of Nestle (or other) milk chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl
- Heat on high in micro for 30 seconds. Stir and heat for another 15 seconds.
- Add 1 tsp of instant coffee (I used Starbucks VIA cinnamon flavored). Stir.
- Heat for another 30-45 sec until mixture is smooth.
Once the cookies are completely cooled, dip half in the chocolate mixture and place on wax paper to harden. When all cookies have been dipped, place the wax paper on a cookie sheet and cool in fridge for 3 hours. Serve at room temp!
What’s your favorite nut? For an everyday nut, I’d say almonds, but for a special nut, pecans!
Do you have any ideas for Pumpkin Pie and Pistachio pudding mixes that have been sitting in my pantry for equally as long?
