CristaLee: Hazelnut Tea Cookies

I don't know why, but a while back I thought it was the best idea to buy a 1 pound bag of blanched hazelnuts. Whatever the reasoning was, I'm glad I bought them. Because after staring at me for long, waiting to be used, I finally used them. And yum! I'm very happy that I used some of the hazelnuts for this recipe. These tea cookies are crisp, nutty and not overwhelming sweet. I toasted the hazelnuts in a pan and I loved how the aroma filled up the entire place. There is something comforting about the scent of hazelnuts. I just love them.

Keep reading for the recipe.....

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup powered sugar, plus additional for coating

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

1 3/4 cups hazelnuts, toasted and finely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl, sift together flour and salt and whisk until evenly combined; set aside.

2. Place softened butter in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer) and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

3. Turn the mixer to medium and add sugar and vanilla, once incorporated turn the mixer back to medium-high and continue to mix until whipped and light, about 2 more minutes.

4. Add half of the nuts and mix until evenly incorporated, about 1 minute. Add flour and mix until well combined, about 1 minute. Stir in remaining nuts.

5. Shape dough into 1 tablespoons balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet, space them about 1 inch apart as they will spread a little bit.

Hazelnut Cookies just out of the Oven

6. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until underside of cookies are brown, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on cooling rack.

7. While cookies are cooling, place some powdered sugar in a bowl. Once cookies have cooled, roll them in the powered sugar until coated and tap off excess. Let cool completely and re-coat in powdered sugar, tapping off excess sugar.

*note* If cookies are not cooled, the powered sugar will melt onto them and you will have pasty fingers, not fun.

Need more desserts in your life?