Hazelnut Kisses Food

HAZELNUT KISSES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toast hazelnuts in oven on a rimmed baking sheet until skins split and flesh turns deep golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.
• When nuts are cool enough to handle, rub off as much of the skin as will come off easily. Let cool completely.
• Process nuts in a food processor with 1/4 cup sugar until very fine.
• Beat egg whites with the salt in the bowl of an electric mixer (or by hand), until soft peaks form. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and beat until egg whites hold stiff (but not dry) peaks.
• Add nut mixture, flour, and vanilla to egg whites; beat until just combined. Refrigerate, covered, until cold, at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat. With cool, dampened hands, mold heaping tablespoons of dough into pyramid shapes, each about 1 1/2 inches wide and 1 1/4 inches high. Transfer to lined sheet.
• Bake cookies until edges and bottoms begin to brown, 15 to 18 minutes.

HAZELNUT MERINGUE KISSES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 225°F. and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit a large pastry bag with a 1/2-inch plain tip.
• In a bowl with am electric mixer beat whites with cream of tartar and salt until they just hold soft peaks. Add sugar in a stream and beat in vanilla and espresso and cocoa powders, beating until meringue holds stiff, glossy peaks.
• Working quickly, fold ground hazelnuts into meringue gently but thoroughly and fill pastry bag with meringue. Pipe 42 dots (each about 1/2 teaspoon) of meringue onto parchment 1/2 inch apart and top each dot with a whole hazelnut (meringue dots will anchor nuts). Pipe meringue over hazelnuts, encasing them, to form cookies about 1 inch wide and 1 3/4 inches high.
• Bake cookies in middle and lower third of oven, switching positions of baking sheets halfway through baking, 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until meringue os form on the outside and pale golden (cookies will fall during baking). Remove parchment with cookies from baking sheets and cool on racks (cookies will continue to crisp as they cool). Carefully peel cookies off parchment.
• In a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate, stirring until smooth, and remove from het. Dip top half of each cookie in melted chocolate, transferring cookies, chocolate sides up, to a wax-paper-lined tray. Chill cookies until chocolate is hardened, about 15 minutes. Cookies keep, arranged in layers between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container and chilled, 5 days.

HAZELNUT CHOCOLATE KISSES

Steps:

• Place 6 ounces of the chocolate into a 2-quart mixing bowl. In a 1-quart saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to a boil. Pour the cream into the bowl with the chocolate. Let the mixture stand for 1 minute, then stir together using a rubber spatula, whisk, or immersion blender until smooth and thoroughly mixed. Stir in the ground hazelnuts and blend well. Cover, let cool to room temperature, and chill in the refrigerator until thick but not stiff (2 to 3 hours).
• Melt and temper the remaining 12 ounces chocolate (see pages 25-30). Pour the tempered chocolate into a paper pastry cone and cut off a 1/2-inch opening at the pointed end of the cone. Or pour the chocolate into a plastic squeeze bottle. Pipe or squeeze chocolate into each cavity of a 12-space, 1-inch-deep, spiral-topped chocolate mold. Tap the mold on a countertop a few times to eliminate air pockets. Let the chocolate sit in the mold at room temperature for 3 minutes. Turn the mold upside down over a sheet of parchment or waxed paper and let the chocolate run out. This will leave a thin film of chocolate coating each cavity of the mold. With a small flexible-blade spatula, clean off the edges of each cavity of the mold.
• Place a hazelnut in each cavity. Fit a 12-inch pastry bag with a large, plain round pastry tip with a 1/2-inch opening and fill partway with the hazelnut truffle cream. Pipe the truffle cream into each cavity, filling it just below the top edge. Fill up the mold cavity with the remaining tempered chocolate. With a small flexible-blade spatula, clean off the edges of each cavity, if necessary.
• Place the mold in the freezer until the chocolate is set (15 minutes). Remove the mold from the freezer and turn it upside down over a piece of parchment or waxed paper. Hold the mold by opposite corners and gently twist it in opposite directions. The candies should drop out of the mold. If they don't drop out easily, return the mold to the freezer for another 15 minutes and try again. Place the kisses in paper candy cups.
• In a tightly covered container wrapped in several layers of aluminum foil, the kisses will keep for 1 month in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer. The kisses taste best at room temperature.
• VARIATION
• White Chocolate Hazelnut Kisses: For the truffle cream, substitute 8 ounces white chocolate for the 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate and use 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream. For the coating, replace the bittersweet chocolate with white.

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT KISSES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Scatter the hazelnuts in a baking pan and toast, gently shaking the pan once or twice to help the nuts toast evenly, until lightly browned and aromatic, 10 to 12 minutes.
• Turn off the oven.
• Transfer the nuts to the center of a lightly dampened kitchen towel, wrap the towel around the nuts, and rub the nuts around vigorously (but carefully, since they're hot) to remove as much of their skins as possible.
• Let the nuts cool completely.
• In a food processor, grind the cooled hazelnuts with the sugar until very fine.
• Add the cocoa powder, butter, honey, and vanilla.
• Pulse until well blended.
• In a small bowl, beat the egg whites with a fork to break them up a bit but not make them too frothy.
• Add about half of the egg whites to the processor and pulse a couple of times, then add the remaining egg white and pulse again.
• You're looking for a paste that's smooth but firm enough to hold its shape.
• Fit a pastry bag with a large plain or star tip and fill the bag with the dough.
• Line 2 heavy baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Squeeze a small dot of the dough under each corner of each paper lining to adhere it to the baking sheet (this will make piping easier).
• Squeeze dough onto paper in big rosettes or teardrop shapes, making each cookie about 1 1/2 inches across and with at least 1 inch between the cookies.
• Give the cookies a bit of height as you pipe.
• If you make them too flat, they'll be more crisp than chewy when baked.
• Let the cookies sit for 1 hour before baking.
• Reheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Bake the kisses until they are just set on the outside, about 8 minutes.
• The cookies will firm up as they cool and you want the insides to remain tender and chewy.
• Transfer the kisses to a wire rack to cool and serve soon, or store in an airtight container for a few days.
• Note: If you use a star tip, be sure that its points are open enough to avoid being blocked by the ground nuts.