Baci di Dama (Chocolate-Filled Hazelnut Cookies)

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There is really only one way to make baci di dama, if you're going the traditional way and you want melt in the mouth results (and you should). It is a recipe of perfect proportions (just look at the measurements in metric weight) and the bare essentials that every Piemontese signora probably knows or has had passed down to her. But despite it being a simple, what Italians call “casalinga” (literally, “housewife”) recipe, these delightful biscotti require a certain amount of technique and skill in order to retain their delicate shape and texture.

While the method is always the same, you'll find these most commonly made with almond meal like they do in Tortona, but depending on the area of Piedmont you're in, the recipe may be made with a mixture of almond and hazelnut meal or, like they do in the area of Cuneo (the land of hazelnuts – this is, after all, where Nutella was born), just hazelnuts.

Try these with a filling of homemade gianduia (hazelnut and chocolate) too – to the dark chocolate, add a handful of hazelnuts, whipped into a creamy paste in a food processor, together with a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar. Heaven.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) hazelnuts, shelled and skins off
• 3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) very cold butter, cubed
• 3 1/2 ounces (1/2 cup or 100 grams) sugar
• 3 1/2 ounces (3/4 cup or 100 grams) flour
• 3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) good quality dark chocolate

Details

Servings 20
Adapted from food52.com

Preparation

Step 1

Start with hazelnuts with skins removed. If you have hazelnuts with skins, toast them gently in the oven until warm and fragrant then rub them in a tea towel to remove the skins -- or, less messy, put them in a plastic bag and shake (the static helps capture the skins and you get much the same result). You don't need to be perfect, but the skins will add a bit of flecked color to the cookies, which is lovely too. Once completely cool, blitz the hazelnuts in a food processor until it resembles sand.

Like a good short crust pastry, you want to make sure your butter is very cold and you want to work quickly. Combine the hazelnut meal, cubed butter, sugar and flour in a bowl and rub with fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs (or use a food processor), then knead until it just comes together into a dough. Flatten to a disc about an inch high and place in the fridge, preferably leaving overnight if you can or at least an hour if you're in a rush.

When ready to make the cookies, remove from the fridge and roll out teaspoon-sized portions of dough into perfect balls and place them on a lined cookie sheet a couple of inches apart (they will spread a little as they sink into domes). Place back in the fridge for a couple of hours before baking (or, if low on time, pop it in the freezer for at least 30 minutes).

Place the dark chocolate over a double broiler and let it melt about 75 percent. Take off the heat and stir to melt the rest of the chocolate and let it cool about 5 minutes or until it reaches a consistency where it can be spooned onto a cookie without dribbling off the sides. Place a teaspoon of the chocolate on the bottom of half of the cookies and before the chocolate sets (but not too early as it will spill and slide!) place the other hemisphere of cookie on top and leave to set. Store in an air tight container. These are even better a couple of days after baking.