Chocolate Crinkle Cookies with Roasted Hazelnuts

Rich, dark and chewy chocolate crinkle cookies with enticing notes of roasted hazelnuts and a gorgeous fudgy centre. These festive treats make one of the best edible Christmas gifts you can give – or receive. They look good, taste delicious and keep remarkably well.

Christmas just isn’t Christmas unless I’ve made at least one batch of biscuits to package up into gifts. So now it’s full 0n Christmas cookie time. These chocolate crinkle cookies are just fabulous. Crackly on the outside and soft and unctuous in the middle with the occasional nubble of roasted hazelnut. What more could you ask for?

These crinkle cookies were a Christmas gift bake that I made last year. They were so good, I meant to make them again this year. But flu got in the way and my Christmas baking was minimal. However, I’ve made them several times subsequently and they are just as good as I remembered them. You can find my coffee and cardamom version further down the post.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I bookmarked this recipe from Apple & Spice a very long time ago. The biscuits are made with ground roasted hazelnuts which immediately grabbed my attention. However,  the first time I made them for Christmas 2012, I was fast running out of time and space in the kitchen, so swapped the hazelnuts for ground almonds.

They were really good and proved to be highly popular with the recipients. But the fragrance and flavour of these ones, which are made with freshly roasted hazelnuts, beat the ground almonds hands down.

There is a phenomenal amount of sugar in this recipe. That’s probably one of the reasons the cookies keep so well. But I’ve used a bit less than most recipes I’ve come across to no ill effect, either in flavour or keeping qualities.

If you want your house to smell fragrant and irresistible, then I urge you to bake these chocolate crinkle cookies. First you get the aroma of roasting hazelnuts which fills the air most delightfully. After that, you get a fuller richer scent whilst the cookies are baking.

You need to roll these cookies in icing sugar before baking. This makes them visually striking once baked and conjures up scenes of snowy Christmases with sleigh bells ringing. The biscuits expand and crack, revealing dark crevices beneath the white icing.

Rich, indulgent, chewy and delicious these are some of the best biscuits I’ve ever made. I’d thought they were set to be a regular feature on my Christmas baking schedule, so I’m quite sorry I didn’t manage to make any this year.

Coffee Cardamom and Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Coffee, cardamom and chocolate is a favourite combination of mine. Below, you can see some of my recipes which feature this particular combination.

To make this flavour version of these fabulous crackly cookies, follow the recipe below. Only omit the vanilla extract and optional mesquite powder. Instead add half a teaspoon of ground cardamom and dissolve two teaspoons of instant coffee granules in the two tablespoonfuls of milk.

Other Coffee, Cardamom & Chocolate Recipes You Might Like

• Coffee cardamom chocolate mousse cake
• Coffee chocolate chip cookies with cardamom
• Wholemeal spelt pancakes with coffee cardamom chocolate sauce

For more edible Christmas gift inspiration, why not take a look at my gifts category? And if it’s just cookies you’re interested in, you’ll find heaps of recipes in my biscuits category.

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these chocolate crinkle cookies, with or without the coffee and cardamom, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

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Choclette x

Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies. PIN IT.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies – The Recipe

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5 from 2 votes

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Rich, dark and chewy cookies with enticing notes of roasted hazelnuts and a gorgeous fudgy centre. Perfect for edible Christmas gifts as they look good, taste delicious and keep remarkably well.

Prep Time45 mins

Cook Time12 mins

Firming Up Time2 hrs

Total Time2 hrs 57 mins

Course: Afternoon Tea, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: biscuits, chocolate, Christmas, cookies, gift

Servings: 50 cookies

Calories: 100kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 80 g whole hazelnuts
• 175 g dark chocolate (72%)
• 100 g unsalted butter – cubed
• 275 g dark muscovado sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 330 g wholemeal spelt flour
• 20 g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• large pinch of fine sea or rock salt
• 1 heaped tsp mesquite powder (optional)
• 2 tbsp milk
• 100 g icing sugar

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

Roasting Hazelnuts

• Roast the hazelnuts at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) on a lipped baking tray for about ten minutes in order to give flavour and loosen their skins. They should be golden, but not in any way burnt.
• Rub in a piece of kitchen towel or in a clean tea towel to remove the skins.
• Leave to cool, then blitz in a coffee mill or food processor with 30g caster sugar and reduce to a fine (ish) crumb. The sugar helps to stop the ground nuts clumping together.

Cookie Dough

• Melt the chocolate in a large bowl placed over a pan of hot, but not boiling water.
• Add the butter, leave for a couple of minutes then stir until melted.
• Beat in the sugar, followed by the eggs and vanilla extract.
• Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and mesquite powder, if using.
• Add the ground hazelnuts and milk, then stir until combined.
• Leave in a cool place to firm up for a couple of hours.

Forming the Cookies

• Sift the icing sugar into a flattish bowl.
• Wet hands with cold water and roll the cookie mixture into walnut sized balls between the palms of your hands.
• Roll the balls in icing sugar until thickly coated and place well apart on lined baking trays.
• Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for about 12 minutes until cracked and well risen.
• Turn out onto a wire rack to cool and get the next batch on, until the dough is all used up.

Notes

The number of cookies you make will depend on the size you roll them, but they will make approximately 50.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used.

Nutrition

Calories: 100kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 6mg | Potassium: 93mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 61IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Please take a photo and mention @choclette8 or tag #tinandthyme on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Sharing

I’m sending a bag of these chocolate crinkle cookies with roasted hazelnuts off to Jac at Tinned Tomatoes as it is a Bookmarked Recipe.

Post updated December 2019.