Hazelnut and chocolate cookies

Preparing cookies at home is a great pleasure, apart from being really easy! The recipe that Virginia (from Sweet&Sour ) proposes to us today, chocolate and hazelnut cookies with a touch of orange , is a guaranteed triumph. Go ahead with them!

I believe that there is nothing as gratifying in baking as preparing cookies, at least in my case. You hardly fail with cookies, practically everyone likes them and if you also dare and prepare them beautifully, you have the wave assured.

This is what happens to these hazelnut and chocolate cookies flavored with orange that I have prepared with the beautiful stamps for cookies "all season" from Nordic Ware , they are divine to die for. And it is that like the molds of this brand, these stamps are the best for my taste, because they mark the drawings in a clean and clear way , they do not stick to the dough and they also have such a rustic and vintage look that they serve as a decoration in the kitchen.

I have prepared them with hazelnuts, flavored with orange and I have partially covered them with chocolate, in this way they are not excessively cloying, but they do have an aftertaste of my childhood snacks. Let's go with them that are simple , and if you dare you can prepare them even with the little ones.

Birkmann Cooling Rack , Fleur de Ligne Bowl , and Chemex Coffee Maker

INGREDIENTS (for 24 cookies)

• 200g butter at room temperature
• 180g of icing sugar
• Zest of 1 orange
• 2 "L" eggs
• 400g of pastry flour
• 150g of hazelnut flour
• 1 tablespoon of orange extract (or the one you like the most)
• ½ teaspoon of Fleur de Sel de Guérande
• Dark chocolate to melt

Nordic Ware "All Season" Cookie Stamps

PREPARATION

1. With the Kitchen Aid paddle attachment at medium speed, or with a wooden spoon, beat the butter together with the sugar and the zest of 1 orange until creamy.
2. Add the eggs one by one, beating to integrate after each addition, not adding the second until the first is well integrated with the dough.
3. Add the extract and beat again to integrate.
4. Sift the flour and Guérande's Fleur de sel and add them 2 or 3 times to the dough, beating just enough to integrate it.
5. Transfer the dough to the table and form balls weighing approximately 50g. Refrigerate the balls well covered for half an hour.
6. Place the non-stick baking tray de buyer * covered with baking paper. Place the cold balls on the tray and flatten them slightly with your hand. We must leave a distance of about 3-4 cm between balls, since the dough does not grow in the oven but when pressed with the stamp it expands a lot.
7. Lightly flour the Nordic Ware cookie stamp and also the dough, removing excess flour in both cases with a brush. Press with the stamp until the dough appears on the sides. We remove the seal. We repeat the operation with the rest of the balls.
8. We cut * each cookie with a cookie cutter slightly larger than the drawing of the cookie.
9. We refrigerate at least 2 hours or all night.
10. Preheat the oven to 200ºC heat up and down. Bake at medium height for about 10-12 minutes or until we see that the sides of the base begin to brown very slightly. The cookies should not be browned, they should be white.
11. Once baked, let cool on the Birkmann cooling rack .
12. Once they are completely cold, we melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and cover half of each cookie. In this process it is important to let the cookie drain the chocolate before letting it dry on the Birkmann cooling rack.

These cookies are ideal for a mid-afternoon treat, to accompany breakfast coffee or tea, and of course to give as a gift. They are very aromatic due to the addition of orange and toasted hazelnut , and they keep well for at least 1 week in an airtight tin box.

Nordic Ware "All Season" Cookie Stamps

Tips

• To prepare the hazelnut flour, I recommend lightly toasting the hazelnuts before grinding them, until they give off a fragrant aroma of dried fruit. Cookies win a lot.
• *Some people prefer not to cut the cookies with a cutter, but rather leave the sides as they result from the pressure, leaving a less perfect but more rustic look. If you choose to do so, you just have to skip step 8.
• Aside from using a regular nonstick pan, you can use a perforated pan and mat . Cooking in them is faster and more uniform, thanks to the penetration of hot air quickly into the dough, which allows you to achieve excellent results.