Hazelnut-Oat Cookies with Blackcurrant Jelly

Yes, Christmas is very close ... although ... it's not quite there yet here. And yet (which always surprises me) the first Advent is just a few days away. It's high time to get started on baking cookies! That's why this week's recipe is a cookie recipe. And that alone is quite a sensation, because we have never featured a sweet recipe here before.

The reason for this first is as follows: since we have been carrying the wonderful hazelnut paste made from the delicious roasted Piedmont hazelnuts, I have been wondering what the best thing to do with it is. Since I think that some of you might feel the same way, I have chosen a cookie recipe in which I can use it. And a recipe without much kneading, weighing, sifting, chopping and above all without a long resting time (at least for the dough ...). Oatmeal cookies, of course! They are traditionally part of the Advent season for me, but they come without cinnamon, so they seemed just right to me for late November.

The original recipe, which I found on the beautiful blog www.mynewroots.org (which also features an incredibly simple recipe for whole wheat bread without flour or kneading), is vegan and uses almond paste instead of hazelnut paste, coconut fat instead of butter and chia seeds instead of egg. I took the liberty of enriching the recipe with our delicious butter, replacing the chia seeds with an egg and the almond paste with hazelnut paste. I was quite a bit worried about it, because baking is well known to be a kind of mysterious alchemy, where even a small variation can end in disaster. But lo and behold: everything worked out wonderfully. Even the raw dough tasted fantastic and, contrary to my fears after a look at the ingredients list, it was not too sweet. After I had somewhat succeeded in not snacking too much of it, so that I could at least finish baking a few cookies, the entire kitchen was soon filled with a wonderful nutty aroma and, thanks to the short baking time, I was finally able to taste the still-warm result just a few minutes later. The cookies taste delicious – nicely nutty, but neither too sweet nor too Christmassy. Next time, however, I would add a few chopped hazelnuts to the dough right away to further emphasize the nutty flavor, which is very subtle in this version.

Ingredients (for approx. 20 cookies):

• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp hazelnut paste (in the original recipe: almond paste)
• 75g cane sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 tbsp water + 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or concentrate
• 200g fine rolled oats
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• Preserves, jam or jelly to taste, e.g. redcurrant jelly

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C
2. Mix the oats with the baking powder and salt well.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the butter and hazelnut paste with a whisk until a creamy mixture is formed. Add the sugar and vanilla concentrate and mix.
4. In another bowl, whisk the water with the maple syrup and the egg together and then add it to the butter mixture. Mix everything together well.
5. Gradually add the oats and mix everything. Towards the end, it is best to do this by hand.
6. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, form small balls from the dough (ideally as many as fit on a tablespoon) and place them on the parchment paper. Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass. The dough tends to stick to the glass, but can be easily detached with a knife.
7. Place the cookies in the preheated oven and bake on the middle rack for approx. 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.
8. Let cool on a rack, spread one half with the jelly, place the other half on top and finally place half a hazelnut on the sandwich cookie with the same jelly.

Conclusion: the salted butter and the nuts give the otherwise rather coarse oatmeal cookies a rich, luxurious note. The finely tart, not too sweet and slightly bitter jelly complements with a nice fruitiness without dominating. Very delicious cookies that are better not kept in a cookie tin, but baked fresh and then immediately served on the Advent plate and quickly devoured ...

The hazelnut comes out best, almost chocolatey, when the cookies have already cooled for a few hours. Since the oats have a rather prominent own flavor, I recommend being rather generous with the hazelnut paste in this recipe. However, if you use the paste in a shortcrust pastry or a cream, you should be rather sparing with it.

Wine pairing: if wine is allowed instead of tea or coffee, we recommend the Bastardo from Domaine Conceito in the Douro – it is nicely fruity and at the same time bitter, has a lot of character, but does not overpower the pastry with heavy tannins or too much body. A great combination!