Hazelnut Cocoa Balls

I have a pack of ground hazelnut which is close to expiry, so I thought I'll find something to make with it.

I scanned through the many Chinese recipe books that I'd bought recently (from the hubs recent trip to China, as well from the Bookfest @ Malaysia 2010) checking the ingredient lists until I spotted 'ground hazelnut'.

This recipe comes from the famous Taiwanese baking expert Teacher Meng (孟老师), who has published many books. Not sure if you agree with this, I find the end results of the recipes written/created by a Japanese or Taiwanese more to my taste as they are normally lighter and less sweet.

♥Recipe for Hazelnut Cocoa (榛果可可球)♥
Adapted from 孟老师的下午茶 by 孟兆庆
Make 30 balls.

You'll need :
90g unsalted butter
40g icing sugar (if you like something sweeter, you can make it 50g)
110g low protein flour or cake flour
2tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
50g ground hazelnut

Method :
1) Using a spatula, mix butter and sugar until well combined, stir in sifted flour and cocoa powder.

2) Add in ground hazelnut. Mix the mixture with hand, until a firm dough is formed.

3) Place the dough ball in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 30mins.

4) Preheat oven to 170C.

5) Cut dough into ~8g pieces, and roll these pieces into balls. Arrange these balls on a baking tray laid with parchment paper

6) Bake them for 20mins, turn off the oven, and leave the tray in the oven for another 10mins.

7) Remove the biscuit from tray and cool them on a wire rack. Once cool, coat the with icing sugar (I put a few tea spoon of icing sugar in a cointainer with lid, put a couple of biscuits into the container and cover the lid, gently shake the cointainer until the biscuits are coated with icing sugar, repeat until all biscuits are coated with icing sugar)

The biscuits are indeed rather light, with a slight crunch, and a tinge of bitterness.