SALTED CARAMEL & HAZELNUT FILLED SOFT COOKIES – Recipe

SALTED CARAMEL & HAZELNUT FILLING Ingredients:

• 150g (2/3 Cup) Caster Sugar
• 50ml (4 Tablespoons) Water
• 60g (1/4 Cup) Thickened Cream
• 35g (2 + 1/2 Tablespoons) Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 + 1/8 Tsp Salt or to taste
• 180g (1/2 + 2/3 Cups) Hazelnuts, Coarsely Chopped

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 150C (300F), roast the hazelnuts on a pan for 10-15 minutes.
2. Rub the skins off with a damp tea towel, repeat this process until the hazelnuts are skinned and golden in color.
3. The tougher to skin ones I find will come right off after you let it cool off, then just rub between your fingers.
4. Chop them coarsely into sort of 1/4’s irregular pieces. They do not need to be neat, it gives more texture that way but avoid having too many full nuts as it would be hard to fill cookies.
5. Over medium-high heat, cook the sugar and water in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan without stirring.
6. Once the sugar dissolves and mixture turns a dark amber color, add the cream. * Be careful as the mixture will bubble and spit a little.
7. Swirl and stir it until it subsides, about 30 seconds – remove from heat.
8. Stir in the butter & salt, then the chopped hazelnuts till combined.
9. Allow to cool completely and check if it is almost firm but barely pliable. This is the correct level of cooking for the caramel.
10. Spoon mixture whilst lukewarm onto one inner side of cookie, then sandwich another over the top. About the thickness of the cookie or less is good.
11. The more you add the richer it is and messier it may get – and you want the flavour to be balanced.

 

SOFT, VANILLA COOKIES Ingredients:

• 113g (1/2 Cup) Unsalted Butter, Room Temp
• 100g (1/2 Cup) White/Granulated Sugar
• 1 Large Egg, Room Temp
• 1 + 1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 156g (1 + 1/4 Cups) Plain/All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/8 Teaspoon Salt

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
2. Grease & line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.
3. Whisk together the dry ingredients until combined.
4. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy and pale.
5. Beat in the vanilla & egg.
6. Scrape down base and sides and beat in flour mix just till combined.
7. Take 1 teaspoon or so of dough and roll into a ball.
8. Leave 2″ between every cookie and bake for 12 minutes until set and lightly golden around edges. These are very soft, if you prefer a bit more crisp then bake for few more minutes till more colored.
9. Cool completely before filling with nut-caramel.
10. To apply filling, simply warm the caramel if it is set just until it is soft and pliable.
11. Spoon as much as you like and place it onto one side of the cookie, use greased finger to smooth it out till it is just within the edge.
12. Lightly press the other biscuit of the pair on top. They caramel can ooze a little if it is still too warm so have a bit of room for that.