Chocolate and Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies

These decadent chocolate and hazelnut cookies are hands down my all-time favourite Christmas cookies. A generous amount of hazelnut spread sandwiched between two delicate, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate biscuits, topped with more chocolate. Like my other Christmas cookie recipes, this is a veganised version of a cookie my mum has made for Christmas for as long as I can remember, and they were always the first to go.

Although the dough is a pain to work with, I promise these chocolatey vegan treats are 100% worth the effort. If you make just one type of Christmas cookie this year, let this be the one!

Ingredients

For about 45 cookies

225g vegan block butter

100g icing sugar

2.5 tbsp soya milk

1.5 tsp cornflour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp cinnamon

200g plain white flour

40g cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

125g ground hazelnuts, roasted

150g - 200g vegan chocolate and hazelnut spread

100g - 150g dark baking chocolate for coating (over 50% cocoa)

Kitchen utensils

Electric hand mixer or stand mixer

Rolling pin

Small cookie cutter (about 5cm/2”); simple shapes work best

Cling film

Method

Step 1 To toast the ground hazelnuts, heat a frying pan over medium heat and the nuts in an even layer. Cook for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the ground nuts are fragrant and golden brown. Make sure to stir regularly, and keep a close eye on the toasting process because the hazelnuts burn easily. Once evenly toasted, transfer them to a bowl and let them cool down completely before adding them to the other ingredients.

Step 2 In the meantime, measure and mix your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and cinnamon in a small bowl. Put aside for later.

Step 3 Cut the vegan butter into small pieces and add them to a separate mixing bowl. Add icing sugar and vanilla extract, and cream the ingredients with an electric hand or stand mixer until the butter is soft and you’ve achieved a creamy, homogenous texture.

Step 4 In another small bowl or cup, mix the cornflour and soya milk into a smooth slurry, then swiftly mix it under the butter-and-sugar mixture until well combined.

Step 5 Continue whisking on low speed and add small amounts of the premixed dry ingredients until a smooth dough comes together. It’s important not to overmix the batter.

Step 6 Lastly, add the fully cooled ground hazelnuts and mix everything until just combined. Form the dough into a small ball or loaf, wrap it in cling film and leave it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Step 7 When the dough has had time to firm up and rest, preheat your oven to 175°C on the fan setting or 200°C on conventional top and bottom heat. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Step 8 I’m not gonna lie, this dough is notoriously difficult to work with — the ratio of dry to wet (and buttery) ingredients makes it stick to the worktop and rolling pin very easily, so it’s best to roll it out between two sheets of cling film or to generously coat your work surface and rolling pin in flour. Whatever option you choose, try to handle the dough quickly — the colder and firmer the dough, the easier it is to work with. Roll it out thinly and evenly, roughly 2-3mm thick. I like to work with small portions of dough at a time while keeping the rest in the fridge.

Step 9 Use your preferred cookie cutter shape to cut out your cookies and bake them for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool down completely before filling and coating them with chocolate.

Step 10 When your cookies are ready to be filled, warm up some vegan chocolate and hazelnut spread in a bain-marie, water bath or microwave. This will make it easier to spread the filling and prevent damage to your cookies. With a spoon or a dinner knife, spread some chocolate and hazelnut spread onto the base of a cookie and gently press a second cookie on top. Continue like this with all remaining cookies.

Step 11 For the chocolate glaze, melt the baking chocolate in a bain-marie, water bath or microwave and use a spoon or pastry brush to coat the top of your sandwich cookie with a thin (or not-so-thin) layer of chocolate. Leave the filled and coated cookies on a cooling rack until the chocolate has hardened, then eat a handful of them immediately. You can keep any remaining cookies in a cookie tin or airtight container for several weeks.

Notes on Ingredients

Cornflour

You can use cornflour (or corn starch if you’re in the US) but you can easily replace it with potato starch if that’s what you have at home. In UK supermarkets, this can often be found as ‘Farina’ in the World Foods aisle.

Soya Milk

I use a mix of soya milk and cornflour to replace the eggs in the original recipe. I recommend using a protein-rich milk alternative but you could try it with oat or nut milk instead. However, since I haven’t made this recipe with anything but soya milk, I can’t guarantee good results.

Vanilla Extract

This vegan recipe is based on a traditional non-vegan German recipe, which calls for 8g of vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract. If you’re using vanilla sugar, add it directly to the icing sugar and butter in Step 3.

Vegan Butter

For this recipe, it’s important to use firm vegan butter rather than vegan spread. Both Naturli Vegan Block and Flora Plant Butter block (unsalted) work well here.