MAKES 6 DOZEN COOKIES
Here is a cookie for those among us (young and old) who love to roll dough into little balls! For that’s all there is to these rich, hazelnutty cookies dusted with powdered sugar.
Use only plump, fresh hazelnuts with a clear sweet taste. Roasting and rubbing them to remove the skins is a bit of a bother, but the results are worth it.
1 cup (4½ ounces) whole raw hazelnuts
4 ounces (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of fine sea salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Finely grated zest of 1 scrubbed lemon
Confectioners’ sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Move an oven rack to the middle position.
2. Spread the hazelnuts out on a baking sheet and toast until the skins blister and the nuts turn pale brown beneath the skin, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir the nuts midway to ensure even toasting. Wrap the hot nuts in a clean, dry kitchen towel and rub vigorously to remove as much of the skins as possible. Coarsely chop.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth and light, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the flour, salt, vanilla, almond extract, lemon zest, and chopped hazelnuts. Mix until well blended, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Gather the dough together into a ball. Pinch off pieces of the dough and form into ¾-inch balls. Place the balls on a baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Move the oven rack to the middle position. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Arrange the balls of dough 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. One sheet at a time, bake the cookies until the mounds flatten out slightly and the edges are lightly golden, 15 to 17 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets set on wire racks.
7. Once cool, lightly dust the cookies with a pretty veil of confectioners’ sugar.
Cookies, like people, sometimes need a bit of sexy oomph in the presentation in order to be appreciated for their flavor! What cookbook lover among us would ever forget the fabulous cookie array on the cover of Maida Heatter’s “Book of Great Cookies”? Or, what restaurant-goer hasn’t been moved to oohs and aahs by a crisp cookie tuile perched atop an ice cream sundae? Delicious is delicious, as we all know, but attractive allure can mean a lot.
So if you are considering cookies for dessert, consider their presentation. At China Moon, Amy takes great pride in arranging the seven varieties of cookies she bakes daily in contrasting vertical rows on a large rectangular tray. Each cookie overlaps the one above it to give some height, and the rows are purposely arranged so that there’s a wonderful juxtaposition of shapes and colors. It’s a literal feast for the eye, one worth replicating at home. Even if you’re baking only two or three varieties of cookies, you can arrange them in alternating rows to terrific effect.
A cookie tray of this show-off sort needs to be flat and prettily bordered, but not much else. I’ve picked up many cheap ones in flea markets and thrift shops—covering a hunting scene with a doily or painting a chipped border with nail polish. (Cooks rarely get to polish their nails, but a fantasy life inspires many of us to buy polish regardless.) The final look can really be quite splendid and can turn an otherwise simple cookie dessert into a memorable finale for a meal.
Even cookie accents for other desserts, like ice creams, can be imaginatively placed to give a little thrill. Consider placing a cookie on top of a peak of ice cream like a happy flag, or overlapping a trio of cookies on the rim of a plate featuring another dessert, or spiraling them on a silver coaster alongside a cup of espresso. Especially with miniature cookies, a little bit of easy drama goes a surprisingly long way.