It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our eighth bake.

Today’s bake is the Bittersweet Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies from Dolce Italiano selected by me! I wanted to make another cookie. I chose chocolate because G loves chocolate.

Chocolate and Hazelnut, this is my favorite combination. I love the chocolate pralines candies from Belgium. One of my favorite chocolates from Italy is Baci – chocolate with a hazelnut in the center. It is also one of my favorite gelato flavors.

I’ve made a chocolate crinkle cookie that sounded similar and I expected these would be similar but they are not. These are more dense and drier. The cookies didn’t raise and crack as much as I expected. I used Lindt 70% chocolate along with Felchlin cocoa. The cookies actually are a bit too chocolate for me. I should have used a bit less intense chocolate since the Felchlin is very dark and strong.

Start by mixing the flour and cocoa together. Chop the hazelnuts medium-fine in a food processor. I lightly roasted them for flavor but I didn’t skin them.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients. The mixture will be very stiff. Don’t over beat but you’ll have to work a bit to combine all the dry ingredients. Chop the bittersweet chocolate finely and add to mixture.

Chill the dough. I was running out of time so I didn’t chill it for a full 30 minutes. Roll into 1″ balls, flatten slightly into a small disk. Roll in powdered sugar and place on cookie sheet. Bake 8-12 minutes until puffed and cracking.