Posted by TPS contributor Brandi of Not Your Average Ordinary
 

 
I’m not sure what it is with me and whiskey. Maybe it’s the best way to reminisce about my time in Ireland, the late nights at the pub when impromptu music sessions would start and the air was filled with stories and laughter. There were drinks too, obviously, but the real intoxication was with life.

In the last year, I’ve gone from having one drink per year to possessing a steady supply of alcohol in my house for baking. Typically, I toss some in with fruit for crumbles, but once I realized cookies could be spiced up with a bit of alcohol too, I set myself to the task of creating a recipe. These chocolate hazelnut whiskey cookies were the first of my experiments to be perfected. The whiskey burns off as the cookies bake but leaves its subtle flavor behind, and the end result is a cookie that isn’t too sweet at all, but indulgent in its own way.

1 1/2 cups roasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
1/3 cup Irish whiskey
1 large egg yolk

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the hazelnuts and sugars, pulsing 10 times at one-second pulses, until hazelnuts have been finely ground.
3. Add flour, salt and cocoa powder. Pulse three times until combined.
4. Add in butter, whiskey, and egg yolk. Pulse until dough forms into a ball.
5. Either roll cookie dough out and cut with cookie cutters, or (for quick and simple cookies), roll 1 teaspoon of dough into a ball and flatten into disc shapes.
6. Bake for approximately 25 minutes. Cookies will be soft coming out of the oven, but will harden after they cool.

Chunks of chocolate could be added to make these cookies even more amazing, and the whiskey flavor is revealed even further when paired with a glass of the same whiskey.

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