You can find the basic recipe (and the story behind them) by clicking here. But then come back here so I can tell you about the changes we made to the recipe.
- Instead of walnuts, we use hazelnuts (filberts) and roast them for 10 minutes at 350 F before grinding them;
- we don't grind chocolate or hazelnuts to a super fine powder, but grind them fairly fine - gives it a little more texture that way;
- we mix the whole thing in our kitchen stand mixer and the cookies are wonderful even though we don't "carefully fold under" the stiff egg whites or the flour;
- I've used that amount of icing for two batches of cookies and they were plenty sweet, so feel free to cut down on the icing;
- also, with regard to the icing, we use Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) as the liquid and it adds a little extra hazelnut flavor;
- and last but not least, we simply cut the cookies in diamond shapes and don't cut them out in half moon shapes - it's less labor intensive.
We made them once with walnuts, but like them much better with hazelnuts. My dad liked them so much, he and Ingrid already made one batch were thinking of making some more. He also gave us the idea of trying them once with almonds as the nuts and Amaretto in the icing. Sounds good, don't you think? I hope you'll try them as well - they are delicious!!
To all who celebrate Christmas Eve (Daniel and me included), I wish you a magical, festive and cozy evening! We are planning a delicious meal and are looking forward to a beautiful day and evening! May your day be wonderful!
