Hazelnut Almond Biscuits w Chocolate

This recipe is for a biscuit, or cookie, that has the wonderful flavour of hazelnuts and almonds and then some chocolate too.  Then some, or all if desired, are dipped in more chocolate that has been melted.

For mine I dipped some but didn’t cover the entire surface as I wanted to ensure that the nutty flavour wasn’t overwhelmed by the chocolate.

The recipe is very easy to make and then it is piped onto baking trays.  The shape can be whatever you wish.  I did some finger shaped one, then some thicker oblongs and then finished with a few round ones too.

They turned out very well indeed and had a delicious flavour as well as being light and crunchy, just how I like my biscuits to be.

I didn’t have ground hazelnuts so I ground my own.  When doing that I let some grind for slightly too long(only a few seconds) and the nuts began to form a paste.  For this recipe that didn’t make any difference, but to avoid that you can add some of the icing sugar to the nuts when grinding and that will help prevent it forming a paste.  Of course, if you can buy ground hazelnuts or hazelnut flour in small amounts that will save doing it at all.

In the recipe I say to bake for 20 minutes, but keep an eye on the biscuits as they will colour very quickly, so check after about 17 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 170g(12 tbsp) softened unsalted butter
• 170g(1 1/4 cups) icing sugar
• 100g(1 cup) ground hazelnuts/hazelnut flour
• 50g(1/2 cup) ground almonds
• 2 medium eggs(large in USA)
• seeds from one vanilla pod
• 300g(2 1/4 cups) plain flour
• 80ml(1/3 cup) milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 80g(6 1/2 tbsp) dark chocolate chopped into small pieces
• 200g dark chocolate for melting and then dipping biscuits(if desired)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F
2. Line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper(you may need to bake in batches)
3. Place the butter, salt and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and start mixing on the lowest speed.
4. When the sugar is mainly incorporated increase the speed and beat until light and fluffly.
5. Add one egg and beat until incorporated, adding the vanilla bean seeds too.
6. Add half the hazelnut and half the almonds and mix until combined.
7. Add the remaining egg and beat again adding the hazelnuts and almonds as before.
8. Add half the flour and start to mix in adding half the milk as it is mixing.
9. Add the remaining flour and start to mix, adding the remaining milk too and mix until all is combined.
10. Add the 80g of chocolate and mix until thoroughly distributed throughout the batter.
11. Transfer the batter into a piping bag and cut about a 1/2 hole at the tip(or use a nozzle).
12. Pipe strips of batter onto the baking tray, leaving a gap for spreading.  (Or pipe into any shape you wish).
13. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, but check after 17, as soon as the edges start to darken remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes before tranferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
14. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler/bain marie(or in a microwave oven).
15. Dip one end, or one half of the biscuit into the chocolate, scrape the bottom to take off excess and place of parchment paper to set.