Chocolate Hazelnut Shortbread
2 cups flour
1 cup confectionery or powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks butter (room temp)
1/2 tsp vanilla bean extract
2 tsp Frangelico hazelnut liquor
Unsweetened cocoa powder. I'm a fan of certain types of fine chocolate, so when it comes down to baking, I'm going for the same.
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| Good for making homemade hot chocolate or tiramisu as well. You'll find many uses for it. |
Powdered sugar is so fine it just melts into the dough. Makes for a very smooth texture.
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| Almost creamy. |
It's important to take out the butter ahead of time and leave it to get soft. But while it's firm, I often cut into pieces in preparation. Not necessary that you do that.
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| The amount of butter makes it a shortbread cookie. Rich and flaky. |
Add the flour, sugar and salt to a bowl. Lightly whisk together to blend.
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| A fork will do as well. |
Whisking blends evenly and makes for quick work.
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| Sandy texture. |
When butter is soft, about 30 minutes after taking out of fridge, drop into the bowl with confectionery sugar.
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| Room temp butter makes for easy blending. |
I don't have a Kitchen Aid mixer, because a condo doesn't have a lot of space and I am not as keen on baking as cooking, but my hand mixer works just as well in these types of situations!
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| I try to keep gadgets to a minimum for reasons of space and I am a fairly traditional person. |
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and slightly fluffy.
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| Adding the air will lighten it. |
You should know by now that I LOVE this brand of vanilla products. They are the most flavorful and rich of any I've found. I truly believe it makes a huge difference. For this cookie, I went with the vanilla bean paste which is an easy substitute for the extract. So densely intense with vanilla flavor, you'll swear by it for the rest of your baking life!
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| William and Sonoma outlet has best prices that I've found. |
Add the paste to the beaten butter mixture.
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| I even love the chocolate brown color of the vanilla. Ironic, no? |
I'm sure the cookies would be fine as is, but I love to mix flavors with chocolate. One of my absolute favorite combinations involves the Italian hazelnut liquor Frangelico. (In its friar-like bottle with the waist chord.)
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| Again, great to add to hot chocolate, so you'll find other uses. |
A little goes in the dough and later I'll add some to the icing as well to carry the nutty flavor through the entire cookie experience.
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| Smells just like hazelnuts. |
Add in the dry ingredients and beat everything together.
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| Mix on low. No need to crank it up. |
Dough is very soft and sticky in texture.
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| Softer than the cookie dough you may be used to. |
Get out your trusty pastry mat so you have a large, comfortable, perfectly prepared working space. Be liberal with flour because the dough is quite sticky.
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| Leave yourself lots of elbow room on each side. |
Place the dough onto the mat in a ball shape. Dust the top with flour and flour your rolling pin as well. You definitely want to avoid stickage.
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| Molds easily. |
Roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness.
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| Thickness will affect cooking time. |
Any shape cutter will do. I had this particular shape in mind from the start. Lovely fluted edges felt bisuity and delicate to me. British biscuits aren't like our American versions. Theirs are a crispy and cookie-like afternoon tea complement, whereas ours is often fluffy, soft and served with eggs and bacon.
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| Whatever the shape you choose, just don't make them too large. |
Though the dough is soft, it's easy to cut. As long as your surface is well floured, you shouldn't have any problems. (Don't forget to flour your cutter as well!)
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| Cut out a bunch. |
I used a floured spatula to transfer the cookies over to a parchment-lined baking sheet about an inch or two apart. They don't spread much when they bake.
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| You'll get quite a few. |
After you've cut out as many as you can, gather up the scraps, mush them together, roll out and cut again until all the dough is used up.Needed a little extra crunch, I thought to myself. Turbinado sugar would do it.
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| Not going into my espresso today! |
Sprinkle a little on top of each cookie.
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| It won't melt when it hits the heat, so crunch stays in tact. |
The original recipe I based my version off of said to refrigerate the cookies on the baking sheet for 30 minutes. But seeing as I didn't have an industrial-sized, empty fridge to fit this cookie sheet, I decided that step was omitable. So I omitted. And hoped for the best from this bold move.
I baked at 300 degrees for about 22 minutes and then set aside to cool. As you can see by the results below, they turned out just fine without the refrigeration time!
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| Great as is. But wait!!! |
Unable (or unwilling) to leave well enough alone, I had to add icing. Plus, they aren't a that little something extra that to me, pulled it all together.
Hazelnut Icing
1/2 cup confectionery or powdered sugar
3/4 tsp meringue powder
2 tbsp warm water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Frangelico hazelnut liquor
I got this idea from royal icing I've made for gingerbread cookies. I put the sugar and the meringue powder into a bowl.
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| Dry ingredients first. |
Then added the warm water, vanilla extract and liquor. Mix with a fork until smooth. A fork can help you break up any lumps as you want it to be super smooth.
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| Lovely light latte color the extract added. |
I got these travel condiment containers when I was out shopping with a friend at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I think they were around $1.00. If they were good enough for mustard or mayo, I decided I could find other uses for them. I loaded up the icing in there and it made it easy to drizzle onto the cookies. But a spoon would do just as well.
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| I feel so professional when I do stuff like this. |
I placed my cooling racks with the cookies on top over an extra baking sheet to catch the drips. Then drizzled some icing onto each cookie.
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| Can make any design you'd like, but the icing is fairly thin and will spread. |
Reminds me of random paint splotch patterns that were very popular in the 80s. I can even hear the Duran Duran songs now. (And since I've got an English theme going on here, a little "Hungry Like the Wolf" fits perfectly here.)
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| Crispy, crunchy, delicate biscuit. |
Let the cookies sit and don't touch them while the icing dries. The coating will become hard in a couple hours and then you can store them with waxed or parchment paper in between the layers.
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| Icing drips down the sides like sweet icicles. |
I think the Britons wouldn't mind the additions I made to their classic cookie. A pot of PG Tips and you are ready for a lovely afternoon tea break no matter which continent you call home. Cheers!
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