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Homemade Hazelnut Cookies

The Mangia Cookie

Print Recipe
Lots of hazelnuts and butter, plus chocolate, explain why these cutouts are so addictive. There is no other way to say it: These fly out the door.
Course Baking, Cookies, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Keyword Cookie, Mangia
Prep Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 60 Cookie
Ingredients
  • 1 ¾ cups whole hazelnuts toasted and skinned
  • 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 ounces semisweet chocolate chilled in the refrigerator for 1 hour
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ pound which is 2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
  • In a food processor, grind ½ cup of the hazelnuts to a paste. Scrape into a small bowl and set aside.
  • In the food processor, using the on/off button, grind the remaining 1 ¼ cups hazelnuts with ½ cup of the flour to make a coarse nut flour; transfer to a bowl.
  • Grate the chilled chocolate in the food processor fitted with the grating blade.
  • Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  • Into a bowl, sift together the remaining 1 ¾ cups flour and the salt.
  • In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the hazelnut paste and blend well. Add the vanilla, nut flour, grated chocolate, and the sifted flour, mixing well after each addition. Gather the dough into a ball with your hands, and shape it into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
  • On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough ¼ inch thick. With a round cookie cutter, 2 ¼ inches in diameter, cut out cookies and place them 1 ½ inches apart on the lined cookie sheets. Reroll the scraps only once; flour the rolling pin only if the dough starts to stick to it.
  • Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes, turning the cookie sheets halfway through baking front to back. Remove from the oven when the edges of the cookies are just starting to brown. Cool the cookies on the sheets, set on racks. Store in an airtight container.
TO TOAST AND SKIN HAZELNUTS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the hazelnuts out on a dry baking sheet and toast them, stirring once, for 10 minutes. Wrap the hot hazelnuts in a kitchen towel and let steam for 5 minutes. While still in the towel, rub the hazelnuts against each other until the skins come off.
(Not every last bit of skin will peel off, but most of it should.)