Well, here I go again. Apologizing for being slack on posting. This time, family stuff that occupied my life with worry and no desire to be cooking. In reality, it was nice to take a bit of a break. Great news, everyone is healthy again and the mend is on its way. I am so grateful and ready to get back in the swing of things!
The good news is though. It’s the holiday season and what a perfect time to start baking and making goodies to share with family and friends. I have been super busy making my yearly black sea salt caramels and my chocolate toffee caramels for client and family gifts. I am happy to report that this project is done for this year as I am literally “caramelized” out. Lol. For real though. It’s a lot to wrap up 1000+ caramels. Whew.
So now I am moving onto more important things. Christmas cookies! Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies to be exact. Truth be told, I have a little hazelnut addiction. I began this summer when I picked up a bag of fresh hazelnuts from a farm stand in Oregon while we were on our ultimate summer adventure. Hazelnuts have a lovely buttery and sweet taste which holds up perfectly with a rich chocolate cookie.
Chocolate Crinkle cookies have been a staple for our holiday baking since I was a kid! They are rich, chewy and decadent, almost like a brownie cookie. How can you go wrong? With the addition of the hazelnut liquor, you may as well hang up your apron. These are good and something totally unexpected. They are easy to make but you must allow time for them to refrigerate before baking.
If you are looking for other baking ideas for the holidays why not try, these Tipsy Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies or White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge or how about the infamous Whoopie Pie. They are all yummy ideas for Christmas treats!
If you need more ideas. Check out my friend Holly’s blog, A Baker’s House. She has a whole section on Christmas cookies and is a tremendous baker! Check it out.
Our tree is a special one this year! It was personally cut down on Thanksgiving day by your’s truly and the man in my life who is from Australia. This was his first experience going into the woods and picking out a perfect tree. They don’t do that in Australia so this was a neat experience for him. He even helped decorate it, which he hasn’t done before as well. The funny thing is though, it looked much, much smaller in the woods! Good thing that I have high ceilings in my house. Although he isn’t here for Christmas this year to celebrate (sad), he will be back in January to help take it down! This is my favorite tree of all time. Can’t wait to see what we find next year.
Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Stick butter
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons hazelnut liquor
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar or icing sugar for coating
Instructions
- In a stand mixer or in a large-sized bowl with a hand mixer, mix together white sugar and butter for 3 minutes on high speed. Beat in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add the hazelnut liquor.
- On slow speed add the cocoa powder, salt and baking powder until incorporated.
- Add the flour and mix until a dough forms (do not overbeat). Cover bowl with wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. The dough will be sticky.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper (baking paper or a silpat sheet). Roll 1 tablespoonful of dough into balls for smaller cookies, or 2 tablespoonfuls for larger cookies.
- Add the confectioner's sugar to a smaller bowl. Generously and evenly coat each ball of dough in confectioners' sugar and place onto prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 10 minutes (for small cookies) or 12 minutes (for larger cookies).
- The cookies will come out soft from the oven but will harden up as they cool.
- Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks.
- Store in airtight containers to prefent the cookies from hardening.
Jason says
Hi. Is the recipe adjusted for high altitude?
cookingintherockies says
All my recipes work at high altitude because I make them at high altitude!
nicole martinez says
i found this hazelnut crinkle cookies really good i made then for my culinary class for my high school and the students love them thanks for this recepie.
cookingintherockies says
Wow! That’s great!!! Thanks for sharing this with me!
Lea Ann (Cooking On The Ranch) says
Love chocolate crinkle cookies! And I need to start my holiday baking. Adding this one to the list. Your tree is stunning.
cookingintherockies says
Thanks Lea Ann! Merry Christmas!