Noccioletti - Hazelnut cookies

Tell me it's time to bake a batch of cookies... Please do... I need a quick refill of energy and it's only Wednesday and this little man running through the house is a real menace. Lose the sight of him for 10 or 20 seconds and he's sure to come up with something for you to clean or reorder. Can't find him, just follow the unrolled toilet paper... and then you can't miss him, he's just behind the pile of laundry. Sure, he's helping you, he even emptied the laundry basket for you, now you only have to put everything into the washing machine. You see, he must have read your schedual. And while you are taking care of that, he'll be good and play with clothes you just ironed and folded neatly, just to make sure you're never bored.
Hey, people, if you are bored, I could "lend" you my little joker for a couple hours, while I bake a batch or two of cookies. Promise to share them with you, 'cause you, too, will need a good cup of coffee or tea and a tray of cookies when he leaves your house.

These cookies are the most irresistible ones you can imagine, just like my little naughty cookie I told you about. They'll smile at you from the cookie tray and you'll be reaching for another one, again and again.
Did you know that eating hazelnuts you'll gain multiple benefits? They are rich in vitamin E that, with its powerful antioxidant potentials, helps skin, nervous system and heart to stay in good health. There, now I have another good excuse to bake this morning.
I toasted some really nice hazelnuts the other day with intention to make some cookies, but I've been eating them all the time, so if I don't make any immediately, I'll have to toast another batch.

This recipe is my adaptation of the Luca Montersino's recipe for Nocetti (Walnut cookies), from his book Peccati al cioccolato. I made only 1/4 of the original recipe because using 880 g of butter seemed like crazyness to me and I still got lots of cookies (although the original recipe says it makes 60 cookies with 4 time ingredients you can see below, I just think that someone should have learned to count better). Another little adaptation on my part was using hard boiled egg yolks instead of raw ones. One because hard boiled egg yolks make this type of cookies really melt-in-your-mouth type of cookies, and second because they are much easier to weigh and work with.
Last but not least, I used hazelnuts instead of walnuts because I like them much better, but I'm pretty sure the recipe would work well with any other nuts as well.

Noccioletti - Hazelnut cookies

Light dough:
* 110 g butter
* 70 g powdered sugar
* 15 g hard boiled egg yolk
* 160 g flour
* 30 g corn starch or potato starch
* a pinch of salt
* 1/4 vanilla bean

Dark dough:
* 110 g butter
* 70 g powdered sugar
* 25 g hard boiled egg yolk
* 160 g flour
* 25 g corn starch or potato starch
* 15 g unsweetened cocoa
* a pinch of salt
* 1/4 vanilla bean
* 85 g hazelnuts

First thing, prepare hard boiled eggs. For both doughs (40 g) I take 3 medium sized eggs. Put them into a saucepan with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for 8 minutes. Then cool down completely, remove the egg yolks and press them through a fine mash sieve.

Light dough:
Chop the butter and let it soften at room temperature.
Using a wooden spoon, mix the softened butter with powdered sugar, egg yolks (15 g), scraped vanilla seeds and salt.
Mix and sift together the flour and the corn starch and add to the batter. Bring everything together quickly without kneading too much. Wrap the dough and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

Dark dough:

Chop the butter and let it soften at room temperature.
Using a wooden spoon, mix the softened butter with powdered sugar, egg yolks (15 g), scraped vanilla seeds and salt.
Mix and sift together the flour, the corn starch and the cocoa powder, add them to the batter.
Add the chopped hazelnuts (use a food processor, but make sure you don't grind them completely, so you can have that crunch element in your cookies).
Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces (use a kitchen scale) and shape each portion into a 3-4 cm wide logs. Wrap each log separately and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

How to prepare the cookies:
Roll out the light dough into a rectangle (shorter side of the rectangle should be the same as the length of the dark dough logs.
Brush the dough with water and place one of the dark dough logs at the begining of the rectangle.
Wrap the dark logs completely with the light dough.
Cut the light dough and repeat with the other two logs.
To make this process easier, make sure you roll the dough out on a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper.
Wrap each log again and chill in the fridge or in the freezer until stiff enough to slice easily.
At this point just cut each log into 5 mm slices, place on a baking sheet with the cut side up/down.
Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 12-15 minutes.
Once the cookies are cold, store them in an airtight container.

Noccioletti

Impasto chiaro:
* 110 g di burro
* 70 g di zucchero a velo
* 15 g di tuorlo sodo
* 160 g di farina "00"
* 30 g di amido di mais o fecola di patate
* un pizzico di sale
* 1/4 di baccello di vaniglia

Impasto scuro:
* 110 g di burro
* 70 g di zucchero a velo
* 25 g di tuorlo sodo
* 160 g di farina "00"
* 25 g di amido di mais o fecola di patate
* 15 g di cacao amaro
* un pizzico di sale
* 1/4 di baccello di vaniglia
* 85 g di nocciole

Come prima cosa preparate i tuorli. Per 40 g di tuorli sodi di solito metto a cuocere 3 uova medie.
Mettete le uova in un pentolino con l'acqua fredda, portate a ebollizione e lasciate cuocere per 8 minuti. Raffreddate le uova ed estraete i tuorli. Passateli al setaccio con maglie fitte.

