Baiocchi – Chocolate Filled Hazelnut Biscuit

Baiocchi is an Italian biscuit, or cookie.  They are usually filled with a chocolate and hazenut filling, often using Nutella.  There is also ground hazelnuts in the biscuit dough for extra flavour.  For mine I didn’t want a soft filling, rather I wanted the filling to set as it would in a bourbon biscuit.  So I used cocoa powder and butter, with a little chocolate hazelnut spread to make filling easy, but that would still allow the mixture to set as the butter firmed up.

The recipe is actually very simple, but just a little fiddly as the biscuits have holes punched into the tops(and is some versions the bottom cookie as well). But the time it takes to make them is very worthwhile as they taste very good indeed.

I am very pleased with how mine turned out. The biscuit being crunchy and with a lovely nutty flavour, to complement the chocolate filling.  It is easy to eat more than just one or two of these.

This recipe should make 60 biscuits, so 30 cookies.

                                    Baiocchi – Chocolate Filled Hazelnut Biscuits – Video
Ingredients:
For the biscuit dough:

• 350g(3 cups – 2 tbsps) pastry flour or plain flour
• 80g(3/4 cup) hazelnuts roughly chopped
• 120g(1 cup) icing sugar
• 50g(5 tbsp) cornflour
• 1 medium egg(large in USA)
• 150g(scant 11 tbsp) softened butter

For the filling:

• 100g (7 tbsp)softened butter
• 180g(1 1/2 cups) icing sugar
• 1 tsp milk
• 25g(3 tbsp) cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread

Method:

1. Place the hazelnuts and icing sugar in a food processor/immersion blender and process until the hazelnuts have become quite a fine texture.
2. Place the hazelnut and sugar mixture into a large bowl, add the flour and cornflour and mix to combine.
3. Add the butter and egg and mix until a clumpy dough starts to form.
4. Use your hands to pull the mixture into a smooth dough.
5. Form into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap, then chill for one hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 180C /160C Fan/350 F
7. Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 5cm, just under 1/4 inch.
8. Using a 5cm/2 inch cookie cutter cut out the cookie shapes.
9. On half of the rolled out dough cirles using a smaller cookie cutter,or a bottle top smaller than the dough circles,  and make an indentation of a circle on top of the dough.
10. Use a straw, or something similar to make five holes inside the previously created circles.  A straw is good to use as it removes the dough to create the hole.
11. Place the cookies onto a baking tray lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
12. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until baked, but not too darkly coloured.
13. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
14. In a bowl place the butter and icing sugar and mix to combine.
15. Add the cocoa powder and mix to combine.
16. Add the milk and mix to combine.
17. Add the chocolate hazelnut spread and mix, I used a hand mixer, until everything is smooth.
18. Turn the cookies without the hole over and spread some of the filling on them.
19. Cover with the cookies with holes in and press down to fix them.
20. Allow to firm up before serving.