HAZELNUT BISCUITS

Niki in these days is not well, he has flu and he's not much into food. So yesterday I decided to make his favourite biscuits to cheer him up. As children under three are not supposed to eat hazelnuts, I used one third of the dough to make coconut biscuits for Sebastian. Same procedure but instead of the hazelnuts I added some dessicated coconut.

Ingredients for about 35 cookies:

250 g self-raising flour
125 g soft butter
125 g caster sugar
100 g huzelnuts
1 pinch grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1 pinch of salt
Sugar balls (optional)
1 egg yolk (optional)

Grind the hazelnuts using the food processor.

In a bowl mix the butter with the sugar. Add the egg, the flour ,the chopped hazelnuts, the lemon zest and a pinch of salt and work the dough until it just holds together. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour.

On a lightly floured board roll the pastry dough to a 5 mm thickness.Cut the biscuits with cookie cutters and put them properly spaced on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Now beat the egg yolk and brush the top of the cookies. Then sprinkle some sugar balls on them.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 ° for about 10-12 minutes, or until golden; do not overcook, as they will become too hard, it’s better to take them out of the oven when they are still soft. If you put them in a tin, they will last for about one week, maybe more.