These vegan chocolate hazelnut cookies are packed with hazelnuts, both ground and whole. They are simple and quick to make and have a firm crunch that makes them perfect for dunking.
For a softer baked cookie, substitute golden syrup for half of the maple syrup and take them out of the oven on the early side.
Chocolate and hazelnut has been a winning combination since the 19th Century when an enterprising Italian came up with gianduja. If the Aztecs had grown hazelnuts, perhaps someone would’ve stumbled on the idea sooner!
There are some vegan gianduja options out there, but most do seem to contain dairy. Then again, for the price of a few little foil-wrapped chocolates you could have a whole tray of home-made vegan chocolate hazelnut cookies!
If you lightly toast the hazelnuts under the grill before you start baking and use a decent chocolate they will taste even better.
This recipe will make around 18 good-sized cookies that will store well in a tin.
Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies…
Ingredients
- 100 g hazelnuts
- 60 g dark non-dairy chocolate
- 200 g self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 100 g light muscovado sugar
- 75 g mild/flavourless coconut oil
- 80 ml maple syrup
Method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and line a large biscuit tray with baking parchment (or use a non-stick tray).
- If you are toasting the hazelnuts, you could do this in the oven while it’s warming up.
- Set half of the hazelnuts aside and grind the other half to a rough texture similar to ground almonds, using a food processor or coffee grinder.
- Warm the syrup a little in the microwave and stir in the coconut oil to allow it to soften. It does not have to be entirely transparent as long as it’s runny. (If it’s too warm it will melt the chocolate.)
- Place the ground hazelnuts in a large bowl together with the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar. Whisk or stir to combine thoroughly.
- Chop the chocolate and stir this through the dry ingredients together with the whole hazelnuts.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring as you go, to create a thick, slightly sticky dough.
- Roll the dough into balls no bigger than 3 cm in diameter and place these on the tray with room to spread.
- Press each cookie lightly with the back of a spoon to flatten it a bit before baking for 12 to 15 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool and crisp up before eating/storing.
If you would like to receive e-mail alerts when new recipes are published, please see my contact page.
