I’m normally a thin and chewy cookie kind of gal, but the trend over the past few years for chunkier cookies has turned my head more than once. The famous New York bakery Levain’s chunky cookie has influenced so many current recipes, that it’s hard not to find a good chunky cookie, chock-full of fillings to make or buy. So in the post-Christmas baking lull where I wanted to make something but didn’t want to put too much effort in, this hazelnut and vanilla cookie recipe by Philip Koury caught my attention.
Koury’s recipe calls for toasted vanilla pod if you have it to give the whole cookie a similar flavour to a Kinder Bueno. I didn’t have a spare vanilla pod and used essence instead, but still came out with an overall toasty, bueno-esque flavour. This is down to the heady toasted hazelnuts you grind into a paste. By toasting the nuts you release their oils, intensifying their flavour and honestly, the difference between a normal hazelnut and a toasted one is immense – consider me a convert!
This isn’t the type of recipe where you just throw everything into the bowl and mix together, there is slightly more effort (and equipment) required. I hate washing up, so I’m never thrilled when I have to use more dishes, but the minimal extra effort it took to blitz the nuts into a paste in the food mixer was definitely worth it. This helped release those delicious oils from the hazelnuts and really amped up the toasty, nutty flavour of the cookie.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed making and, more importantly, eating these. They didn’t take too much time to knock up, and the flavour was simple yet delicious. I’m not sure if these will get a regular rotation in my kitchen yet, as they’re not quite as interesting as these Smoky, Salty, and Chocolate cookies from Natalie Paul, and they’re a little too chunky for my usual tastes. Ultimately, they were exactly what I didn’t know I needed on a cold and wet day.
