Hazelnut Fantasy #2

This one heck of a cookie packs a powerful punch of richness; It contains hazelnut paste and chunks of dark chocolate, plus a few doses of premium cocoa powder.

I have my mood to thank for for this wonerful creation. I was not having a great day, so off to the kitchen I go. As I sift my flour, pack my sugar and cream my butter, I can feel my nasty mood ebbing away. There's really nothing quite like baking to soothe my nerves.

I scooped a dollop and piled it high. I'm in the mood for extravagance, so I'm making my cookies big. I added pecans and chocolate-covered toffees on the other half of the dough to make it extra chunky. As I listen to the sporadic ticking of my timer, I immersed my senses in the delicious smell emitting from the oven. It was nutella-like and addicting. I can't sniff enough of it!

The cookies baked into nice fat rounds. They were chewy and ultra rich. For light eaters, one cookie would be good enough for two. They're best eaten when at room temp or better yet, heated a bit, the chocolate chunks melt and blend with the moist cookie dough, making way for extreme gooeyness.

Because some people prefer crunchy cookies, another thing to love about these cookies is they're (allow me to say) androgenous. They become crunchy when refrigerated, and just as heavenly.

Chunky Hazelnut Cookies

120 g all purpose flour

10 g cocoa powder

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

84g unsalted butter

75g hazelnut paste

80 g granulated sugar

60 g brown sugar

1 egg

200 g dark chocolate chunks, chilled

100 g chopped pecans, optional

1. Sift dry ingredients together. Set aside.

2. Cream butter, hazelnut paste and both sugars together. Beat it egg.

3. Beat in dry ingredients on low speed. Scrape bottom to make sure everything's well mixed.

4. Fold in chilled chocolate chunks and pecans.

5. Bake in a 350 deg F oven, 12-15 minutes.

One batch will yield around 16-18 big pieces (around 2 tablespoonful cookie dough). Check oven often, and because of the cookie's dark color, it will be hard to tell whether it's already overbaked. What I do is I open the oven even for just a quick look.