Chocolate Piemonte Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies
Introducing the chocolate Piemonte hazelnut sandwich cookie. It begins with two of the tastiest and nuttiest buttery hazelnut shortbread cookies, sandwiched between a ring of the creamiest coffee mascarpone cream, and ends with a heaping spoonful of chocolate hazelnut cream. Oh. What. A. Dream.
Servings: 6 large sandwich cookies
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- 2 sheet pans
- Mixing bowl
- Rolling pin with thickness rings
- Snoopy cookie stamps or 3" round cookie cutter
Ingredients
Piemonte Hazelnut Shortbread:
- 160 g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
- 65 g powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g all purpose flour
- 80 g roasted Piemonte hazelnuts roasted and grounded
- ½ tsp table salt
Coffee Mascarpone Cream:
- 120 g mascarpone cold
- 75 ml (1/3 cup) heavy whipping cream cold
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- ⅛ tsp table salt
Hazelnut Cream:
- 100 g chocolate hazelnut cream
Instructions
Hazelnut Flour:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Spread the Piemonte hazelnuts evenly on the tray. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Once the the hazelnuts are done baking, remove the tray from the oven and allow them to cool. Using a food processor, ground hazelnuts into fine flour. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside.
Piemonte Hazelnut Shortbread:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat unsalted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Next, add all-purpose flour, hazelnut flour, and salt. Continue to beat at medium speed until combined. Remember to scrape the bowl a few times to ensure it's well-mixed. Cover the shortbread dough and chill for 1 hour.
- Lightly dust a work space with flour. Roll the cookie dough to a thickness of ¼ inch between two sheets of parchment paper. Stamp and cut out the cookies, carefully transferring the cutouts onto a baking sheet, ensuring they are 1 inch apart. Freeze the cookie cutouts for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the cookies until the edges turn a light golden brown, about 13-15 minutes. After baking, allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Coffee Mascarpone Cream:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat mascarpone and heavy whipping cream at medium speed until smooth and slightly double in volume, about 1 – 2 minutes.
- Next, add powdered sugar, espresso powder, salt, and vanilla extract. Continue to beat at medium speed for approximately 2-3 minutes until thick and creamy. Be careful not to over-whisk, or the cream will curdle. Transfer the cream to a piping bag with the piping tip of your choice. Chill the cream in the fridge until ready to use.
Cookie Assembly:
- Arrange the cookies in sets of two, placing them side by side. Turn the cookies over; the right cookies will be the bottom ones. Pipe a ring of coffee mascarpone cream onto the bottom cookies. This will act as the outer barrier for the chocolate hazelnut cream centers. Refer to the step-by-step instructions if needed.
- Take half a heaping tablespoon of chocolate hazelnut cream and fill the centers. Sandwich the top cookie on top and press lightly. Repeat the process with the rest of the cookies until all are filled and topped. Place the cookies back onto a tray and freeze for 30 minutes; this helps to set the cream centers.
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