Chocolate Hazelnut Flourless Cookies
Ingredients
- 150 g / 1 cup hazelnuts, divided
- 100 g / just under 1 cup hazelnut meal
- 80 g / heaped 1/3 cup sugar
- heaped 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tbsp cacao powder
- 45 ml / 3 tbsp aquafaba / chickpea brine
Preparation
Take 100 g (2/3 cup) of hazelnuts and grind them into a coarse powder in a food processor or coffee grinder. Leave a few bigger chunks in for extra texture
Chop the remaining 50 g (1/3 cup) of hazelnuts quite coarsely and spread them on a large plate or tray
In a big mixing bowl, combine the hazelnut meal, coarsely ground hazelnuts, sugar, salt and cacao powder. Using maple syrup will produce a dough that is much wetter and so it’s texture will differ from what you can see in my photos
Mix it all well and then add enough aquafaba (I used 3 tbsp, it may end up being a bit more or a bit less) to bind all the ingredients together and produce a sticky cookie dough
Divide the dough into 12 equally sized pieces. Roll each portion of dough between the palms of your hands and then lightly press the dough into the chopped hazelnuts to coat on both sides. If you used maple syrup, spoon blobs of the mixture onto the baking tray and sprinkle the chopped nuts on top
Preheat the oven to 175° C / 350° F. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking tray. Bake for about 15 minutes (maple syrup cookies take more time to bake, about 25 minutes), until they are lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool down before transferring to a plate (or else they may fall apart). Store in an airtight container
