Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Hazelnuts

Chocolate Chunk Cookies that are super crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and filled with chopped hazelnuts.

If you love recipes with hazelnuts in them, you might enjoy Hazelnut Chocolate Cookies with Toffee, and Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies with Hazelnut Flour.

If you have an affinity for hazelnuts and chocolate, you will love these chocolate chunk cookies.

When you take your first bite, you'll first notice the crunch, then the chewy center loaded with chunks of milk chocolate, and chopped hazelnuts. In addition to the chopped hazelnuts, there are also ground up hazelnuts in the dough.  Its a double punch of hazelnut goodness.

These are fairly easy chocolate chunk cookies to whip together. You do have to ground up hazelnuts, but if you have a mini food processor like the one I love, its a snap.

How to make chocolate chunk cookies from scratch?

You will want to cut up a 3 milk chocolate bars into ½ inch pieces.  I use Hershey's milk chocolate for my cookies and they always work great.  The chocolate chunks melt just the right amount during the baking.

It is important to chill the dough for the flavors to come together well and for the chunks to set in with the dough.  Since they are bigger pieces than chocolate chips, for example, it takes a little more time for it to stick with the dough.  The chilling also prevents the cookie from spreading too much during baking.

Tips:

1. Use a cookie scooper to scoop out this delicious dough when its ready for the baking tray.  I use the 1 tablespoon size scooper and it works for almost all of my cookie recipes.
2. Let the cookies cool on the pan for only 5 minutes, then move them to the wire rack to finish cooling.  Do not let them sit on the baking tray for too long or they will not be as crispy as they could be.

If you like super crispy, chewy, and nutty cookies, this is the best chocolate chunk cookie recipe for you.  SO good.

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Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Chocolate Chunk Cookies that are super crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and filled with chopped hazelnuts.

Course cookies, Dessert

Prep Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 30

Calories 198 kcal

Ingredients

• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) plus 1 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar
• ⅔ cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups blanched whole hazelnuts, toasted
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp kosher salt
• 12 oz milk chocolate, cut into 1 inch pieces

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed for 5 minutes.  Mixture is done when it is light and fluffy.  You will need to stop the mixer a few times to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

2. Beat in the eggs and vanilla on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until thoroughly combined.

3. Using a food processor, grind ½ cup of the hazelnuts to a fine powder.  Chop the rest of the hazelnuts.  In a medium bowl, combine the ground and chopped hazelnuts, flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate.

4. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture, and continue to mix until the flour mixture is completely incorporated and the dough is evenly mixed.

5. Chill the dough for 3 hours or overnight in an airtight container in the fridge.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and place oven rack in the center of oven.

6. Using a cookie scooper (approximately 1.5 tablespoon size), scoop out dough balls and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Gently flatten the top of the dough with palm of your hand.

7. Bake for 16-18 minutes, until the tops of cookies are browned.  Leave cookies in a little longer, if you'd like a deeper brown and more of a crunch.  Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to the wire rack for further cooling.  Enjoy!!

Recipe Notes

Adapted from Joanne Chang's cookbook Flour