OK I joined yet another blogging group, and they all post the first week of the month (or thereabouts) and they are all baked goods, so… Hope you’re in the mood for sweets!
This one is called The Leftovers Club, and it is not limited to sweets, just to items that ship well. The idea is that we as bloggers are always baking and cooking for our blogs, and we often have leftovers. So why not swap leftovers, get to know each other better, and cross promote each other as well! Getting to eat more incredible food is the icing on the cake!
For my first month participating, I was partnered up with Katerina of diethood, and I chose to send the Twisted Tollhouse cookies from Kir Jensen’s The Sugar Cube: 50 Deliciously Twisted Treats from the Sweetest Little Food Cart on the Planet
. The Sugar Cube was a sweets food truck in Portland, Oregon that appears to now be closed (as of July 2015 I cannot find a link confirming it is open); their cookbook is a tasty collection of 50 recipes, in hardback with lots of gorgeous photos. Living east of the Mississippi, I had unsurprisingly never heard of The Sugar Cube, but my mom surprised me with the book for Christmas. And it was a great surprise! I love what I like to think of as hidden gem cookbooks.
I was immediately attracted to this recipe for The Leftover Club (although I confess I take issue with even comparing it to chocolate chip (Tollhouse) cookies–it is basically its own new creation), because I was hoping the thin, crispy-chewy texture would stay tasty longer than your average thick drop cookie. They did not last even 3 days in my house, and John’s students loved them the next day, but Katerina told me she ate 6 upon the arrival of the cookies (day 4), so I guess they at least last 4 days! Aromatically speaking, they do have the same profile as a chocolate chip cookie (vanilla, brown sugar, chocolate), with the added nuttiness from hazelnut meal (which encourages the spreading of the cookies), but using shaved chocolate creates an entirely different experience, as the chocolate basically melds with the dough to create its own new something. I should also add that it is a great way to use up hot chocolate shavings if, like us, you stop making hot chocolate so much in the spring.
I have to apologize because I cannot tell you much about Katerina’s cookies for me (chocolate–that’s all I know!) because we had a miscommunication, and the cookies went to my house–but I am gone at various grandparent locations for spring break. But I know Katerina from BundtAMonth and plus I follow her blog, so I already know that these cookies are gonna rock! Plus they will be just what the doctor ordered this weekend, when I get home from all this traveling and John has already left for China for a week (yeah don’t get me started on that. Conference schmonference), and I arrive home to home-baked cookies. Swoon.
By the way, just out of curiosity, I have a photography question for you: do you like the orange plate or the blue plate better for these cookies?
I hope you check out everyone else’s Leftover Club creations:
Food n’ Focus – English Muffin Bread
Domestic Fits – Sriracha Caramel Corn
Don’t you wish you could enjoy some of these leftovers with us? You can! Visit The Leftovers Club online for more details!
- 1¾ cups AP flour
- ½ cup hazelnut meal
- 1 t baking soda
- 1 t fine sea salt
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs
- 2 t vanilla
- 10 oz shaved chocolate, I used hot chocolate, sometimes called “sipping chocolate”, preferably dark, I used ⅘ dark and ⅕ milk chocolate
- vanilla salt for sprinkling on top
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Whisk together the flour, hazelnut meal, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
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Beat butter until creamy. Add the sugars, and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then beat in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
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Mix in ⅔ of the flour mixture gently, until mostly incorporated.
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Whisk together the remaining flour mixture with the chocolate shavings.
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Gently mix in the chocolate flour mixture until completely incorporated.
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Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
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When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Scoop out 2 tablespoon balls of dough, 6 to a cookie sheet. Lightly press the balls to slightly flatten them, and sprinkle vanilla salt on each one.
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Bake for 12-14 minutes, switching the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back at about the 9 minute mark. The cookies are done when they have spread completely and have flattened (toward the end they will poof up a bit). Let them cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheets, before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
As always…
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Laura! These look amazing. Thinner cookies are always my favorite, I love it when they’re crispy-chewy. And the hazelnut meal is intriguing!
ps: I’m down with the blue plate over the orange 🙂
You know when I pasted in the links last night the title of this recipe snagged my attention from the second I saw it!!! Leftovers Club is sooooo fun. I haven’t gotten my cookies yet either– anxiously awaiting them!
