Happy weekend! We made it. These days, the thought of the weekend is the only thing that gets me through the week. And this is my first weekend where I have at least a little time to relax. The past couple have been packed, but now I get more time for baking, studying, and reading.
I can tell it’s a great weekend because it’s rainy! Rainy days are my favorite, especially when I can cozy up inside with a sweater and some fuzzy socks. I like to lie on my bed and watch the rain fall outside. It just feels so calm, like the world stops spinning for just a minute.
Speaking of the world spinning, I heard someone say the other day that we’re almost halfway through 2024. In my head I thought, psh that’s just not true. But then I thought about it and…yeah. We’re almost halfway through 2024. Let that sink in.
Crazy. Oh also! Tomorrow is Mother’s Day! So if you still haven’t found a gift and it’s dawning on you that you have pretty much no time, fear not! I find that cooking is a wonderful gift. It shows that you care, and who doesn’t like food. More specifically, who doesn’t like gooey caramel chocolate hazelnut cookies?
Describe These Cookies to Me
Taste: Where to begin. The cookie is a buttery and lightly sweet chocolate cookie, spotted with flecks of toasted hazelnut for the perfect nutty balance. I like to keep the cookie not overly sweet to pair perfectly with that deep, toasty caramel, touched with sea salt.
Texture: The cookies have a little snap to them, but the caramel layer in between is perfectly soft and gooey. The crunch blends with that filling to give you the perfect texture balance.
Ease: The cookie dough here is easy enough. The only extra step is prepping the hazelnuts, and besides that it’s pretty familiar. The difficult part of this recipe is the caramel. It’s a fast moving process, and it’s tricky to get it to a spreadable consistency, but if you read the instructions and the paragraph bellow carefully it should make the job a lot easier!
Caramel
Let’s talk about caramel. At its core, caramel is just melted sugar. If you want to get all science-y, you melt it to the point that the sucrose molecules break down into different flavor molecules to give you that rich flavor your associate with caramel. We’re making a caramel sauce today, which means the addition of heavy cream. A hard caramel would be only melted sugar, which will give you a result similar to toffee.
Troubleshooting Caramel
Now, caramel sounds simple enough but it can be really tricky. It will move very slowly at first, and then suddenly very quickly. There are a few things to keep in mind when making caramel.
1. Heat your ingredients first: We will be adding in heavy cream and butter to our melted sugar towards the end so it is very important you have all your ingredients out, measured, and at the ready. For the cream and butter, it’s important to microwave it a little before adding it to the caramel. If you were to add cold or even room temperature ingredients to the very hot sugar, it will likely crystalize and harden. Because of this, you need to make sure your cream and butter are both a little warm.
2. Never take your eye off it. It might seem tempting to rush over to the sink to go do a couple of dishes while making caramel because at the beginning, it will seem like nothing’s happening. But if the sugar isn’t stirred constantly, then you run the risk of burning it before it even fully melts.
3. Lower temperatures. Cooking caramel on medium low heat ensures it won’t start melting too quickly and burn. As you melt the sugar, it will form clumps in some places, and liquify in others. This is completely normal and, if cooked on the right temperature, the lumps should melt down evenly. But if the temperature is too high, the clumps might not break down in time and the sauce will be burnt in some places.
4. Softening caramel. As it cools, the caramel might become too thick to spread. If this happens, place the sealed jar of caramel in a deep bowl of warm water for just a few minutes. Remove it, and stir around the caramel until it’s a nice spreadable consistency.
The Dough
Alright, you’ve finished the challenge of the caramel. The dough is much more simple. You start off by toasting and grinding up the hazelnuts. Toasting them releases their flavorfull oils, giving you an even tastier cookie. The rest of the cookie is pretty straightforward. Butter creamed with white and brown sugar, eggs, flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, vanilla, etc. I like to add a little espresso powder to really bring out the chocolate too. Then you chill the dough to get it nice and firm, and then roll, cut, and bake!
Chocolate Hazelnut Caramel Cookies
Ingredients
Caramel
- ⅓ cup heavy cream at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter cut into pieces and softened to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
- ⅔ cup raw hazelnuts
- ⅔ cup brown sugar divided
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus more for rolling
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the caramel
- Read the instructions completely before starting. Start by microwaving your heavy cream for 30 seconds. You want it warm when you add it to the hot sugar so it doesn't cause your caramel to harden and split. Make sure your butter is at room temperature as well, or it will have the same effect.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the sugar while stirring with a wooden spoon frequently. It will take a while for it to start to melt, and it may seem like nothing is happening at the beginning but be patient. Once it begins to melt, the sugar will become clumpy, and you should start stirring constantly. The sugar will eventually completely melt to an amber colored liquid. Once the clumps of sugar are dissolved, immediately remove from the heat and stir in the butter. It will sizzle and splash rapidly, so be careful! Stir vigorously until butter is melted. It may not look combined yet, that's ok. Immediately stir in the heavy cream and whisk vigorously until the caramel is smooth and combined. Stir in the vanilla and salt. Pour into a heat safe jar and let cool at room temperature for about an hour, before placing in the fridge covered for at least three hours. Caramel will thicken to a spreadable consistency as it cools
Make there cookie dough
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Spread the hazelnuts over a small baking sheet and place in the oven to toast for 3-5 minutes. Once slightly toasted, let them cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before using. Turn off the oven.
- In a small food processor, pulse the slightly cooled hazelnuts and ⅓ cup of the brown sugar together until a fine meal is formed. Set aside. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and remaining ⅓ cup of brown sugar on medium speed until creamy and combined. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until just combined. It's ok if it looks curdled, it will straighten out when we add the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture and the hazelnut mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.
- Cut the dough in half. It doesn't have to be perfect, just eyeball it. On a large piece of cling wrap, press one half into a disk, about 1/4 inch thick. Wrap it in the cling wrap, and repeat with the second half of the dough. Place both wrapped disks in the refrigerator and chill for at least 3 hours.
Shape and bake!
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Remove and unwrap one half of the dough from the fridge and flour your work surface. Using a floured rolling pin, carefully roll the chilled dough out so its about 1/8 inch thick. If the dough cracks, just use your fingers to mold it back together. Using a 2-3 inch round cookie cutter (mine was 2 ½ inch), cut the dough into cookies. Re-roll and cut the scraps until you have used up all the dough. This dough can get a little sticky, so make sure to be re-flouring frequently. Repeat with the second disk of dough.
- Place the shaped cookies on the previously prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 11-13 minutes, or until the cookies are set. Allow to cool on the sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Assemble.
- Remove the caramel from the fridge. It should be a spreadable consistency. If it is too thin, it needs more time to chill. If it is too thick, then place the sealed jar in a warm water bath and let it sit for just 3-5 minutes. Then, remove from the water and open jar to stir around the caramel until it reaches the right consistency.
- Take one cookie and spread a loaded teaspoon of the caramel on the flat side. Top with a second cookie to create a sandwich. Repeat with the remaining cookies. If you notice your caramel is dripping out of the cookies, stop and let it chill longer before doing the rest of the cookies.
- Cookies stay fresh sealed at room temperature for up to 4 days.