Hazelnut and cocoa amaretti

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 25 pieces, you will need:

• 1 250 g ground hazelnuts
• 2 200 g caster sugar
• 3 20 g powdered cocoa
• 4 60 g egg white
• 5 3 tablespoons icing sugar
• 6 25 wholes hazelnuts
• Total weight: 600 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
25 min.	10 min.	15 min.	50 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Pour 250 g ground hazelnuts, 200 g caster sugar and 20 g powdered cocoa into a bowl.
2	Whisk these powders together.
3	Add 60 g egg white (60 g = 2 whites) and start mixing with a spoon or spatula.
4	Finish mixing by hand, it's the easiest way...
5	...until you obtain a homogeneous paste.
6	Divide the dough into 20-25 g pieces.
7	Preheat your oven to 170°C (340°F). Roll into balls between the palms of your hands. Note: If you have children around, let them help you, they'll love the "play dough" aspect.
8	Pour 3 tablespoons icing sugar into a shallow dish (or better still, a mould if you have one). Coat the dough balls with powdered sugar, in packs of around 5-6, turning the mould on itself.
9	Then roll the balls in the palm of your hands to remove excess powdered sugar. You want a very thin layer of powdered sugar all over the dough ball.
10	Do this for all the balls and place them on a sheet of baking paper (this is important), set on a baking sheet.
11	Place a hazelnut on each ball, and press down with your fingers to flatten the ball a little and make it crackle on the sides.
12	Do this for all the balls...
13	...and bake at 170°C (340°F) for about 15 minutes.
14	Cool on a wire rack and enjoy.

Remarks

You can mix the dough entirely by hand - it takes 2 or 3 minutes, so there's no need to get out your food processor.
Preferably use shelled hazelnuts to garnish the top.
For a more subtle version, replace half the hazelnut powder with almond powder.

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