Hazelnut Christmas Star Cookies

These Christmas cut-out cookies made with simple hazelnut shortbread dough and spiced with warming allspice and decorated with melted white chocolate and colourful Christmas sprinkles. The recipe brings you a bunch of attractive cookies! Perfect for the holidays!

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Making the dough is so easy

Once you prepare all the ingredients, kneading the dough is just a breeze. Be sure to take butter and egg from the fridge on time. The butter should be softened and the egg should be at room temperature. We slice the butter and place in the mixing bowl (do this 1 hour before making the cookies), so it's softened and ready to beating with sugar.

Next step is toasting the hazelnuts (just 5-6 minutes in the oven, on 160°C/320°F should be fine). Once toasted, grind them using nut grinder or blitz in the food processor until finely grind.

We'll be using plain flour and granulated sugar here, so measure them and prepare also baking powder, salt and grated orange zest (for amazing citrus aroma). We blitz whole allspice berries in a coffee grinder so we have the most freshest aroma and flavour (leave slightly coarse, don't blitz in powder and you'll have nice crunch while eating cookies).

4 easy steps for making the cookie dough

Stir the plain flour, ground toasted hazelnut, baking powder, ground allspice and salt in a bowl (these lightweight stainless steel mixing bowls are great for this).
Add sugar to the softened butter and beat on a high speed for 2-3 minutes. You'll love this silent hand mixer with slow start (ideal for baking).
Now, add egg and grated lemon zest and beat (on a high-speed) for another minute.
Add half of the flour and beat on a low speed for 1-2 minutes (scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl in the meantime, as dry ingredients can sometimes get trapped there). Add the rest of the flour and beat until the dough forms a crumbly mass. Next, start to squeeze the dough with your hands until the compact dough forms.

Cooling the dough

Once the dough is done, divide it into two pieces, as the smaller pieces is easier to handle and will cool quicker. Form flat rectangles, wrap both pieces into aluminium foil and keep in the fridge for 1 hour. This will help cookies to hold the shapes and don't spread too much.

Cutting out the cookies

For rolling the dough you'll need to slightly dust the work space with flour so the dough doesn't stick. Use either baking paper or pastry mat and proper rolling pin which ensures the cookies are evenly thick.

Roll gently the cookie dough to the thickness of 3mm, then using Christmas star cookie cutter cut out the cookies (we used 6cm cookie cutter). Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with second piece of dough.

Baking cookies

For baking these cookies you'll need 2-3 baking sheets as you will bake in several batches. Line them with baking paper, so the cookies don't stick. Be careful while baking. These cookies are thin so they'll need only 6-7 minutes.

So stay close to the oven, as they burn easily. Take them from the oven when lightly brown around the edges. Use thin metal spatula to remove cookies from the sheet (they will be very fragile).

It's decorating time...

For decorating we'll be using combination of melted white chocolate and Christmas sprinkles. The white chocolate melt easily so broke the chocolate bar into pieces, then place them in a heatproof bowl and place everything over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir with silicon spatula until smooth and completely melted.

Leave for a few minutes then transfer to a disposable piping bag (great tool for decorating bakes with writing or a special pattern). Drizzle over the cookies then sprinkle with colourful Christmas sprinkles. Our Christmas star cookies are ready to enjoy.

Store these cookies in an airtight container, but be sure to separate the layers of cookies with baking paper. This way cookies will keep for up to 2 weeks.

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Hazelnut Christmas Star Cookies

MAKES: 80 cookies
COOKS IN: 1 hour
LEVEL: Easy

HANDY KITCHEN EQUIPMENT:

Mixing Bowls | Electric Hand Mixer | Silicon Spatula | Pastry Mat + Rolling Pin | Star Cookie Cutter | Baking Sheet + Thin Metal Spatula | Small Heatproof Bowl | Small Saucepan

INGREDIENTS

For the cookies

280g plain flour (2 1/3 cups)
100g ground toasted hazelnuts (1 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
200g butter (14 tbsp), at room temperature
80g granulated sugar (1/3 cup + 2 tbsp)
1 egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

For decoration

70g white chocolate (2.5 ounces)
Christmas sprinkles

METHOD

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, ground toasted hazelnuts, baking powder, ground allspice and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and butter using hand mixer until pale and smooth, 2-3 minutes.
Add egg and grated lemon zest and beat for another minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
Add half the flour/hazelnut mixture and beat on a low speed until combined. Add the remaining mixture and beat until the dough comes together in a crumbly mass.
Using your hands, squeeze the mixture together into a ball of dough. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts, form rough rectangle from each part, then wrap each into aluminium foil and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 3mm (1/10in) thickness. Cut out shapes using a star cookie cutter and transfer them on the baking sheet, leaving some space between. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all the dough is used.
Bake for 6-7 minutes or until the cookies are pale golden brown. Leave them to cool on the baking sheet.
For the topping, broke the white chocolate bar and put in a heatproof bowl. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until completely melted. Set aside for 1 minute then transfer to a piping bag.
Drizzle over the tops of the cookies the line pattern. Sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles and leave to set.

CATEGORIES: Cookies, Christmas,
Hazelnut, White Chocolate

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