hazelnuts Archives - Keeping With The Times

Cream Cheese and Hazelnut Cookies

December 11, 2017 by Barb 13 Comments

Cream cheese and hazelnut cookies people! Need I say more?

PLUS!! I dipped them in melted chocolate and AGAIN in hazelnuts. OMGoodness.

All I can say is ’tis the season (and maybe if you get out for that daily walk it won’t seem so … so … scandalous ;)

Cream Cheese and Hazelnut Cookies

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 pound butter, softened
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 Tbsp plus 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted and chopped fine
1 cup hazelnuts, chopped very fine (to roll logs in)

Instructions

Sift together flour and salt. Cream butter and cream cheese on medium until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in sugar and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture. Mix until just combined (do not over mix). Mix in toasted hazelnuts.
Divide dough into two equal amounts and shape each piece into an 8 1/2 inch long log (about 2 inches in diameter). Roll each log in 1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts.Wrap each log in parchment and freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. Remove one log from freezer. Cut log into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Transfer to baking sheets.
Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until cookies are golden around the edges, 18 - 20 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; let cool. Repeat the process with remaining dough using cooled cookie sheets.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

5 Christmas Cookie Recipes You’ll Love

December 7, 2016 by Barb 1 Comment

Today I have a roundup of Christmas cookie recipes that, in the last few years, have become family favourites around here.

First up are these beautiful Hazelnut Star Cookies. This is the third year I’ve made them and they are irresistible:

I think I must be a real fan of hazelnuts because 3 out of 5 Christmas cookies polled have hazelnuts :)

Cream Cheese and Hazelnut Cookies
Hazelnut and Chocolate Pinwheels
Chocolate Truffle Cookies

Oh ha! I don’t have five cookie recipes! but I do have a Naked Cake with Peppermint Bark and Mascarpone Buttercream (please don’t hate me ;)

Hazelnut Star Cookies

December 10, 2014 by Barb 13 Comments

I found that these tasty, crispy-tender hazelnut star cookies needed to “set” a bit after being put together with the jam (even overnight). So this morning when I was having coffee … oh my, well you get the idea …

Hazelnut Star Cookies, Keeping With the Times

Hazelnut Star Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted
1 cup butter, room temperature
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Icing sugar for dusting
Filling of your choice. I used the crabapple jelly I made this summer.

Instructions

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
In a food processor, pulse the hazelnuts with 1/4 cup of the flour mixture until fine. Add remaining flour mixture and pulse, then add the butter, and pulse once again to combine into coarse crumbs.*
Place in a bowl and use a fork to blend in egg yolks and vanilla until the dough comes together.**
Shape into two disks, wrap in parchment, and let chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Remove one disk from fridge and roll between two pieces of parchment paper to 1/8 inch thickness. If it's too stiff to roll, let it sit for a few minutes.
Leave the dough on the parchment, and set it on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes or more.
Remove from fridge and cut with cookie cutters. Place on another parchment lined cookie sheet and cut out the centres from every second cookie.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350F.
Remove from oven and let cool.
Dust tops of the star-shaped cookies with icing sugar.
Put filling on bottom cookie, and gently set the star cookie on top. Don't press or it will break.
Let sit for at least a couple of hours or even over night.

Notes

*I don't have a "real" food processor so I used my trusty (vintage) pastry cutter and it worked just fine.**I also found that once the butter and egg were added, I had to (gently) knead the dough to get it to come together (very similar to making pie crust).

*recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Thanks to all for entering the give-away and for subscribing to my newsletter!

SaveSave