Impasto chiaro:
Tagliate il burro a pezzettini e lasciatelo ammorbidire a temperatura ambiente.
Usando un cucchiaio di legno, mescolate bene il burro morbido con lo zucchero a velo, il sale, i tuorli e i semi di vaniglia.
Unite la farina e l'amido setacciati insieme e impastate velocemente.
Avvolgete l'impasto nella pellicola alimentare e lasciatelo nel frigo per 1 ora.

Impasto scuro:
Tagliate il burro a pezzettini e lasciatelo ammorbidire a temperatura ambiente.
Usando un cucchiaio di legno, mescolate bene il burro morbido con lo zucchero a velo, il sale, i tuorli e i semi di vaniglia.
Unite la farina e l'amido setacciati insieme al cacao.
Alla fine unite le nocciole tritate grossolanamente nel mixer.
Dividete l'impasto in 3 parti uguali e formati dei rotoli di 3-4 cm di diametro.
Avvolgete ogni uno nella pellicola e lasciateli nel frigo per 1 ora.

Come formare biscotti:
Stendete la pasta bianca con un mattarello formando un rettangolo con il lato più corto lungo quanto i cilindri di pasta scura.
Spennellate la pasta stesa con un po' di acqua.
Appoggiate uno dei rotoli di pasta scura al inizio della pasta chiara e avvolgetelo completamente. Tagliate la pasta dove finisce il primo rotolo e proseguite formando gli altri due.
Per facilitare questa operazione, consiglio di stendere la pasta sopra un pezzo di pellicola o carta da forno.
Avvolgete tutti i rotoli nella pellicola e metteteli nel frigo o nel freezer finché diventino abbastanza duri da poterli tagliare a fettine.
Tagliate quindi i rotoli a fettine spesse circa 5 mm. Sistemate i biscotti sulle placche da forno e cuoceteli a 180°C per circa 12-15 minuti.
Una volta freddi, conservateli in una scatola di latta.

Noccioletti - Keksi s lješnjacima

Svijetlo tijesto:
* 110 g maslaca
* 70 g šećera u prahu
* 15 g kuhanog žumanjka
* 160 g brašna
* 30 g škrobnog brašna
* prstohvat soli
* 1/4 mahune vanilije

Tamno tijesto:
* 110 g maslaca
* 70 g šećera u prahu
* 25 g kuhanog žumanjka
* 160 g brašna
* 25 g škrobnog brašna
* 15 g gorkog kakaa
* prstohvat soli
* 1/4 mahune vanilije
* 85 g lješnjaka

Pripremite prvo žumanjke. Za oba tijesta trebat će vam otprilike 3 srednje velika žumanjka.
Stavite kuhati jaja u hladnu vodu. Kuhajte ih 8 minuta od trenutka kad voda provrije.
Ostavite da se ohlade pa odvojite žumanjke i propasirajte ih kroz mrežasto cjedilo.
Svijetlo tijesto:
Narežite maslac i ostavite da odmekne na sobnoj temperaturi.
Dodajte maslacu šećer u prahu, propasirane žumanjke, sastrugane sjemenke vanilije i sol. Izmiješajte dobro drvenom žlicom.
Dodajte oba brašna prosijana skupa i zamijesite tijesto.
Omotajte tijesto prozirnom folijom i ostavite u hladnjaku 1 sat.
Tamno tijesto:
Narežite maslac i ostavite da odmekne na sobnoj temperaturi.
Dodajte mu šećer u prahu, propasirane žumanjke, sastrugane sjemenke vanilije i sol.
Umiješajte obje vrste brašna koje ste prosijali skupa s kakaom.
Na kraju dodajte krupno mljevene/usitnjene lješnjake (ja ih usitnim u el. sjeckalici/multipraktiku, tako da nisu skroz samljeveni već samo isjeckani na manje komadiće).
Tijesto podijelite na 2,3 ili 4 dijela (kako vam je lakše) i oblikujte valjke promjera 3-4 cm.
Omotajte svaki valjak prozirnom folijom i stavite u hladnjak na oko 1 sat.

Kako oblikovati keksiće:
Razvaljajte svijetlo tijesto u pravokutnik kojem je jedna stranica duga koliko i valjci od tamnog tijesta, a druga stranica bi trebala biti toliko duga da se svaki valjak može omotati tijestom jedanput (ja sam to sve otprilike izmjerila papirom za pečenje koji sam izrezala na potrebnu veličinu i tijesto onda razvaljala na tu veličinu).
Razvaljano tijesto premažite vodom uz pomoć kista.
Položite prvi valjak na tijesto i zamotajte toliko da cijeli tamni valjak bude pokriven bijelim tijestom. Prerežite svijetlo tijesto, pa nastavite uvijati ostale valjke tamnog tijesta.
Da bi vam ovo omotavanje bilo lakše najbolje je tijesto razvaljati na papiru za pečenje ili prozirnoj foliji.
Zamotajte svaki valjak opet u prozirnu foliju i stavite u hladnjak ili zamrzivač dok tijesto ne postane potpuno čvrsto.
Izrežite zatim rolnice na kriške debljine oko 5 mm, položite ih na pleh i ispecite u pećnici zagrijanoj na 180°C oko 12-15 minuta.
Nakon što se potpuno ohlade spremite ih u metalnu kutiju.