Hazelnut Kisses

I'd love to go on vacation. Somewhere nice and warm. With palm trees and fruity drinks. And a beach, of course. Instead, I'm stuck working in an office all day every day this summer...I miss the days when it was acceptable to do nothing all summer. However, while I'm not vacationing this summer, my parents were. On a trip to Cozumel, they purchased me two Mexican recipe books, one with cookies and one with ice cream. With a big jar of Pralinutta (Belgian knock-off brand Nutella) in my cabinet, I decided to make the first recipe in the cookie book for hazlenut cookies.

The recipe definitely didn't have enough butter in it, so I had to add a lot extra and I cut down on the hazelnuts a little, simply because they're expensive and I didn't want to buy another bag. If you take these cookies out of the oven too soon, they will crumble to the touch so make sure they're ready before you take them out of the oven.



Hazelnut Kisses, slightly adapted from "Besos de Avellana" from Galletas by Delicias

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup hazelnuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut cream (Nutella)
1/3 heavy cream

1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease three pans.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour and salt.

3. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer at high speed to combine the butter and sugar until you get a pale and creamy mixture. Change the mixer to low speed and add the hazelnuts and flour mixture.

4. Make 40 small balls of dough and place on pans to bake.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until they start to brown and harden. Take out of oven and let cool completely.

6. Melt chocolate hazelnut cream and mix with the heavy cream. Let cool completely, until very similar to the consistency the chocolate cream was before mixing.

7. Stick two cookies together with the cream to obtain your hazelnut kisses!