Chocolate and Hazelnut Holiday Cookies
Holiday cookies that are made by sandwiching homemade hazelnut butter between two chocolate shortbread cookies.
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Last weekend Loml and I decided to double down on the holiday spirit and get a Christmas tree. I think we were hoping that throwing a bunch of lights at our apartment would make us forget that 2020 was such a mess… Of course, as soon as we set it up we realized that we have no clue how to get rid of a Christmas tree in Chicago. Or in other news, we now plan to have a permanent Christmas tree in our apartment. Christmas tree troubles aside, I’ve decided that part of getting into the holiday spirit should clearly involve making holiday cookies!
This year I’ve started my holiday cookie baking with Chocolate-Shortbread-Sandwich cookies, filled with Hazelnut-Almond-White-Chocolate-Spread (think white chocolate Nutella!). I’ll work on a better name for them.
In the meantime these sandwich cookies are lovely so just embrace the weird name.
These holiday cookies are:
- Small Batch: This recipe makes about 6 sandwiches plus a couple of random little stars or something with the leftover dough.
- Not too sweet: White chocolate can be overwhelming sweet but these cookies are rich and chocolatey and not very sweet at all which means they work perfectly with the sweet filling.
- Texture: The cookies are so perfectly crumbly they melt in your mouth. They might also snap while you’re trying to fill them but just use the filling to patch them up and carry on your merry way.
- Filling: The filling is basically a homemade white chocolate Nutella. Honestly what else is there to say?
How to make them:
1) Make the dough
We start by creaming together butter and sugar (has there ever been a better combination than butter and sugar? I think not). Then mix in flour, salt, and cocoa powder using a spatula. You’ll have to knead it together lightly by hand at the end because it’s quite crumbly. Let it sit in the fridge while you make the filling.
2) Make the filling
Roast the nuts if they aren’t already roasted. To do so just tip them into a baking sheet and roast for 7-10 minutes at 350 F. Once they smell nice and toasty, they’re ready! Now you need to puree the nuts until they start to get creamy. I did this using an immersion blender but you could also do this in a food processor. It’s probably preferable to do it in a food processor, but I don’t own one so here we are. Finally, toss in the white chocolate and blend it all together until you get a lovely thick spread.
3) Make the chocolate holiday cookies!
Roll out your cookie dough between two sheets of parchment paper. You can cut whatever shape cookies you like; I went with round cookies and then cut stars out of half the circles. I baked the little stars I cut out as well so it was a win-win situation. If the dough gets too soft just pop it in the fridge or the freezer for a bit until you can work with it more easily.
Feel free to re-roll the scraps but try to avoid doing this too many times if possible!
Once you’ve cut out all your cookies pop the tray in the fridge for 10 minutes or the freezer for 5 and then bake for 12 minutes.
4) Assemble your cookies
Spoon some of the spread onto a circular cookie without a star cutout and then spread it out. Sandwich with one of the cookies with the star cut out and voila! You can also top cookies with the spread and then dip them in sprinkles which is a pretty excellent move too.
Note: These cookies are delicious when thin but they can be quite fragile. If you find that the cookies snap while you’re making the sandwiches I would go ahead and try to just piece the cookie back together. The filling is quite firm so it should hold the cookies in place!
Alternatively, you can make thicker cookies, which will be less snap-able, but then you may want to just spread the filling on top instead of making sandwiches!
Chocolate Cookies with Hazelnut Filling
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 75 g butter room temperature
- 40 g sugar
- 75 g flour
- 23 g cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
Filling:
- 1/3 cup of hazelnuts
- 1/3 cup of almonds
- 1/3 cup of white chocolate chips Try to get your hands on some good quality white chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F
- If your nuts aren’t pre-roasted then pour them into a baking tray and roast for 7-10 minutes until nicely toasted.
- Start making the cookie dough by first creaming the butter by itself in a standing mixer with the beater attachment. Then add the sugar and keep beating until nice and fluffy.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt into the butter mixture and then mix together with a spatula. It will look like dry bread crumbs at first but keep mixing and you’ll see the mixture start clumping together. Bring the dough together by hand at the end and shape it into a ball. Place it in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate while you make the filling.
- Puree the nuts either in a food processor or using an immersion blender. This will take a few minutes but after a while you should see that the nuts begin to look creamy instead of crumbly. Add in the white chocolate and blend again until smooth. Set aside the filling.
- Roll out the cookie dough between two sheets of parchment paper. I like relatively thin cookies but note that they won’t rise in the oven so don’t go too crazy thin.
- Cut out 12 circles with a round cookie cutter (I used a 2 and 1/4 inch cutter). If you want the star cut-outs in the top cookie then use a small star cookie cutter to cut out stars from half of the circles. If the cookie dough gets too soft while you’re working with it then just pop it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes until it firms up again.
- Place the cookies on a lined baking tray (I use a silicone mat but you could also use the parchment paper you rolled the cookies out with). Let the cookies firm up for 10 minutes in the fridge before baking.
- Bake for 12 minutes at 350 F and then let them cool.
- Once cool spread the filling over half the cookies and sandwich with the other half. You can also just spread the filling on one side and then dip the cookie in sprinkles if you don’t want to sandwich them!