Hazelnut cookies with milk chocolate

hazelnut cookies with milk chocolate

Good evening to anyone who is reading this.... although perhaps it is morning for you.  It is evening as I write this anyway, a pleasant cool evening after a pleasantly warm day.

I spent the first part of my day practicing piano music by Beethoven and Chopin.  Once daylight was firmly in place, I ventured outside. It was mildly breezy and quite sunny as I walked the gravel paths in my garden, taking note of little tweaks I wanted to make by moving a couple plants around, and watching a plethora of birds fly in and out to the feeding stations.  A couple squirrels regarded me with a wary eye from atop the feeding platform that my sister and her husband gave me for Christmas a few months ago.  They scampered down and away as I got closer.  It was a beautiful morning, and the afternoon and evening were just as nice.  These mid-spring days that occur before summer heat begins to raise its head are always great to experience.

By mid-day, I was back in the kitchen to taste-test the hazelnut cookies that I had made yesterday.  It is always important to me that cookies, in particular, maybe more so than any other dessert, are taste-tested the day after they are baked.  Many cookies, I have found, are just fine on Day 1, but are not as enjoyable on Day 2.  I always prefer cookies that age well, the kind where the flavors meld and evolve as the cookies age, all without drying out.  Yesterday I was doing final test runs on a variety of shapes and sizes of this cookie as well as cooking times.  The high butter content, the chunks of milk chocolate, and the combination of ground and chopped hazelnuts all make this a cookie that responds quite differently when baked in varying sizes and shapes.   I baked two at a time, over and over again throughout my Sunday afternoon, and gradually narrowed down my favorites.  In the end I chose a cookie that is comprised of two medium cookie scoopfulls combined and then baked in a 3-inch pastry ring.  It gives a cookie that is perfectly circular and about 3/4 inch thick.  The density, the taste, the moisture content when cooked for 22 minutes left me quite satisfied.  22 minutes seems like a long time to bake a cookie, and it's true, it is; most cookies would not fare well in the oven for that long.  But these are quite thick, and the combination of ingredients makes it work quite well at that long baking time.

They have now been added to the full menu at www.brucebakeryandbistro.com.  I hope you'll take a look at them.  I've eaten my fill today and still have a few left, but they won't last long tomorrow.