These chocolate dipped vegan hazelnut shortbread cookies are easy to make, crisp, crumbly, nutty, buttery, melt in the mouth and very moreish!
They are the perfect biscuit to have with a cup of tea or coffee and would make a great addition to a festive cookie tin.
Shortbread has to be the ultimate type of biscuit. It is rich, buttery, crumbly, moreish and very versatile; it lends itself very well to all sorts of flavour variations.
Here I have added ground roasted hazelnuts to a basic shortbread dough, giving the cookies a wonderfully toasty nutty flavour.
Dipping them in melted dark chocolate makes them all the more delicious, and they look fancy too!
Ingredient Details:
Hazelnuts: I recommend buying pre-roasted and skinned hazelnuts for ease; otherwise you will need to toast and skin the hazelnuts yourself before grinding them.
Vegan butter: It is very important that you use a BLOCK butter/margarine, not the spreadable kind in a tub as that won't give you the best texture; you may end up with chewy shortbread.
Because shortbread are such a simple biscuit, most of the flavour comes from the butter so you should also use one that you like the taste of. I swear by Naturli Vegan Block, but Flora Plant block or Stork block will also work.
Caster sugar: You can use granulated sugar instead if you don't have caster.
Don't use brown sugar, coconut sugar, sweeteners or liquid sugars as that will affect the texture of the cookies.
Plain flour: Just regular plain (all-purpose) flour is best here. I haven't tried making these gluten-free.
Cornstarch: The addition of some cornflour (cornstarch) gives the shortbread a much nicer, melt-in-the-mouth texture. You can swap it for an equal weight of plain (all-purpose) flour if you don't have any.
Vanilla: Use a good quality vanilla extract for the best flavour. If you have it then vanilla bean paste would be amazing instead.
Chocolate: Optional, but obviously chocolate and hazelnut are a match made in heaven and it makes the biscuits look pretty. Make sure the one you use is vegan friendly.
Equipment:
For this recipe you will need a food processor, blender or spice grinder to grind the hazelnuts. Alternatively you can buy them pre-ground online.
Apart from that you will just need a mixing bowl, baking trays, rolling pin and a cookie cutter.
How To Make Vegan Hazelnut Shortbread:
(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)
Step 1: Grind the roasted skinned hazelnuts to a fine flour in a food processor, blender or spice grinder. Be careful not to go too far or they will become oily and start turning into nut butter.
Step 2: Mix together the butter, sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt with a wooden spoon or spatula until well combined. Don't beat the mixture for too long however, you don't want to incorporate too much air.
Step 3: Add the ground hazelnuts, plain flour and cornstarch. Mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until the dough starts coming together, then gently knead it by hand until smooth.
Step 4: Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 8mm thick. Use your choice of cutters to cut out as many cookies as possible. Re-roll the scraps to cut out more cookies.
Step 5: Place the cookies slightly spaced apart on a couple of lined baking sheets. Pop them in the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven.
Step 6: Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes until pale golden.
Top Tips:
All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
Do not overwork the dough as that will develop the gluten in the flour resulting in chewy biscuits. Just mix it until it is fully combined then use your hands to bring it together.
If the dough is too soft to roll out, wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate it for an hour to firm up.
Freezing the cookies before baking them helps to stop them from spreading in the oven.
To dunk the biscuits, place the chocolate in a deep but narrow container, such as a wide mug. Check that the biscuits will fit in it first though!
Instead of dunking the biscuits in the chocolate, you can simply drizzle it over them, either with a teaspoon or using a piping bag with a small round nozzle.
If you want shiny chocolate then you will need to temper it. I don't bother because it's a faff and is difficult to do with small quantities of chocolate. (And I hate doing it!).
How To Roast And Skin Hazelnuts:
If you aren't able to buy pre-roasted and skinned hazelnuts then you will need to do this yourself before grinding them.
To do this, heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F/gas mark 4. Spread the hazelnuts out in a roasting tray and bake for 12-14 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are a golden colour and their skins have started to loosen.
Allow to cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet, then tip them into a clean tea towel and rub them vigorously to remove the skins. Discard the skins and allow to cool completely before grinding them.
