Hazelnut Cornucopiias

Recipe Ingredients

3/4 cup	177ml	Shelled hazelnuts
1/2 cup	99g / 3.5oz	Sugar
1/4 cup	49g / 1.7oz	Unsalted butter - (1/2 stick)
1/8 teaspoon	0.6ml	Salt
2 tablespoons	30ml	Heavy cream
1/4 cup	49g / 1.7oz	Egg whites - (abt 2 whites)
4 tablespoons	60ml	All-purpose flour - (level) - in a sifter
1 tablespoon	15ml	Dark Jamaican rum
		A little soft butter

Recipe Instructions

Toasting and grinding the hazelnuts: (The hazelnuts are toasted to give additional flavor and also to loosen the outside skins; taste several to be sure they are not rancid.) Place them in a roasting pan and toast for 10 to 15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven, stirring 2 or 3 times, until lightly browned. Rub by small handfuls in a towel to remove as much of their brown skins as you easily can. When cool, grind 1/3 of them roughly in a blender or food processor and set aside in a small bowl. Grind the rest of them with the sugar, and reserve for the following cookie mixture.

The cookie mixture: Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and set rack in middle level. Cream the butter in a mixing bowl. (If chilled, cut into pieces and beat with a wooden spoon in a metal bowl over warm water; if it softens too much, then beat over cold water until a creamy mass.) Blend in the sugar and hazelnut mixture, the salt, and the cream. Add the egg whites, stirring only enough to blend. Sift and fold in the flour by thirds, then fold in the rum. Mixture should look like a heavy batter. Batter should be used promptly.

Forming, baking, and rolling the cookies: Before forming the cookies, be sure the oven is preheated, have your spatula and your metal or paper molds ready, and have your kitchen timer handy. Drop a 2-tablespoon blob of cookie mixture on a buttered cookie sheet, and spread it out into a 4 1/2-inch circle with the back of a tablespoon, making sure that the edges are the same thickness as the rest of the shape, or about 1/16 inch. Form 1 or 2 more cookie shapes, leaving a good inch between them. Sprinkle a pinch of chopped hazelnuts over each. Place in oven and set timer for 4 minutes, meanwhile forming another sheet of cookies.

Cookies are done when about 1/4 inch around edges is lightly browned. (If they seem to be cooking too fast, lower oven thermostat slightly). Set cookie sheet on open oven door and let cool a few seconds. One at a time gently slither spatula or pancake turner under a cookie all around to loosen it, lift it off, turn it upside down on your work surface, and roll it around the metal or paper horn. Rapidly repeat with the other cookies -- leaving them on the oven door keeps them pliable until you are ready to roll them.

Close oven door and wait for oven to come up to temperature again, then bake the other sheet, and form another batch. Meanwhile, in less than a minute, the rolled cookies will have crisped and you can gently dislodge the molds. Let cookies cool on a rack.

These cookies are fragile, and soften rapidly in damp weather. Bake them shortly before serving, or store in a warming oven at around 100 degrees, or freeze them.

This recipe yields about 16 cookies 4 1/2 inches in diameter.

Variations: You can roll the cookies into other shapes, such as cylinders, using the end of a wooden spoon or a cylindrical cookie form. You can press the limp cookie over the outside of a small bowl or inside a teacup to make cookie cups. You can make the classic tile or tuile shape, when you drape the limp cookie over a rolling pin to crisp. Or, of course, you can serve them perfectly plain or flat -- which makes them easier to store, and nice with tea or sherbets.

Source:
Cookbook Digest, May/Jun, 1999

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