Chocolate Hazelnut Toast Cookies

(or Nutella Biscotti) **See below for the Biscotti.**

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder

**Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.**

## Ingredients:

* 1 and 1/4 sticks salted butter ***(5 ounces, 10 Tablespoons)***
* 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ***(pack it down in the cup when you measure it)***
* 1 Tablespoon ***(3 teaspoons)*** baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 3 large eggs
* 1 and 1/4 cups white ***(granulated)*** sugar
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup Nutella ***(chocolate hazelnut spread)***
* 1 cup finely chopped hazelnuts ***(measure AFTER chopping)***
* 2 cups *(an 11-ounce package will do)* mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
* ***Extra Ingredient for making Biscotti:*** 1 cup white chocolate ***(or vanilla baking)*** chips OR 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

**Hannah's 1st Note**: If  you've never bought Nutella before, you'll probably find it in the peanut butter and jell aisle of your grocery store.

## **Make the Cookie Dough for Both Types of Cookie:**

* **Start** by preparing your baking pans. You'll need 3 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans **lined** with parchment paper.
* Melt the **butter**. You'll do this on the stove in a small saucepan, or in a microwave in a microwave-safe bowl.
* Measure out the **all-purpose flour** and place it in a mixing bowl.
* Sprinkle the **baking powder** and the **salt** on top of the flour and mix it in with a fork from your silverware drawer.

**Hannah's 2nd Note:** If you have an electric mixer, use it for this next part. Lisa and I use our industrial stand mixer at The Cookie Jar.

* Crack the **eggs** into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat them on MEDIUM speed until they are light and fluffy and are a uniform shade of pale yellow.
* With the mixer still running on MEDIUM speed, add the **white *(granulated)* sugar** and the **vanilla extract**. Continue to beat until it is thoroughly combined with the eggs.
* It's time for the **butter**. Make sure the butter is not so hot, it could cook the eggs. If it's cool enough, turn the mixer to LOW and slowly add the butter to your mixing bowl.

**Hannah's 3rd Note:** The reason you turn the mixer on LOW and add the butter slowly is so that it doesn't splash out all over you . . . and your counter and floor. And yes, I did learn this the hard way!

* Turn **OFF** the mixer, measure out the **Nutella**, and add it to the mixture in the bowl. Turn the mixer **back on LOW** speed and mix it in with the other ingredients until everything is well blended.
* With the mixer still turned down to **LOW** speed, add the **flour** mixture in half-cup increments. **When** one increment is absorbed, mix in the **next** until the flour mixture has been completely added to your bowl. **Don't overmix!** Just mix until everything has been combined.
* Turn **OFF** the mixer and remove the bowl. **Set** it on a folded towel on your kitchen counter.

* **Scrape** down the sides of your bowl with a rubber spatula and give it another stir by hand with a mixing spoon or a wooden spoon.
* **If you haven't** done so already, use your food processor, with the steel blade attached, to **chop the** **hazelnuts** into small pieces. Use an on-and-off motion to do this and stop when the pieces are the size of coarse sand.
* **Measure** out one cup of finely **chopped hazelnuts** and **sprinkle** them on top of your mixing bowl.
* **Measure** out the **mini semi-sweet chocolate chips** and add them to your mixing bowl on top of the chopped hazelnuts and stir them in.

* **Divide** your cookie dough into three equal parts. ***(You can eyeball this -- you don't have to weigh it or anything silly like that!)***
* **Place** one part in the center of each baking sheet you've prepared.
* With impeccably clean and slightly damp hands, **shape** each part of the cookie dough into logs about 2 inches wide and 15 inches long. Keep them in the center of each baking sheet.
* **Bake** the cookie dough logs at 350 degrees F. for 35 minutes.

