Chocolate Hazelnut Chewies

Chocolate Hazelnut Chewies are a great way to use fresh hazelnuts! They are similar to meringues, but a lot quicker to make since you don’t have to dry them out for a long period in the oven.  And while this version calls for hazelnuts, these chocolaty, nut and egg white cookies can be made with almost any nut. But if's hazelnut season where you are, go with the hazelnuts. Or as my husband calls them, filberts.

Similar to Pecan Chewies

My earlier version (Pecan Chewies) calls for pecans. Most of the ingredients are mixed together in the bowl then beaten, resulting in a somewhat thinner, softer, cookies. This version has you beat the egg whites until soft peaks start to form, and then you add the dry ingredients. The egg whites collapse a bit as you add the dry ingredients, but the cookies puff up again in the oven.

Chocolate Hazelnut Chewies Texture

Compared to regular meringue cookies, these are not as light and billowy. The centers are definitely chewy, whereas with meringues you can make the centers chewy or dry them out. If this is your first time making this type of nut cookie, you may want to start with a half batch to nail down the exact baking time for your oven.

• Hazelnut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie Cookies
• Hazelnut Bread
• Hazelnut Cream Cake
• Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti Thins

Recipe

Chocolate Hazelnut Chewies

Anna

Chewy chocolate cookies made with egg whites, nuts and powdered sugar.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 10

Ingredients

 

• 1 ¾ cup powdered sugar about 6.8 oz
• ⅓ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder Hershey’s
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 2 large cold egg whites organic eggs seem to hold up better
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ⅓ cups toasted and chopped hazelnuts or 2 ½ small bags of Diamond**
• Optional – very small handful of mini chocolate chips

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two large baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil.
• Stir powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt together in a small bowl.
• Place cold egg whites in very clean metal or glass mixing bowl.
• With an electric mixer, beat until the egg whites are just past foamy and soft peaks are just beginning to form. Add the sugar mixture gradually (but not too gradually – a couple of tablespoons at a time is fine) and continue mixing on medium and scraping sides of bowl.
• When dry ingredients are completely blended, beat for exactly two minutes. Mixture will thicken slightly, but it will not be light and fluffy like meringue. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips (if using).
• Working quickly, drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto the baking sheets – try to keep them as tall as you can, but if they spread that is okay, spacing about 2 ½ inches apart.
• Bake the cookies on the center and lower rack for 10-12 minutes or until dry, puffed and cracked on the surface. If you like your cookies with very soft centers, take them out and let them cool. For slightly dryer (but still chewy) centers, turn off the oven and let the cookies sit in the “off” oven for 20 minutes, them remove from oven.
• Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the parchment paper. Carefully remove cookies and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes

I have made a ton of meringues over the past few weeks and through trial and error, found that organic eggs worked better than regular eggs. Interestingly, room temperature and non-organic egg whites beat into peaks quickly, but didn’t hold up as well when sugar was added. Cold egg whites and organic egg whites took a few seconds longer to beat into peaks, but were more stable when additional ingredients were added. In this recipe the mixture will still collapse a bit when you add the sugar, but when the nuts are added it should still be thick enough to stay in little piles on your baking sheet.

Keyword Chocolate Hazelnut

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