Making Glazed Hazelnut Cookies

Making Italian Dessert and Pastries
by Academia Barilla  -------> the book I chose.

All kinds of cultures have different foods that make them unique. Growing up I've always loved Italian foods, so making Italian dessert seems more fun than a chore!

Gianluigi Zenti on Italian desserts; "In Italy, no one has ever renounced desserts. Not even our ancestors who had strong tastes. Even Cato the Censor, famous for having been a principled man and little inclined to the pleasure of the table lavishly described "De Agri Cultura, a forerunner of today's cheesecake."  (Zenti, 15).

Paraphrase: Basically when you think of good dessert, one of the first things to come to mind is Italian-made desserts. No one has ever shunned Italian desserts.

And so, I decided to attempt Glazed Hazelnut Cookies. 

Ingredients:

Cookies:
2/3 cups unsalted butter
125g confectioners sugar
1 large egg
Zest of one lemon (grated)
Vanilla extract
2.5 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder salt
3/4 whole hazelnuts - ground to flour

Glaze:
1 large egg white
2/3 cups sugar
3 3/4 tsp cornstarch



This is the predicted outcome found in the book, but it was a bit tricky.

The first step was to combine the main ingredients; butter, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla and mix thoroughly . Then off to the side sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and hazelnut flour. The directions then called combining the two and kneading the ingredients.

Kneading was a interesting technique in the way that you had to grab the mix as if you're grabbing snow. I think it's interesting that there isn't really a way to do this with a gadget. That is probably what adds to the complexity.

After that, you were to mound the dough into a big ball and put it in the fridge for an hour. This is where I started to realize that I'm not the best at this. The dough was very hard to merge together and did not make for cute pictures.

After an hour, it was time to attempt making squares out of the dough.

On the right is me trying but failing to make perfect squares. The dough was really hard and started to look like pieces of chicken. Oops.

Next, it was time to make the glaze. That was more manageable for me. The idea was to combine the egg white with sugar and stir until you got to a fluffy consistency. Then, you would add cornstarch and mix it again.

the glaze!

After the glaze was complete, it was time to drizzle it over the cookies and place on parchment paper and put it in the oven. The recipe recommended 10-12 minutes, and I did 10 on the first batch but needed 12 on the second.






Finished results!

fun

me attempting to make them look decent

Taste and overall review: I would not give myself a good score on presentation, but they actually turned out pretty good. The lemon zest and glaze really saved the recipe. This goes to show #dontjudgeabookbyitscover #dontknockittillyoutryit

But in all honesty, I'm clearly not the best at making food look nice. What tips do you have for me? What Italian reciepe should I try instead? (maybe at a lower difficulty). Should I make Gelato next?

book: Barilla, Academia. Italian Desserts and Pastries: Delicious Recipes for 100 Authentic Sweets. Vercelli: White Star, 2014. Print.

lovely mess out of the oven