A long while back, Chau was kind enough to share a recipe for chocolate hazelnut muffins.  After playing around with the recipe, I eventually ended up with cookies! You could still bake these into muffins if you like, but they really make a great, soft, chewy and moist cookie.  I topped mine with a whole hazelnut, you can skip this step if you want to.  Weigh 5 hazelnuts (I had a total weight of 6g) and subtract the weight from the ground hazelnuts in the cookie batter.  I also sprinkled my cookies with Truvia, but this is not calculated in since it is up to you to choose the sweetener. For higher ratio’s, add more butter.  I think they will have no problem holding onto the extra fat. Remember to make at least 2 batches at the same time so you can freeze one for later!

As my daughter says, “They are SUPER delicious!”

3:1 Ratio

294 Calories

6.1 Protein

3.36 Carbohydrate

Ingredients

10g butter

5g Baker’s Chocolate, unsweetened

28g ground hazelnuts (I used whole hazelnuts ground in a food processor)

0.5g baking powder

0.5g baking soda

1g pure vanilla extract (this is not the same as Bickford’s  use only 2-3 drops for Bickford’s)

10g egg whites, whipped into stiff peaks

pinch of salt ONLY if using unsalted butter

sweetener of your choice

Directions

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Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter and the chocolate together in a small bowl. I used the microwave in 10 second intervals.

Mix the ground hazelnuts,baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract and sweetener into the chocolate mixture.  The dough will be very stiff, but make sure it is well combined.

Add half of the whipped egg whites to the chocolate mixture and stir them in until well combined.  Add the remaining egg whites into the dough and try to fold them in without deflating them.  The dough will still be able to hold its shape.

Divide the dough into about 5 cookies and drop them onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  I was able to wet my hands and roll them into smooth, flattened balls.  You can skip the rolling if you want to.  Top with the hazelnuts if you are using them.  Slightly flatten the cookies before baking.

Bake for about 7 minutes, just until the tops crack.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.