It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…and it’s about time!

So how about some last minute Christmas cookie baking?!

You have still got time for it – pretty much a whole weekend – and you wouldn’t have wanted to make these cookies much before anyway, as they are best eaten within a few days, so that you can enjoy their chewy chocolateness (which I assume is not an actual word but really should be).

They are quick and easy to make all you need is:

• 90g ground hazelnuts
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 170g dark’ish chocolate, ideally around the 50-60% mark
• 325g plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2tbsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp salt
• 115g unsalted butter
• 325g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 60ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150g icing sugar

To make the cookies:
For extra flavour, dry roast the ground hazelnuts in a dry pan over a medium temperature, moving them around with a spatula so they don’t burn but brown evenly. Depending on the size of your pan you may need to do this in 2 batches.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler/metal bowl over simmering water (or even in the microwave) stirring until smooth.

Mix all your dry ingredients for the dough: the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt.

In another bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar with an electric whisk for a few minutes until creamy. Add one egg at a time, bating them in between and then beat in the melted chocolate, vanilla and milk until all is well combined. Now slowly mix in the flour mix and finally the nuts. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and chill it until firm, for about 2-3 hours, in the fridge.

To bake the cookies:
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and put your oven racks in the upper and lower third of the oven, so you can bake two baking sheets at the same time. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set a bowl with the icing sugar next to them.

Halve the dough and chill1 half back in the fridge, wrapped in plastic warp. Roll the remaining half in to small balls, which you then roll in the icing sugar, so they are generously coated with it. Arrange the icing sugar coated balls about 2 inches apart on the sheet.

Bake, switching tray positions halfway through, until the cookies are puffed and cracked but still feeling soft – for about 12-18 minutes in total. Transfer to a rack to cool – and repeat all over again with the remaining dough.

Once all cookies are cool, keep them in a tin for up to 5 days.
If I don’t see you before…

Merry Xmas!!!