The summer here is lousy. It is cold and raining every day. Instead of ice cream and tropical cocktails I prepared tea and my favorite biscuits.
These cookies are a bit crunchy and with whole hazelnuts. My family used to have them only for Christmas, but I now make them every once a while throughout the year.
Here is the recipe.
Hazelnut cookies:
The amounts are good for about 100 to 120 of them. If that's too many use just half the recipe and you will be fine.
- 150 gram (5.3oz) butter
- 300 gram (10.6oz) sugar
– Beat until (somewhat) fluffy
- 500 gram (17.6oz) wheat flour
- 1 package (8gr) of vanilla sugar*
- 0.1 liter (3.4 fl oz) of whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 milliliter) of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) – alternative: baking powder (though the strength may vary**)
- 300 gram (10,6oz) whole hazelnuts
– Mix and knead the dough well
– Use a pastry board with some flour and form rolls of about 4 centimeter (1.5 in) in diameter and some 15 centimeter (6 in) length
– Put the rolls on a plate and cool them in a fridge for at least(!) 6 hours! Cover only lightly to let superfluous moisture escape. (The cooling is the most important step. If the rolls are too warm or too wet it is nearly impossible to a. cut them up well and b. to achieve the desired crunchy texture.)
– Preheat baking oven to 175° centigrade (350°F)
– Cut the cold rolls into 5 millimeter (0.2 in) thick slices, round these off and put them onto a naked baking tray
– Bake for 15 minutes at 175° centigrade (350°F)
– Check for color, a light brown tan is perfect
– Clean the baking tray with cold water and prepare the next charge
The recipe above will give about three full tray loads, enough to refill my biscuit tin.
Prepare for tea-time while the cookies cool off.
Footnotes:
*Vanilla sugar is hard to get in the U.S. and UK. On the European continent it is available prepackaged as 8 grams of fine, nearly powdery sugar with natural vanilla powder and/or vanilla (vanillin) aroma added. It is used in whipped cream and in all kinds of pastries. Here is a description how to make your own vanilla sugar. As a fast alternative simply add some 10 drops of vanilla-aroma or up to 1 gram of powdered Bourbon vanilla directly to the dough. Knead well.
** Variants: One can easily make these sweeter by using up to 50 additional grams of sugar (350g total). Kids will prefer this variant. The more nutty folks (like me) will instead add another 50 grams of hazelnuts (350g total). Up to 0.1 l milk can be added (0.2l total) to achieve a somewhat softer, less crunchy result. More baking soda/baking powder (up to 1 tsp total) will give lighter and softer cookies. (Warning: these will grow impressively while baking – leave enough space on the baking tray to accommodate this.)
Have a nice tea time.