Hazelnut Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

I set out to make a batch of Chocolate Hazelnut Biscottis for our upcoming trip but change my mind last minute. Instead of biscottis, I make a batch of Hazelnut Chocolate Sandwich Cookies from my newly acquired Cookies Book by Nancy Baggett.

According to Nancy, this is a closely guarded recipe by a Oregon hostess, but she somehow developed a recipe that was close, if not better than the original's. I think chocolate pairs well with almost any nuts, especially with hazelnut. So this recipe got to be a winner.

As usual, I patiently followed the instructions, including grinding the hazelnut to fine powder, using my trust-worthy rolling-pin.And carefully roll out the dough to about 11-inch long and 1/8-inch thick after other mix in.They wre then freezed, and cut into 1.5 x 2.25 inches rectangles. Naturely, I detest the extra measurements required. But to make sandwich cookies, I need every cookies to be of the exact same size. I silently send a brain wave to Nancy Baggett that these cookies better be good. Almost at the same time, my heart sent me a signal to look for an easier way out. I followed my heart and cut out the remaining dough using the "heart" shape cookie cutter.

The end products are walnut shortbreads with 72% chocolate filling. They are good. But too sweet to my liking. Most cookies have been sent to OCT's lab. I hope they will like the little perk-me-up in their breakfast meeting.

With the amount of effort and time spent, I think I still prefer the lower fat chocolate hazelnut biscottis. I believe this recipe is not available on internet, so drop me a note if you are interested to try this out. Since the instructions are kind of long, I will not be typing it out unless someone needs it.