I totally enjoy thin cookies, these look right up my alley! Yummmm!
Love chewy cookies! I like the orange plate best!
Deliciously thin cookies, I will make these soon!
Chocolate chip cookies are so simple, but probably the best dessert out there. I vote orange!
These look wonderful! I can’t wait to try them. And I vote for the orange plate. It casts a lovely golden glow on the cookies.
It’s so hard to get thin cookies to be chewy but these look (and sound) like they seriously are…but with the perfect crispy outsides. LOVE. I think I like the blue plate better…but honestly they both look great!
It’s like 8 am…and I’m craving a cookie! The rest of the day is going to be rough! This recipe looks so nice, excited to try:)
These look amazing! I love the orange plate 🙂 So warm and cozy–perfect for those decadent cookies!
These look delicious! I like the blue plate, but mainly I just love the cookies 🙂
flattest cookie ever! what a neat recipe–i think the hazelnut meal would add a great texture and flavor, for sure.
What a fun club! I like the blue plate the best just for contrast
I love thin cookies, and love shaved chocolate. This looks like something right up my alley.
Thank you, Laura, for the insanely delicious cookies!!! I love ’em!! 😀
I kind of went overboard on buying a few tins of shaved hot chocolate from a certain store so I am so happy to see a recipe where I can use up some of it. These look delicious, and I am sure that I am going to have to bake them and then package them up for someone else otherwise I will be eating more than I should.
This makes me so happy to hear, because I have had some friends gently make fun of me for the idea that people would have extra hot chocolate shavings lying around. Good to know I am not alone! 🙂
orange plate, bc the round shape mimics the cookie shape better and feels warmer-the kind of cozy feeling you want when looking at cookies!
These cookies wouldn’t last the day in my house. Between me and Hubbs, there would be no control! What an amazing and delicious looking cooking – that texture… I’m making these – recipe looks like a keeper! Both images look great with the different color plates…but I’d lean towards the orange. Did you have a preference or fav?
Orange. Over the last 2 years that has become my go-to plate for brown desserts!
Orange! I teach at the art institute and work as a designer: if you follow conventional color theory, orange evokes hunger; blue suppresses hunger 🙂 I love thin cookies, and I bet the hazelnut meal adds a fabulous nutty flavor.
I love the sound of these! The idea of using sipping chocolate is brilliant!
what a fun concept – we have a fridge full of leftovers that usually go to waste – and these cookies sounds SO good! I actually think I’ll make some today even if it is going to be close to 90 degrees.
I like the orange plate, but I LOVE these cookies! Wow, they look so good!
I want to make these so bad!!! you state 1/2 cup “hazelnut meal”. Is this ground toasted hazelnuts? I saw another recipe for these on another site and she said to mix in 2-4 Tblsp flour with the ground hazelnuts. But no mention of how many hazelnuts. also, 2-4 Tblsp of flour……there is a big difference between 2 and 4 Tblsp. Can you help please? Your recipe doesn’t say when to add the hazelnut meal. I am so excited to make these. please clarify? thank you so much
I apologize for leaving out when to add the hazelnut meal–good catch! It is fixed now. Hazelnut meal is indeed ground toasted hazelnuts. The site you found probably suggests processing hazelnuts with a little flour to keep the ground hazelnuts from turning into hazelnut butter. I prefer to take the lazy way out and just buy hazelnut meal–I always have some in my freezer. Let me know how you like the cookies–we loved them!
Tried this recipe and was very pleased. We have bags and bags of Nunu shaved sipping chocolate from my husband’s job and I was so happy to find a recipe to make good use of it! I didn’t have ground hazelnuts, so I used almond meal and was still happy with the outcome. Looking forwar to trying hazelnut meal and mailing some to my father in law!
I have found hazelnut and almond meal sub pretty well for each other as long as you like the flavors of both nuts. And I am always happy to find other people with extra hot chocolate shavings–I have even taken to buying it for this reason. It’s wonderful to bake with!