CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SHORTBREAD COOKIES - the kind of cook recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup (90 grams) unsalted toasted hazelnuts, chopped
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup (2 ounces) light brown sugar
1/4 cup (2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
Maldon Sea Salt

Instructions

Chop the hazelnuts and the chocolate and set aside. I use the toasted hazelnuts from Trader Joe’s. If you are using raw hazelnuts, toast the nuts at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes until lightly browned.
Place the butter, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer, scrape down the bowl and add all the flour at once. Turn the mixer to low speed and mix until all the flour is just combined. The dough will be crumbly at this point. Increase the mixer speed to medium and mix until the dough has completely come together. Add the hazelnuts and the chopped chocolate and mix on low speed until they are well combined into the dough.
Turn the cookie dough out onto a lightly floured surface. You can turn it out onto a large piece of parchment paper or Silpat. Use your hands to shape the dough into a rectangle and lightly flour the top of the dough. Do not use too much flour, just enough to keep the rolling pin from sticking.
Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Place the cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet about 1-inch apart. Prick each cookie in the center with a fork. Pricking the cookies will ensure they bake in the center.
Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. Chilling the dough will help the cookies hold their shape when baking.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Sprinkle each cookie with flaky sea salt. Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes. The bottom of the cookies will be lightly golden brown.
Take the cookies out of the oven and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving them to a cookie rack to completely cool.
The cookies can be stored in a container for about 1 week.

Notes

This shortbread cookie recipe works best when flour, sugar and butter are weighed. Weighing the ingredients will ensure that you are not adding too much flour or too little sugar. Depending on how the butter is packaged you may not need to weigh it. In the United States butter usually comes in 4 ounce (1/2 cup) sticks.

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