Super Chewy Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies (vegan & gluten free)

Can we all agree that chocolate and hazelnut are a flavour combination made in heaven??? If you follow my blog (which you should), you probably saw my healthy and simple 3-ingredient nutella recipe I posted last week. What you might not know is that in the process of testing that recipe, I attempted to make homemade hazelnut butter. Long story short, the endeavour to make hazelnut butter from scratch was more ambitious than I anticipated, and so I was left with a mixture of ground hazelnuts, cocoa powder, and coconut oil.

If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I hate food waste. I was not going to let these hazelnuts (that were also very expensive, may I add) go to waste. That’s when I remembered these gluten free cookies I loved to get from a local bakery when I was in university. The cookies that inspired this recipe were made with peanut butter rather than hazelnut butter and used almond flour rather than hazelnut flour, but they taste just as good, if not better!

If you’re not a fan of hazelnut butter, here are some alternatives you can substitute in this recipe:

• peanut butter
• almond butter
• sunflower seed butter
• cashew butter

If you’re not a fan of hazelnuts or want a more budget-friendly option, here are some alternatives you can substitute for ground hazelnuts in this recipe:

• ground almonds
• ground peanuts
• ground walnuts

Here’s the recipe:

Yields: 15 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp ground flax
• ¼ cup hot water
• ½ cup coconut oil, melted
• ½ cup hazelnut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 ¾ cups oats, blended into flour
• ¼ cup oats
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 cups ground hazelnuts
• 9 squares of dark chocolate, chopped, plus additional for topping

Directions

1. In a small bowl combine the flax and water, stir and set aside for 5 minutes.
2. In the meantime, combine the coconut oil, hazelnut, brown and white sugar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl and mix with an electric mixer or by hand.
3. Add the baking soda and powder, ground oats, whole oats, cocoa, and ground hazelnuts and mix again until a dough forms. Then, fold in the chopped dark chocolate.
4. Using an ice cream scoop, portion out balls of dough, using the side of the mixing bowl to press the dough into the scoop so that it keeps its shape. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and repeat with the remaining dough. At this point, the cookie dough balls don’t need to be spaced apart because we’re going to freeze them.
5. Once all of the dough is scooped, add a square of dark chocolate on top of each cookie and press down to flatten them slightly. Freeze for 1 hour.
6. At the 45-minute mark, preheat your oven to 350^oF.
7. After freezing, remove the cookie dough balls from the freezer and arrange them on 2 parchment lined baking sheets, with ~5 cm space between each cookie.
8. Bake at 350^oF for 14 minutes, then allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.