Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies – Nut Meal Rocks!

Mmm…Chocolate chip hazelnut cookies…With the Fourth of July weekend upon us, everyone has their favorite all-American dishes that go with celebrating our independence. I always have a few holiday recipes in mind, and high on my dessert list are chocolate chip cookies — a classic with milk, and this time with a twist using hazelnut meal.

Make sure to have some cookies on hand for your backyard barbecue, and while you’re at it, make your chocolate chip cookies heartier, more full of fiber that’s good for everyone and more delicious by substituting some of the white flour with finely ground hazelnut meal/flour and adding some coconut.

With just the two of us, we need to strike a balance between enjoying these delicious cookies to our hearts’ content, and rationing them out a bit. We don’t want too many fresh cookies staring at us and tempting us all day, and at the same time, we don’t want dozens of cookies or extra dough taking up space in the fridge or getting freezer burn.

This recipe, interpreted from the Ghiradelli Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe from the back of the semi-sweet chocolate chip bag, yields 2 dozen cookies and big flavors.

 

Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

Yields 2 dozen cookies

• 3/4 cup unsifted flour
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons hazelnut flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Hazelnut Meal/Flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, half melted.
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup Ghiradelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (I used 1/2 a cup of white chocolate chips, and 1/2 a cup of semi-sweet.)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/4 cup sweetened coconut

 

Preheat oven to 375◦F. Place butter in a microwaveable bowl and microwave until half melted. Place half-melted butter in mixing bowl and beat on high speed until creamed, about 10 minutes. Add sugars and beat another 5 minutes, until graininess from the sugar disappears. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.

In a separate, medium-sized bowl, combine flour, hazelnut meal, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips, nuts and coconut and mix well. Add four mixture gradually to butter mixture with mixer on low and mix until well combined. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes then drop by tablespoon on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for one minute on the sheet then move to a wire rack until cool.