Hazelnut shortbread cookies in the Ankarsrum mixer
These hazelnut shortbread cookies made in the Ankarsrum mixer are my husband's favorite Christmas treats—he loves them so much! And our friend Paco loves them even more… What makes them so special compared to traditional homemade shortbread cookies?
Ingredients · Servings 24
- 400g of plain flour
- 200g of roasted, skinless hazelnuts
- 200g of icing sugar
- 200g of Iberian pork lard
- Icing sugar for decorating
Method · 55 min
- Preheat the oven to 130ºC, top and bottom heat.
- The evening before, place the flour on a baking sheet and put it in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring the flour occasionally with a spatula. It will gradually turn a light golden brown. It's important not to overbake it, as this will make the mixture bitter.
- Let it sit until the next day.
- Grind the hazelnuts with a powerful blender or food processor
- Attach the plastic bowl for whipped dough to your Ankarsrum mixer with the single whisk attachment.
- Add the ingredients and program for 2 minutes at medium speed. For the last 30 seconds, increase the speed slightly. Initially, it will resemble coarse sand, at which point you might think, "This won't bind." But nothing could be further from the truth; with your hands, begin to combine this sandy mixture and form a flattened dough about 2 cm thick. Place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour, wrapped in plastic wrap.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator, leave the plastic wrap underneath, place another piece of clear plastic wrap on top as shown in the video, and gently roll over it with a rolling pin to even out the surface. Use your favorite cookie cutter or a small glass, as I did, and cut out the shortbread cookies. Gather the leftover dough scraps as if you were doing a puzzle, without forming a ball again, but carefully pressing them together with your fingers, and roll over the surface to even it out. Continue cutting out shortbread cookies. Repeat the process until you've used almost every last crumb.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF), grill only. Place the tray on a middle rack for about 15 minutes. After the 10-minute mark, keep an eye on your shortbread cookies to prevent burning.
- If you don't want to keep an eye on them, you can also bake them at 180ºC, top and bottom heat, at a medium height, for 20 minutes, giving them a touch of grill a couple of minutes before the end of baking.
- Remove them from the oven and, once cooled, dust them generously with powdered sugar using a sieve. You can carefully place them on a serving dish with a spatula or, as I did, wrap them in shortbread paper.
