COFFEE, HAZELNUT, AND COCOA CRISPS

I popped into a second-hand book store the other day on search for a book that our pupper had gotten hold of. They didn’t have the book I was looking for, so I wandered over to the cookbooks section. I have to admit, I have a slight addiction to beautiful cookbooks. Luckily, I ended up getting Nigella Express and Donna Hay – Modern Baking for a steal! As I was flipping through the pages yesterday, I spotted a recipe I wanted to try – Coffee, Hazelnut, and Cocoa Crisps (in the Donna Hay cookbook).

One of my favorite cookies are florentines, though I’ve never had any luck making them. The coffee, hazelnut, and cocoa crisps looked like a very thin version of a lace cookie, aka. the Italian florentine.

Making sure I had all the ingredients set out beforehand, including prepping the cookie sheets, and rereading the instructions multiple times, I set out to make the crisps.

I considered it an achievement of a life goal in that they turned out perfectly! So much so that I want to attempt making florentines again!

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Coffee, Hazelnut, and Cocoa Crisps

Cookie recipe from Donna Hay - Modern Baking (Cakes, Cookies, & Everything In Between)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup hazelnuts (toasted and deskinned)
• 1/2 teaspoon coffee beans
• 2/3 cup white granulated sugar
• 60 grams unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 tablespoon liquid glucose (corn syrup)
• 1 vanilla bean (split and seeds scraped out)*
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Place coffee beans and hazelnuts in food processor or spice grinder and process until fine.
• Place butter, milk, glucose/corn syrup, and vanilla seeds in a small sauce pot over medium heat. Stirring, bring the ingredients to a boil. Continue to cook until the mixture is 100C / 212F.
• Remove from the heat and add the ground hazelnuts and coffee beans, and the cocoa. Stir until well combined.
• Set aside to cool and prepare 2 to 3 large cookie sheets with sheets of non-stick parchment paper.
• Once it has cooled just enough to touch, take a teaspoon of mix, roll into a ball and place on the cookie sheet. Place widely spaced, 12 to a large cookie sheet.**
• Bake for 6 to 8 minutes until flat and golden.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before gently placing them on a rack to finish cooling.

Notes

* I didn't have any vanilla beans on hand and just used 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.

** The instructions in the cookbook were to scoop 1 teaspoon and place on the sheet. I found that rolling into a ball first, helped keep the batter together as they spread out. The first batch I did, I scooped a teaspoon onto the cookie sheet and there were holes in the cookies.