Chocolate Hazelnut Toffee Cookies

If Ferrero Rocher and old fashioned monster cookies did the dirty and had love babies, these cookies would be those babies.  Inspired by one of Giada's recipes, the end result ended barely resembling the original by the time I was through tweaking, but the result is a sublime mixing of chocolate and hazelnut, with a hint of toffee. The ingredients list is a little long because of all the mix-ins, but the cookies are straightforward to assemble.



First, you need to toast some hazelnuts. As you can see from the picture above, I opt to buy the pre-chopped 8oz hazelnut bag, which works perfectly. Just spread the nuts out onto a lined parchment sheet, and bake for 10-15 minutes until fragrant and starting to brown. Keep an eye out though, you don't want them to burn.

Then you cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy.

Add in the eggs and vanilla to combine. Then, add in some melted bittersweet chocolate. Premix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and soda, and salt) in a bowl, and add those as well, mixing to combine. Once that is done, you can add the mix-ins: nuts, bittersweet chocolate chips, oats and toffee bits.

I recommend using good quality chocolate for both the melting and the chips, I use Ghirardelli. Also, as pictured above, toffee chips are available in bags for baking, either Skor or Heath (I prefer the latter), but if you can't find them, you can always finely chop or process a Heath bar in the food processor!

Once everything is together in the batter and well-combined, use a #40 scoop to scoop out dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Bake for about 12 minutes. I can not stress this enough, but the cookies will not look done when they come out. In fact, they will seem underdone and will still be incredibly soft. They will have lost most of their shininess, but will be so soft it will almost look like they are about to deflate. However, trust me, if your oven is truly 350F, and you use a #40 scoop (scraping off excess dough), they should be ready to come out of the oven at right around 12 minutes, even if they are so soft they are souffle-like.

You need to leave them on the cookie sheet outside of the oven for an additional 5 minutes to continue baking before removing them to a cooling rack to cool and harden further. The thing is, these cookies harden. A lot. And if you don't take them out while they are still underdone, you will end up with chocolate hazelnut hockey pucks. Which isn't tragic, they will still taste good, but the consistency will be off a little. I know, I know, it is a leap of faith for me too every time I pull them out of the oven at 12 minutes, but it always ends up being the right call -- unfortunately you'll have to wait until the cookies fully cool down to believe this, because they will be soft right up until they achieve room temperature. But trust me.

And at the end of it, you end up with these:

Chocolate hazelnut cookies that are sure to impress!


Chocolate Hazelnut Toffee Cookies
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 1/2 C old-fashioned oatmeal
• 2 1/4 C flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 11.5 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli)
• 8 oz hazelnuts, chopped and toasted
• 8 oz toffee bits

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Spread hazelnuts onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and toast at 350F for 10-15 minutes, keeping close watch
3. Cream together butter and sugars until fluffy
4. Add in eggs and vanilla and combine
5. Add in chocolate and combine
6. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking power, baking soda and salt) into a bowl, and add to wet ingredients, mixing until combined
7. Add the mix-ins (oatmeal, hazelnuts, chocolate chips, toffee bits) and stir until combined
8. Use #40 scoop to scoop onto a cookie sheet, and bake ~12 minutes (cookies will still look raw and too soft when done)
9. Cool on pan for at least 5 minutes before removing to rack
10. Let cool completely before storing