**Hannah's 4th Note:** If you don't have 3 ovens (*and most people don't*), you will have to bake the 3 cookie sheets in shifts. It's perfectly all right to put 2 cookie sheets in the oven at once. Just put one on a higher shelf and the other one on a shelf below it. You will have to switch them around, moving the top cookie sheet to the lower shelf and the bottom cookie sheet to the upper shelf approximately half-way through the baking time. To do this, simply set your stove timer for 17 minutes and when it rings, switch the cookie sheets. Then set the timer for 18 minutes. When that rings, your cookie dough logs will have baked a total of approximately 35 minutes.

* **When** your cookie dough logs have baked the required number of minutes, **take them out of the oven,** **but** leave them on the cookie sheets and **transfer** them to cold stovetop burners or wire racks.
* **When all 3** sheets of cookie dough logs have been baked, **take them out, but** **DO NOT SHUT OFF THE OVEN**!
* When your sheets **have cooled** for at least 10 minutes, it's **time to cut** your logs into cookies.

* **Start** with the coolest cookie dough log by transferring it to a cutting board. Place it on the cutting board horizontally.

**Choose a knife** and start slicing at one end, cutting slices at a 45-degree angle. The slices should be approximately 3/4 inch wide. **Hannah's 5th Note: It  helps to use a serrated knife or a bread knife to slice the loaves.**

**Hannah's 6th Note:** There is an ulterior motive for cutting your cookie logs on a 45-degree angle. If you do this, you will have 2 slices from each end of the log that will be a bit chunky. THOSE ARE YOURS! Enjoy them with a fresh cup of coffee or a cold glass of milk while the rest of the slices are baking.

* **Arrange** the perfect slices you made on the empty cookie sheets cut-side down. Then move the next cookie dough to your cutting board and slice that one. When you're through slicing those cookies, transfer them to the empty cookie sheets and set the other 2 end pieces aside for yourself.
* **Proceed in the same way** for the third cookie dough log. Transfer those slices to the empty cookie sheet and check to see that your oven is set at the proper temperature of 350 degrees F.

* **Bake** your cookie dough slices at 350 degrees F. for 5 minutes. **Then flip** the cookies over and bake the other side for 10 minutes.
* **Repeat** until all 3 pans of cookies are baked on both sides.
* **Set** the cookie sheets on cool stovetop burners or wire racks for 5 minutes, then move them to wire racks to **cool completely**.

## **To Make Biscotti:**

* **Follow** the recipe given above for Chocolate Hazelnut Toast Cookies.
* **Once** your Chocolate Hazelnut Toast Cookies are baked, all you have to do to make them resemble biscotti is to **melt** 1 cup of **semi-sweet chocolate chips OR white chocolate chips** ***(or vanilla chips)*** in a wide shallow bowl in the microwave, according to the package instructions.
* **When** the chips you've chosen are melted and stirred smooth, place the bowl on the kitchen counter.

* **Tear** off a strip of wax paper and place that next to the bowl with the melted chips on your countertop.
* **When** the baked cookies have reached room temperature, **dip** the top of the slices in the melted chocolate.
* **Once** you've dipped a cookie slice, move it to the piece of wax paper until the chocolate hardens.

* **If you decided** **to do** the chocolate chip or white chocolate dip, **store your "biscotti"** in a tin lined with wax paper in the refrigerator. **If you haven't dipped** the cookies in chocolate, **store** them in a tightly covered container in a cool place. These cookies will keep for a week or tow if you store them correctly, but I doubt they'll last that long.

**Hannah's 7th Note:** If your Chocolate Hazelnut Toast cookies get too hard to chew, add a piece of  orange peel to the container and put the lid back on. This will soften the cookies and add a nice flavor as well.

**Serve** these cookies with strong black coffee for dipping or icy-cold glasses of milk. Kids love them for after-school snacks and if you pack school lunches, they won't crumble in a lunchbox like softer cookies will.

**Yield:** Approximately 5 dozen delicious Chocolate Hazelnut Toast Cookies (or Nutella Biscotti).

**Hannah's 8th Note:** Norman loves it when I make these cookies to give away for holidays. He says that if people crunch them too vigorously without dipping them in coffee or milk, it could lead to more business for Rhodes Dental Clinic.