I finally made time to do some baking. It’s been a few weeks since I brought together the power of butter, sugar and flour to create something sweet and scrumptious.
I bought the Gourmet Traveller chocolate cookbook from a bargain book store for $6 a while ago, back when I went trekking for my first real souvlaki. The recipe for these cookies in the book pretty much sold me; chocolate + hazelnuts = awesome.
My biscuits look TOTALLY different to the picture in the book. The picture in the book shows nice little dainty, chic café looking bites, and mine turned out like chocolate ripples with a chocolaty centre. I followed the recipe to a tee, and I even rolled smaller sized balls than the dictated 1 tablespoon measurement, and I still ended up with morbidly obese looking cookies! Alas, they tasted very nice so it didn’t matter.
I was expecting more of a melt in your mouth kind of sensation when biting into these, but they were just like any other cookie, and didn’t really have that melting effect. I would make them again though, a classic combination that has never let me down.
250g unsalted butter, softened
110g icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
250g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
105g hazelnuts, roasted, peeled and finely ground
Filling:
125g dark chocolate, chopped
30g unsalted butter
75g hazelnuts, roasted, peeled and finely ground
1. Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, then add vanilla.
2. Stir together flour and cocoa and stir into butter mixture with ground hazelnuts until mixutre is well combined.
3. Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and using your hands, roll into balls, then place on baking paper-lined oven trays and flatten slightly with your fingers.
4. Refrigerate biscuits for 2 hours or overnight, then bake at 180°C / 160°C fan-forced for 15 minutes or until firm to touch. Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
5. To make the filling; melt chocolate and butter in a small heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, then remove from heat, add ground hazelnuts and stir to combine well. Spread a little filling onto half of the cooled biscuits, then top with remining biscuits. Leave in a cool place for filling to set.
Filled biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Makes about 60, but ingredients can be halved to make fewer biscuits.
Voila! Bon Appétit!
Nice and simple to make. Looks gooey too!