Chocolate Hazelnut Shortbread

A simple, no-nonsense shortbread that delivers big on flavour without relying on a bunch of junky processed ingredients. Perfect for the chocolate/hazelnut lover in your life, and a great recipe for the holidays (or any time really).

Course Dessert

Cuisine British, European, Miscellaneous

Keyword chocolate, cookies, hazelnut

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Cooling Time 30

Total Time 30

Servings cookies

Calories 133kcal

Ingredients

2 cups unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts or hazelnut flour (see note)
1/2 cup hazelnut pieces
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat and over to 350° F (175° C).
Combine the ground hazelnuts, flour, cocoa powder and salt and stir/sift together and set aside.
Using a hand or stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar until they're well mixed. Add the vanilla and mix again.
Add the flour mixture a little at a time, and continue to mix until well-combined. Stir in the hazelnut pieces and mix again. The dough will generally not stay together while mixing, and will instead form many small balls or clumps.
Form the dough into small circles and flatten into patties by hand or, for a more uniform appearance, by pressing them into a small measuring cup or circular cookie cutters.
Space the cookies out by about 5-7 cm (2-3 inches) on a cookie-sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the bottoms are a rich brown (but NOT burnt) and the centers are fairly firm. Baking time can vary depending on your oven and the colour of your baking sheet, so keep an eye on the cookies.
Set the cookies aside to cool for about 30 minutes. You can frost the cooled cookies with a chocolate ganache if you want to get extra fancy, but they're wonderful as-is.

Notes

You can use hazelnut flour instead of the ground hazelnuts, but given that a) it's hard to find, and b) you need hazelnut pieces as well, I recommend just pulverizing about 3/4 cup of whole hazelnuts with a spice grinder or food processor to yield a nice fine hazelnut flour/meal.

Nutrition