Baci d'Alassio (Chocolate-Hazelnut Kisses)

Once the hazelnut and chocolate cake was gone from last week, I found myself craving hazelnuts again very quickly.  Luckily for me, a traditional dessert in Liguria is Baci d'Alassio.  These bite sized morsels employ that same decadent combination: chocolate and hazelnut.  Though these are time intensive since you have to let them sit overnight (will I ever choose a recipe that isn't time intensive?), they are fairly simple to put together.  Pair these with a cup of espresso and you have a fantastic mini dessert!

The word baci means kisses.  What can be more apt than equating these delicious treats with love?

 

Baci d'Alassio

Adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:

3 cups hazelnuts, roasted and peeled

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4-5 egg whites, room temperature

3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

Process:

1. After roasting and peeling the hazelnuts, grind the hazelnuts in a food processor until it is a fine powder.  Place in a large bowl and mix in the sugar.
2. Add the butter, cocoa powder, honey, and vanilla to the bowl.  Mix thoroughly.
3. Add the egg whites, a little at a time, and mix well between each addition.  Add enough egg whites so that the dough becomes the consistency of a loose paste.  You may not need to use all of the egg whites.
4. Grease 2 baking sheets.  Spoon the hazelnut spread into a pastry bag with a No. 6 star tip.  If you don't have a pastry bag (which i don't), spoon the mixture into a ziploc bag and cut the tip off of one of the corners of the bag.  This will then serve as a pastry bag.
5. Pipe out rosettes 1 inch in diameter onto the baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.  You should have about 60 rosettes in all.  Let the rosettes sit overnight, uncovered at room temperature.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake the cookies until firm to the touch, but still moist inside, about 8-10 minutes.  Let cool on a wire rack.
7. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.  Once melted, remove from heat and let cool, stirring occasionally. 
8. Take one cookie and hold it upside down.  Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon chocolate onto the bottom of the cookie, and press a second cookie onto the chocolate, bottom side down, to form a sandwich.  Lay the cookie sandwich on a tray.  Do this with the rest of the cookies, giving you 30 sandwiches total.
9. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to set the chocolate.

Ryan's rating of Baci d'Alassio - 3.5. (Keep in mind that he doesn't like hazelnuts.  Again - inconceivable.)

Comments

[Jeanne]

Yum. If some of these happened to get sent to our house, we wouldn't mind...hint, hint.

[Momma]

I made these yesterday as a special treat for my husband (well, me too) for our anniversary. I didn't read the recipe all the way through and realized too late that they needed to sit over night. I tried just putting them in the frig for a few hours before baking. While the taste was extraordinary the shape was not like a kiss - just a flat cookie. But after taking them out of the oven I used a spatula to get them off the cookie sheet and formed them by hand into little mounds. Delicious. The flavor of hazelnuts and chocolate is spectacular. Thanks again, Suzanne.