Chocolate & Hazelnut Hunks

These cookies have altered my life. And maybe my dress size.

 

Chunks of crunchy, hazelnutty, chewy cookie, stuffed with pools of rich dark chocolate & a shortbread-esq buttery crust. Straight from my kitchen to your oven.

I like to bake a batch of these on Sunday mornings and stash them away for a naughty weekday treat. There's nothing in this world which makes jump out of bed on a Monday morning faster than a hunk, not even the manly, rugged breed.

What can I say? Hazelnuts and chocolate do it for me.

For 20 of your own delicious little hunks, go grab yourself: 

225g unsalted butter, softened

225g caster sugar

170ml Carnation Condensed Milk

350g self-raising flour, sifted

175g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids min), chopped

100g hazelnuts, roasted and chopped
A few sheets of cling film

Each batch makes enough dough for two sittings. I keep half of my dough wrapped in cling film, tucked away at the back of the fridge in the event of an emergency, (discovering TOWIE has clashed with Law & Order, a missing iPhone charger...)

I'd suggest you do the same.

Righto. In a bowl, cream together your sugar and butter until pale and smooth.

Pour in the condensed milk with or without singing high-low-chicka-low.

Give it a good whisk, sift in your flour and stir as you go.

When it begins to form a dough-like substance, grab your nuts.

Toast them over a low heat for a couple of minutes until they're good and hot.



And whizz them up in a processor until broken up but still chunky.

Pour your crumbled hazels into your cookie dough and fetch your chocolate.

Chop into bite size chunks and invite it into the mix.

Stir it all together until well combined and looking fine and dandy.

Empty it out onto a flat surface...

Divide into two even balls...

And roll them out into sausage shapes.

Pop your cookie sausage on top of a sheet of cling film and wrap it up nice and tightly.

Repeat with the remaining ball of cookie dough.



Pop them in the fridge for as long as possible, but even one hour will work wonders.

Now, the hard part. Stay busy, stay strong & whatever you do, stay away from the cookie dough. Ten minutes before cooking time, preheat the oven to 180C.

When it's thoroughly chilly grab one cookie sausage from the fridge & a sharp knife.

Chop your dough into chunky segments, around ten cookies per roll.

Pop them on a baking tray and into the oven for ten minutes or until slightly tanned but gooey in the centre. They will continue to harden whilst cooling, so even if you think they're not ready just yet, chances are they're pretty darn perfect.

Leave them to cool and serve up with jars of frothy ice cold milk.

The remaining cookie sausage will keep for a whole week at the back of the fridge, however if it manages to survive that long I would strongly suggest you see some kind of professional doctor immediately.

Hunky dory.