Hazelnut shortbread cookies recipe - perfect for the Holidays! These Christmas cookies have a perfect texture - crumbly and buttery, they just melt in your mouth.
This recipe is ridiculously easy: only 5 ingredients. The hazelnut cookies are phenomenal! You'd be thinking you're eating a very special cookie, and not something that you just whipped up in 20 minutes. Of course, in a large part, we have to thank hazelnuts for the deliciousness of this recipe - they really make these shortbread cookies so ... what's the word? ... hazelnutty. Dusted with powdered sugar they become perfection.
Your Christmas cookie tray is not complete without these hazelnut cookies. It is also not complete without pecan shortbread cookies, or amaretto shortbread cookies, or cranberry noels.
The cookies have the consistency of crumbly, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread, with a distinctive hazelnut flavor. Perfect to serve as a little dessert alongside a cup of coffee, tea, or a glass of milk. It's a highly unassuming cookie, very easy to make - just make sure to chill the dough before baking, and you should be all set. Also, the cookie dough wrapped in plastic wrap can be kept frozen up to a month.
Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup hazelnuts (2 oz)
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 oz unsalted butter , cold, cut into small pieces
- ¼ cup powdered sugar , for dusting
Instructions
- Toast raw hazelnuts at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 5-7 minutes until fragrant. Cool the nuts to room temperature, then husk them by rubbing a handful of hazelnuts between your hands. This should do a pretty good job of getting rid of most of the skins. Some will remain – that’s OK.
- To make finely ground nuts, place toasted and husked hazelnuts and ¼ cup sugar into food processor and process until finely ground.
- Add ¾ cup and 2 tablespoons of flour and a pinch of salt to the food processor and pulse to combine. Add butter and process until dough forms, scraping the sides of the food processor bowl with spatula if necessary. The dough will be soft.
- On a flour-dusted surface, roll dough into 2 logs, each about 1 inch wide. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and place wrapped cookie dough in the freezer for 30 minutes, then in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit.
- After cookie dough has been in the freezer and in the refrigerator, unwrap plastic and slice each log into thin cookie slices.
- Place cookie slices on a parchment-lined ungreased baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart.
- Bake for about 12-15 minutes, don’t let the cookies get brown.
- Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes, after that transfer cookies to wire rack to continue cooling. Using sifter, sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar.
- Store cookies in airtight container – they can last about 2 weeks.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Delicious - have made several batches to give as Christmas gifts. Mine spread a little at the base when they went into the oven but not at the top - so the sides are not straight. Do you know why that would happen?
Kathi, glad you liked them! I would say there would be 2 reasons for that to happen and here is how to fix that:
1) Use very cold butter to make the cookie dough.
2) Once the cookie dough is made, make sure to chill it longer in the freezer / refrigerator. Chill the cookie dough in the freezer for 40 minutes, then in the refrigerator for 40 minutes again. That means chilling for a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Hello Julia, thanks for the recipe. Would these work as cutout cookies?
Yes, you can use this recipe to make cut-out cookies using the cookie cutters. However, you should roll the dough right after you make it and only then refrigerate it (or briefly put it in the freezer). In other words, don’t roll the dough after chilling it. Roll it out before chilling the dough in the freezer (briefly) or in the refrigerator.
I found this very helpful article: https://food52.com/blog/18559-this-trick-will-free-you-from-the-frustrations-of-rolling-out-cookie-dough
In a nutshell, make the dough, then roll it out pre-chilling, between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Then, chill the dough (rolled out between 2 sheets of parchment paper) in the refrigerator. When it’s chilled and firm, use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes you want right on the parchment paper. Pull away the scraps of dough from the parchment paper, while cookies remain on the paper. For more details, refer to this article: https://food52.com/blog/18559-this-trick-will-free-you-from-the-frustrations-of-rolling-out-cookie-dough
What could be better than HAZELNUTS and CHOCOLATE? I added two heaping tablespoons full of baking cocoa. Doing this requires two additional tablespoons of butter to compensate. Absolutely delish!
Michael, I have to agree with you - hazelnuts and chocolate are so good together! Love, love your changes! You might also like this recipe:
Chocolate Covered Hazelnut Cookies
Love all your shortbread cookie recipes with nuts! So good!
Glad you liked them! Enjoy!
My favorite cookies!
So glad you liked these!
Can you use hazelnut flour instead of regular?
Haven't tried it. I used regular flour.
I made these cookies today , and the cooking time is very wrong , i ended up cooking mime for half an hour before they were near right unless the temperature you said is wrong - Iv had curry farts that are hotter than that ...
Just found the answer.... need to be a brighter bulb & read the ENTIRE recipe!!
Thank you!
Sorry to be so specific, but roughly how many cookies should you cut from each log!? Thank you... have these ready to literally roll!
Hi Julia
Am I ok to use a mixer as opposed to a food processor?
I don't think a regular mixer will work. The food processor is needed to make finely chopped hazelnuts as well as to combine dry ingredients with cold butter.
Looks great! Has anyone substituted this recipe with almond flour?
Hi Julia,
What do you suggest if I want to add Frangelico in the cookie? Or you think it would be too much?
Regards,
I think it's an excellent idea!
Came out perfect !! Thank you for this recipe!
You are very welcome! So glad you enjoyed these cookies!
Hello! I mean to try these soon, but I wanted to make sure I read he instructions correctly. The logs should only be 1" wide? The cookies in the picture look much bigger. Do they spread a lot while baking? Thanks in advance!
Just made these and WOW! They really are "hazelnutty"! Shortbread cookies are my favorite and I've been looking for a great hazelnut cookie recipe, so I got very excited when I saw this. They turned out perfect; soft and buttery and crumbly with just the right amount of crunch from the ground hazelnuts. The only difference I did is just when I took them out of the oven I pressed half a hazelnut in the middle of each cookie before they cooled down. Absolutely scrumptious!
Thanks a lot Julia, this is going into my permanent recipe collection!