Nougat Cookies

Ingredients

• 100 g ground hazelnuts
• 150 g flour
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 egg
• 100 g sugar
• vanilla beans
• 125 g cold butter
• a pinch of salt
• 50 g mocha chocolate
• 200 g ready-made nut nougat
• 150 g couverture chocolate
• 2 tbsp hazelnut flakes

Instructions

1. 1.

   Sift the flour with nuts onto a work surface, mix in salt, lemon zest and sugar, then press a well into the center. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and distribute around the well, add the egg to the center, vanilla bean seeds and about 50 ml lukewarm water. With a knife chop all ingredients together until small dough crumbs form, then quickly knead with hands into a dough, shape into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for about 30 minutes.

2. 2.

   Roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper to about 4 mm thickness, cut out wavy-rimmed cookies (≈4 cm diameter) with a cookie cutter. Place on a parchment-lined tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes. Remove and let cool.

3. 3.

   For the filling, melt chopped chocolate with the nougat in a bowl over a warm water bath. Stir in coffee powder.

4. 4.

   Spread half of the cookies with the mixture or pipe the nougat batter into a pastry bag and spritz cherry-sized dots onto them. Place another cookie on top and press together.

5. 5.

   Coarsely chop couverture chocolate, melt it over a warm water bath, then fill a small zip‑lock bag, cut off a tiny corner and use it to trace the cookie outlines with the chocolate, adding a dot in the center. Decorate with hazelnut flakes and let dry.