Guys, these cookies. They are giant, intensely chocolate flavoured and best of all for my poor gluten suffering readers… They are gluten-free! How can anything this amazing be gluten-free you ask? Well, to be honest with quite a lot of sugar. BUT, there’s no flour, so it kind of balances out to be healthy right? I’m definitely going to go with that… đ
Can you believe we’re already over half way through January? I know it’s still only the first month of the year but it already feels like time is flying! Do you guys already have some plans and goals for the year? I don’t really do resolutions as such, as I told you guys before, but I do have some big plans, personally and for The Chocoholic Baker as well!
Plans like eating more cookies… Wait, what? I meant developing more awesome recipes to share with you guys of course! And there will probably be some cookie eating in there… ? Especially cookies that look as good as that! These cookies use nuts in them, which usually I’m not a fan of because I don’t really think nuts have a place in cookies (amirite??), buuuuut there’s a first time for everything! The nuts are partly so that these cookies don’t fall apart without any flour and partly they give the cookies a really nice texture and flavour. I used hazelnuts for these ones which was yum because it reminded me of Nutella but in cookie form. In saying that, the hazelnuts were pretty expensive, so you can really use whatever nuts you want! Just make sure you toast them (and in the case of the hazelnuts, remove the skins) to give them a really rich nutty flavour.
I’m really excited to bring you guys even more yummy recipes this year, I have so many ideas floating around my head for recipes that I think will be awesome! Especially inspired by the THREE new cookbooks I got for Christmas and then I even bought another two with a Christmas voucher… How many cookbooks are too many??
I would also love to hear from you guys if you have any requests for new recipes or delicious goodies that you want to see on the blog this year, without readers this blog wouldn’t exist, so make sure you comment below or contact me if you have anything you want to see here this year. I hope being back at work isn’t too hard and that you’re all back into the swing of things! Happy baking.
- 3 cups (300g) hazelnuts, or your favourite kind of nuts
- 150g chocolate, roughly chopped
- 4 cups icing (powdered) sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tspn salt
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 tspn vanilla essence
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and place the nuts on a baking sheet and toast for 10-12 minutes, or until fragrant. Toss a few times to stop them from burning. Once toasted, chop nuts roughly.
- Lower the oven temperature to 160°C (320°F) and grease and line two more baking sheets with baking paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until lightly foamy. Add the icing (powdered) sugar, cocoa powder, salt and vanilla and whisk together until fully combined.
- Add the nuts and chopped chocolate and stir together.
- Using a cookie scoop or a large Tbspn, drop around 2 Tbspn of cookie dough onto the baking sheets, leaving at least 5cm (2in) between each cookie on all sides as they will spread a lot.
- Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, one baking sheet at a time to ensure they bake evenly. The cookies are done when they have fully puffed up and cracked.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes, before carefully lifting each cookie off the sheet onto the wire rack to cool completely.
- The cookies will last for up to 5 days stored in an airtight container, but they are best on the first 3 days.
