Biscuits with hazelnuts

Hazelnuts, walnuts and dried figs. The delicacies of winter fruits cannot be missing in the kitchen. The sweet aroma and spicy scent of cinnamon goes well with cocoa and coffee powder to create traditional sweets. These are the ingredients that particularly remind me of the Christmas holidays.

A few days ago I decided to try some hazelnut biscuit recipes, after buying them at a farm in Piedmont, which is located in the homeland of hazelnuts in the province of Cuneo (Cravanzana). The variety is the one called the Tonda Gentile Trilobata.

I.G.P. hazelnuts of the Alta Langa, Cravanzana

In winter I like to try new types of biscuits. Hazelnut biscuits, is the recipe I chose this time.

Ingredients

150 gr shelled and toasted Piedmont hazelnuts I.G.P. purchased at the Alta Langa farm
100 gr sugar
50 gr local lactose-free butter
2 local eggs
250 gr gluten-free flour for shortcrust pastry
a bit of tartar baking powder
a bit of bourbon vanilla

Chop the hazelnuts together with the sugar in the mincer. The grains are sometimes a little annoying under the teeth. For this reason I minced the toasted hazelnuts together with sugar. I got a kind of medium-grained flour.

I combined the mixture just made with eggs, butter, gluten-free flour, bourbon vanilla and finally the tartar yeast in the mixer. I don’t use fast yeast because I don’t like that typical “chemical” taste.

The mixer with the leaf whisk is ideal. Once I got the hazelnut shortcrust pastry, I put it to rest in the fridge inside the foil for about half an hour. I placed the dough on my wood table (tagliere), which I use every time I “put my hands in the dough”.

Let’s go back to our hazelnut biscuits. Put some flour both on the wood table and on the rolling pin (mattarello). Roll the dough until it is about 3/4 mm thick. I used all my Christmas shapes: the reindeer, the comet star, the gingerbread, the Christmas tree, etc …

Once the biscuits are shaped, take a baking tray, put the baking paper and place the biscuits into warm oven. Baked the biscuits at 180° still oven for about 15/20 minutes untile they get gold.

A little tip: if you use gluten-free flour like me, if you want the biscuits to be a little more crunchy and less pale, leave them a few minutes longer.