Cookie Rookie: Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies

Remember the little project I started a few weeks ago, called Cookie Rookie? Well, since those raisin and hazelnut cookies turned out really good, I decided to try a new recipe this weekend! I had a real craving for chocolate, so it didn’t take me very long to decide what kind of cookies I would bake this time: chocolate cookies, of course! I combined some recipes to suit my fancy, and also added some hazelnuts because I was very pleased with the way they helped flavour the raisin and hazelnut cookies last time (and chocolate and hazelnuts are an amazing combination, of course).

Once again, those hazelnuts did their job very well. These cookies were absolutely delicious! They might even be the best cookies I ever baked! They were gone before I knew it and I’m sure I will bake them again sometime in the near future because I need these in my life, and I need them bad…

Yeah, they’re that good. Seriously, try them.

You’ll need… (for about 25 cookies)

– 225 g soft butter

– 140 g white caster sugar

– 1 egg yolk

– 2 teaspoons vanilla flavouring

– 225 g plain flour

– a pinch of salt

– 50 g cocoa powder

– 50 g hazelnuts, chopped

– 75 g dark chocolate, chopped

– parchment paper

– baking tray

– and an oven, of course! These cookies need to be baked at 190 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven)

So, let’s get baking!

1. Whisk the butter and the sugar together You start off preparing the dough by whisking the sugar and the butter together. I put the butter (in a small bowl) in the microwave to soften it a little bit, but didn’t pay enough attention so when I got it out again it was almost completely melted. Turns out, that’s not a problem! That was good to know because melted butter is so much easier to mix with other ingredients than butter that’s just slightly softened!

2. Add egg yolk and vanilla flavouring After you’ve whisked the butter and the sugar until they’re all nice and creamy, add the egg yolk and the vanilla flavouring and whisk again until it’s all mixed together evenly.

3. Add the dry ingredients Now, sieve the flour, cocoa powder and salt above the bowl, and also add the chopped hazelnuts and chopped chocolate. Then use a spoon to mix everything together. It was at this point that I found out it doesn’t matter one bit if you melt the butter or not (I was quite relieved — bit worried before this point). Or, if it does, I don’t care, because my cookies were delicious – who cares about the technicalities?

4. Make little balls of the dough and put them on the tray Once everything is mixed together it’s time to line your baking tray with parchment paper in preparation of the cookies’ oven time. Then take little bits of dough at a time, form little balls of them with your hands and put them on the tray, after which you press them down a bit so they’re a bit more flat and look like cookies to be. Leave enough room in between the cookies so that they won’t stick together while baking.

Also, right about this time I remembered the lesson I learned during the previous Cookie Rookie experience: don’t make your cookies too big. This time they turned out just perfect, so I already gained some baking knowledge from this project, I guess!

5. Bake them cookies! Once your baking tray is full, put it in your preheated oven and bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes. Don’t bake them longer than that because they’ll become a bit dry (they’ll still taste yummy, though). My first batch was in the oven for about 18-20 minutes and the second batch for 15 minutes — the second batch turned out the best.

When your cookies are done, take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5-10 minutes on the baking tray. Then take them off the tray and let them cool completely on a cooling rack.

And then you’ve made yourself these truly heavenly cookies! Enjoy!