
During one of my library book sprees, I came across The Rustic Italian Bakery, by Veronica Lavenia, and found some flavors familiar to those from my country and my childhood. She uses some naturally gluten free flour and some flour with low gluten content. In the case of these cookies I found the combination of white chocolate and hazelnut irresistible.
Unfortunately I soon discovered that the hazelnut flour in my pantry was not usable. In the heat of the summer, it had gone bad. Interestingly enough, the supermarket I went to that day didn’t have any form of hazelnut I could buy, so I chose to use almond meal instead. Almond flavor is definitely more subtle than hazelnut, especially if no almond extract is added to the recipe. So I roasted the almond meal to enhance its nuttiness and give a more distinctive taste.
The result was a rustic cookie with a soft heart of white chocolate so irresistible that we couldn’t stop eating them…
ENJOY!
