These Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies are made from ground hazelnuts with chocolate centers. They are delicate and tender with just the right blend of nuttiness and chocolate for perfect little bites. They are easy to make and can be made ahead of your party.
The dough can also be frozen. Then you have fresh cookies ready to be baked anytime!
2 pieces of cookie dough, chilled and ready for slicing
I discovered hazelnuts when I was 11 years old. My father’s job got transferred up to Portland, Oregon and we went along with a sense of adventure. It was an amazing, life-changing experience, opening my eyes to life outside of my little Northern California bubble. I have loved Portland since then and that is partly why we decided to move up there.
When we first got to Portland when I was a child, we discovered this “new” nut that we had never tasted before, the filbert. A filbert is virtually the same as a hazelnut and the terms are often used interchangeably, but they do come from two different yet closely related types of trees. I instantly fell in love with filberts. They are readily available in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
They are a little harder to find in California, but my local Whole Foods carries them. If they are not available in your area, you can always order them online from Nuts.com. You can buy them pre-roasted, but be sure to get the unsalted variety. You will have to peel them, just use a rough towel and the friction between the nuts will remove most of the peels. A little left on is fine.
There are some people that do not like the flavor of hazelnuts – I know, how can that be? If you are one of them, or are allergic to them, you can swap in ground almonds instead. I think they would both be wonderful.
While I suggest using a stand mixer for this recipe, you can use a hand mixer, but this dough is heavy and may strain the motor. If you have a stand mixer, I recommend using one for the ease and speed.
These cookies are fantastic on their own, but even better with the chocolate filling. If you want to change it up, you could use Nutella or raspberry jam as the filling and dip the tops in chocolate. Geez, has it been long enough for me to go back and have some more cookies?
I hope you enjoy these wonderful little Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies and have a fabulous Chocolate Monday!!
See you back here on Friday for another wonderful savory recipe for you to enjoy!
If you try this recipe, let me know! Please leave a star rating in the recipe card, comment below, and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it @theheritagecook on Instagram! Seeing your creations makes my day and I love hearing from you!
Ingredients needed for Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies:
- Hazelnut meal/flour or ground toasted and skinned hazelnuts (use almond meal/flour if you prefer), unsalted butter, granulated sugar, salt, vanilla, semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
PRO Tip: How to toast and skin raw hazelnuts
Preheat the oven to 325°F (163°C). Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet. Toast the nuts for about 10 to 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.
Remove from the oven and as soon as they are cool enough that you won’t burn yourself, place half the nuts in a rough towel and rub them briskly to remove the skins. Leaving a few pieces of the skins on the nuts is fine, but it does add a slight bitterness. Set aside and repeat with remaining nuts. Let nuts cool completely before grinding.
PRO Tip:
Bob’s Red Mill sells hazelnut meal/flour that takes all the work out of it! It is a wonderful product and gluten-free. I love keeping a bag of it in the freezer to use whenever the mood strikes. They also sell almond flour, also gluten-free, and a delight to bake with.
How to make Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies:
- Mix together the ground nuts and flour; add in the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla, blending until becomes a dough
- Divide dough into thirds, forming each into a rope and chill until firm, an hour or two
- Cut a rope into equal piece, about 5 grams each (the size of a marble); roll into balls and bake 10 to 14 minutes until lightly golden brown
- Slide parchment with the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely
- Melt chocolate whisking until smooth and pour into a piping bag or resealable plastic bag and squeeze a little bit on the bottom of half the cookies
- Top each one with another cookie, flat side down and set aside to cool and firm up; decorate with a drizzle of leftover chocolate if desired
Do I Really Need a Stand Mixer?
No, you can use a hand mixer, but this dough is on the heavy side and may strain the motor. If you have one, I recommend using a stand mixer for the ease and speed.
Recommended Tools (affiliate links; no extra cost to you):
- Food processor
- Stand mixer (preferred) or hand mixer
- Chef’s knife
- Baking sheet pan
- Parchment paper or silicone baking mats (Silpats)
- Kitchen scale
Gluten-Free Tips:
* You can adjust any baking recipe to gluten-free by using 120 grams per cup of my favorite gluten-free flour blend. If you are using another brand of flour or regular flour, whisk it, spoon it lightly into a measuring cup until mounded, level off the top with a knife, and weigh the flour left in the cup. Use that weight as your standard per cup of that specific flour. Do this for each flour blend you use. Commercial gluten-free blends such as Pamela’s All-Purpose Artisan Blend, Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1, or King Arthur Measure for Measure are all good gluten-free choices.
** My preferred brand of kosher salt is from Diamond Crystal. If you use Morton’s, another kosher brand, or table salt, you will not need as much because they are saltier.
You will get the best and most consistent results by using a digital kitchen scale and weighing your ingredients, especially when you are baking. Use grams, they are much more accurate than pounds and ounces.
All recommended ingredients are gluten-free as of the writing of this article. Always check to be sure the products haven’t changed and are still safe to consume.
Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies (GF)
These Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies are made from ground hazelnuts with chocolate centers. They are delicate and tender with just the right blend of nuttiness and chocolate for perfect little bites.
Ingredients
- 140g (about 1-1/2 cups) ground hazelnut meal/flour or 1-1/4 cups whole hazelnuts, toasted & skinned (see Note below) then ground in a food processor; or you can use almonds or pre-ground almond meal/flour
- 1 cup (120 g*) gluten-free flour blend,* rice flour, or sifted regular all-purpose flour like Gold Medal brand
- 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces, plus more, if needed
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- Pinch of kosher salt**
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- About 1/2 cup (85g) chopped semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips
Instructions
1. Make the Dough: If you are using hazelnut meal (or almond meal), skip to the next paragraph. If you are using whole hazelnuts, toast and peel (see directions above), put them in a food processor, and pulse them until about the consistency of coarse polenta.
