Coming at you with a quick, easy cookie recipe today in case you need just one more cookie for your cookie plate. Or Santa. Or yourself.
Let’s be real, we can never have too many cookies. Trust me, as someone who sold out of all the macarons and cookies at her work bake sale last week, there is no such thing as too many cookies.
I said this over on my instagram page, but I really do work with the best people. My coworker and I quickly pulled together a blanket drive and bake sale, the week I returned after my surgery. We took blanket/coat/scarves/gloves/sock donations in lieu of monetary donations for this bake sale so we can give them to the homeless here in Portland, but we still managed to raise $250, which we’re going to put towards purchasing more warm gear.
I’m constantly blown away with the support and generosity of my coworkers. I work at a special, magical place and I’m so, so thankful for everyone there. Honestly, I could probably talk about how much I love them all nonstop, but we’ll get back to this week’s cookie recipe.
We’re using a food processor to make these cookies – we want our hazelnuts finely ground so we’re going to throw everything else in there too. Our holiday spices in these cookies are cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. These smell gooooood.
They taste good, too. Don’t worry.
After the dough comes together in the food processor, we’ll quickly knead it on the counter, before wrapping it in some plastic wrap and putting it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. This is a good time to relax with some cocoa or wrap your last-minute gifts.
Remove from the fridge, roll out, cut out, and bake! Once they’re cool we’re going to drizzle them with some melted chocolate. I like to drizzle just one half of each cookie, but you can totally drizzle the whole thing if you want to.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw hazelnuts
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. ground allspice
- Pinch cloves
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
Instructions
- In a food processor, finely grind 1/2 cup of hazelnuts with 2 tablespoons of the sugar. Add the flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, salt and the remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar and pulse to combine. Add the 2 sticks of butter and pulse until a dough forms. Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead 2 or 3 times. Pat the dough into two 8-inch disks, wrap in plastic and chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, working with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough to a 10-inch round, 1/4 inch thick. Using a 1 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, stamp out rounds as closely together as possible. Arrange the cookies on a baking sheet, about 1/2 inch apart. Repeat with the second disk of dough. Gather the scraps from both batches and pat into a disk. Chill for 10-15 minutes and re-roll, cutting more rounds.
- Bake the cookies 1 sheet at a time for about 20 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly colored but the tops are still pale. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack to let the cookies cool.
- Once cookies are cool, melt the bittersweet chocolate. Transfer to a piping bag and drizzle the chocolate over half of each cookie. Let stand until chocolate is set.
