Nutmeg biscuits

Such cookies - muskatnockerln, literally translated as "nutmeg dumplings", are made in Austria. A local pastry chef told us his recipe in a small alpine restaurant. And in Austria, by the way, they understand baking very well! So it's worth a try.

Ingredients

• 400 g raw hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 150 g dark chocolate (60% cocoa)
• half a small nutmeg
• a pinch of salt

Directions

1. Put the hazelnuts in an even layer on a baking sheet and place in an oven preheated to 180 ° C for 10-12 minutes. Stir from time to time. Sprinkle hot nuts on a towel, cover with a second towel on top and rub to remove the husks. Cool and grind in a food processor or coffee grinder as fine as possible into flour.
2. Divide the eggs into whites and yolks. Beat the yolks with sugar until white. Whisk the whites with salt until fluffy. Mix the whites with the yolks very carefully, add the sifted flour, nuts and nutmeg grated on the finest grater. Stir with a silicone spatula from bottom to top.
3. Line two baking sheets with parchment. With two teaspoons, moisten them in water, place small neat cookies on baking sheets. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour. Then transfer to an oven preheated to 220 ° C and bake until golden brown, 5-7 minutes. Take out, cool.
4. In a small heatproof bowl, melt the chopped chocolate pieces in a bain-marie over a saucepan of low-boiling water. Remove from the bath, when not all the pieces have completely melted, let stand for 5 minutes. Then quickly dip the rim of each cookie (about 1/3) in hot chocolate and place on the parchment. Serve when the chocolate is completely frozen at room temperature, 30 minutes.