2. Place the ground nuts in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer and add the flour and stir together. Add the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Blend together on low until the butter is evenly dispersed and the nut mixture starts to come together and clean the sides of the bowl. In my KitchenAid stand mixer this took 1 to 2 minutes.
3. The dough should be very smooth and hold together. If not, mix until it does. Keep kneading, either by hand or in the mixer until it comes together. If needed, add another 1 to 2 tbsp of butter.
4. Form the Dough: Divide the dough into three equal pieces and roll each piece into a 3/4-inch (2cm) round rope. Try to get them as smooth as possible, with no cracks. If it breaks, pinch it back together. Place the three ropes of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper covered with plastic wrap.
5. Chill the Dough: Chill the logs until firm, at least 1 hour. NOTE: gluten-free doughs tend to be easier to work with when they have had time to rest and fully absorb the liquid. I let mine rest, covered, in the refrigerator about 2 hours before forming and baking.
6. Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
7. Make the Cookies: Working with one section of dough at a time, keeping the others covered in the refrigerator, cut off equal-sized pieces, about 5 grams each (about the size of a marble).
8. Once you’ve cut a rope of dough, roll the individual pieces into little round balls and place them on the baking sheet, leaving some space between them. They will not spread much, so you can snug them up fairly close. Continue cutting the dough and rolling it into little balls until you’ve used all the dough.
9. Bake the cookies for 10 to 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets in the oven midway during cooking, top to bottom and spinning front to back, until the tops are lightly golden brown.
10. Carefully slip the parchment paper off the baking sheet and onto the wire cooling racks, sliding the cookies with it. Let the cookies cool completely before continuing.
11. When they are cool, pair the cookies into twos that are about the same size. Set half the cookies flat-side up on a baking sheet with their partners next to them.
12. Assemble the Sandwich Cookies: In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the chocolate until smooth, stirring often with a flexible spatula. Transfer the melted chocolate to a piping bag or resealable plastic bag. Cut a small hole in the bag and squeeze a chocolate chip-sized dollop of melted chocolate on the bottom of one cookie and top it with a similar-sized cookie, flat sides together. Wiggle the top cookie gently to spread the chocolate to the edges, sandwiching the two halves together.
13. Once filled, set the cookies back on a wire cooling rack until the chocolate is firm. If you have extra melted chocolate (like I did) you can squeeze the extra over the tops of some of the cookies, creating a fun zig zag pattern.
14. Storage: The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.
Recipe found at www.theheritagecook.com
Notes
* You can adjust any recipe to gluten-free by using 120 grams per cup of my favorite gluten-free flour blend. If you are using another brand of gluten-free flour, whisk the mix, spoon it lightly into a measuring cup without a spout until mounded, level off the top with the back of a knife, and weigh the flour left in the cup. Use that weight as your standard per cup of that specific flour. Do this for each flour blend you use. Commercial blends such as Pamela's, Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1, or King Arthur Measure for Measure are all good gluten-free choices.
** My preferred brand of kosher salt is from Diamond Crystal. If you use Morton’s, another kosher brand, or table salt, you will not need as much because they are saltier.
If you don’t want to grind your own nuts, Bob’s Red Mill makes wonderful ground hazelnut meal/flour and almond meal/flour, both gluten-free! All the work is done for you!
How to toast and skin raw hazelnuts
Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet. Toast the nuts for about 10 to 15 minutes or until they are golden brown. Remove from the oven and as soon as they are cool enough that you won’t burn yourself, place half the nuts in a rough towel and rub them briskly to remove the skins. Leaving a few pieces of the skins on the nuts is fine, but it does add a slight bitterness. Set aside and repeat with remaining nuts. Let the nuts cool completely before grinding in a food processor.
You will get the best and most consistent results by using a digital kitchen scale and weighing your ingredients, especially when you are baking. Use grams, they are much more accurate than pounds and ounces.
All recommended ingredients are gluten-free as of the writing of this article. Always check to be sure the products haven’t changed and are still safe to consume.
Adapted from a recipe by David Lebovitz
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
45Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 34Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 0mgCarbohydrates: 7gFiber: 0gSugar: 3gProtein: 0g
The nutritional information for recipes on this site is calculated by online tools and is merely an estimate. If you need nutritional calculations for medical reasons, please use a source that you trust.
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Welcome! The suggestions here are not intended as dietary advice or as a substitute for consulting a dietician, physician, or other medical professional. Please see the Disclaimers/Privacy Policy page for additional details. Unauthorized use, distribution, and/or duplication of proprietary material from The Heritage Cook without prior approval is prohibited. If you have any questions or would like permission, please contact me.We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases without any additional cost to you. This page may contain affiliate links. The author makes no claims regarding the presence of food allergens and disclaims all liability in connection with the use of this site. This post was first shared in July 2013. The article was updated in 2026.
Rose @ Our Lady of Second Helpings
These look so cute! Are they firm like biscotti? Hazelnuts are my favorite. I was just in Oregon, I should have grabbed some locally grown nuts.
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
Thank you so much Rose! They are firm, but break apart more like shortbread than biscotti. Fairly fragile. They are rich so you don’t need a bunch to feel satisfied – the perfect treat!!