I recommend roasting slightly more than you need for the recipe (at least 150g), as some of the weight will be lost by removing the skins. Any leftovers can be roughly chopped and scattered on top of the chocolate.
FAQ's:
These vegan hazelnut shortbread cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for at least a couple of weeks.
The wrapped dough will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. Let it sit out at room temperature for about half an hour or so before rolling it out if it gets too firm.
The unbaked cookies can be frozen. Cut out the cookies and freeze them in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Once frozen, transfer them to a freezer-proof container. The cookies can be baked straight from the freezer, no need to defrost them first.
Yes; roll the dough out slightly thinner (about 5mm) and reduce the baking time by a couple of minutes. Once the cookies are baked and cooled, sandwich them together with ganache or chocolate spread (vegan nutella would be great!).
More Vegan Shortbread Recipes:
- Vegan shortbread fingers
- Vegan chocolate orange shortbread
- Pumpkin spice shortbread
- Vegan pecan snowball cookies
- Vegan vanillekipferl
- Vegan cranberry orange shortbread
If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess
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Vegan Hazelnut Shortbread
Ingredients
- 120 g (4 oz/scant 1 cup) skinned roasted hazelnuts
- 160 g (⅔ cup) vegan block butter slightly softened
- 100 g (½ cup) caster or granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 35 g (3 ½ Tablespoons) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 175 g (1 ¼ cups +2 ½ Tablespoons) plain (all-purpose) flour
To Decorate:
- 200 g (7 oz) dark chocolate finely chopped
- a handful skinned roasted hazelnuts finely chopped
Instructions
- Line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Grind the roasted skinned hazelnuts to a fine flour in a food processor, blender or spice grinder. Be careful not to go too far or they will become oily and start turning into nut butter.
- Mix together the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt with a wooden spoon or spatula until well combined. Don't beat the mixture for too long however, you don't want to incorporate too much air.
- Add the ground hazelnuts, plain flour and cornstarch. Mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until the dough starts coming together, then gently knead it by hand until smooth.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 8mm (⅓ in) thick. Use your choice of cutters to cut out as many cookies as possible. Bring together the scraps and re-roll to cut out more cookies. (If the dough is too soft to roll out, wrap and chill it in the fridge for an hour first).
- Place the cookies slightly spaced apart on the baking sheets. Pop them in the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 160℃/140℃ fan/325℉/gas mark 3.
- Bake the chilled cookies for 25-30 minutes until pale golden. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
- Once the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate, either in a bain marie or in short bursts in the microwave. Transfer it to a deep but narrow container, such as a wide mug. Check that the biscuits will fit in it first though!
- Dunk one half of the cookies in the chocolate, shake off the excess then place them on a wire rack. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts before the chocolate sets.
Notes
- All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- Instead of dunking the biscuits in the chocolate, you can simply drizzle it over them, either with a teaspoon or using a piping bag with a small round nozzle.
- If you want shiny chocolate then you will need to temper it.
- If you can only get hold of unroasted hazelnuts then you will need to roast and skin them yourself. See post above for instructions.
Elizabeth Henzell
Our little struggling VILLA KITTY KAFE in UBUD Bali Indonesia VEGAN of course appreciate a your recipes so much.
It is a little venture to make money for our foundation.
Thank you.
Soo
Made these today on a wet afternoon. I couldn’t wait to dunk in the chocolate as they looked so delicious, and now they have the chocolate on them they are just irresistible! Your recipes are so dependable. I haven’t had one which has been unsuccessful. Time for another one!! Thank you
G
Another brilliant batch of Domestic Gothess biscuits! Thank you for your amazing recipes - they’re always 10/10. My family devoured these in about 60 seconds.
Tamar
Thanks for another wonderful recipe. The family voted the biscuits the best I've made so far.. and I try out a lot of recipes...
Definitely for keeps
Anne
These turned out so well. I’ve never been able to make shortbread before. This recipe is a keeper! The hazelnut addition really takes it up a notch. But next time I definitely want to start with skinned hazelnuts.