Honey Spice Hazelnut Cookies ~ these nutty, glazed cookies are a perfect way to ease into fall baking, and they’ll provide a little old world spice for your holiday cookie assortment later in the season.
The wonderful play between the brown sugar, honey, and spices skew these cookies a little toward the adult side, even before they get their crosshatching of spiked glaze. Set them out with after dinner coffee and be prepared for recipe requests! (You can leave out the alcohol in the glaze for family noshing.)
The glaze will harden for stacking and packing, so no need to leave it off if you’re giving or shipping these cookies.
I’ve always thought that if I’m going to go to the trouble to bake homemade cookies they should be something that I can’t find in the cookie aisle of my supermarket, and that’s certainly the case with these spice cookies. They have a simple, vintage vibe that’s really appealing, I think you’ll love them. Hazelnuts make a good choice for special occasion cookies because they’re a relatively expensive ingredient that you don’t see very often in commercial cookies and desserts. They also give these cookies a really nice texture.
Cookie season is upon us and you can never have enough recipes at the ready. Here are a few more of my favorites ~
Chewy Ginger Cookies
These are definitely one of the most popular fall and holiday cookies in America, everybody has their own version of this classic recipe, but we’ve been making ours for years and think it’s the best!
Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
I can’t resist sprinkles on cookies, and I bet you can’t either. Every cookie assortment needs a colorful sprinkled cookie front and center!
Cardamom Walnut Crescent Cookies
This is another old world cookie that conjures up holiday memories for so many. I love the snowy coating of powdered sugar.
Recipe adapted from Saveur.
Honey Spice Hazelnut Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 tbsp 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 cups flour, plus a little extra for rolling dough
- 2/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
- 1 tsp salt
For the glaze
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Hazelnut liqueur, e.g. Frangelico to thin
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F
- Beat butter, honey, sugar, and spices in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the flour, chopped hazelnuts, and salt and continue to mix until the dough comes together.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until about 1/4-1/2 inch thick
- Cut out cookies (I used a small cup about 2.5 inches in diameter), and bake on a baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper) for about 10 minutes, they should be lightly golden on the bottom and will firm up as they cool.
- Cool on a rack.
For the glaze
- Thin the powdered sugar with the liqueur until it is a pourable consistency by adding a little bit liqueur at a time to the sugar and whisking until smooth. Drizzle over the fully cooled cookies and let the glaze harden before stacking.
Make these Honey Spice Hazelnut Cookies your own ~
- Make them without the booze ~ omit the liqueur in the glaze and add a bit of hazelnut extract, or a bit of spice. If you use the extract, try 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon, and then thin the glaze with a little milk or water to get the right consistency.
For the hazelnuts are they roasted? raw? salted? unsalted? skins? no skins? They sound really good cannot wait to try them!
Whole raw hazelnuts, I buy them with the skins on. Sometimes you will find them blanched and skinless. If you want a roasted flavor, you can roast them first, just place them on a microwave safe plate and microwave on high for 2 minutes.
These turned out wonderfully Sue! I didn’t need to be concerned about the skins after all, no bitter taste and better yet, no peeling. Thanks for another delicious cookie recipe to add to my repertoire.
Sue, you don’t mention peeling the hazelnuts and I want to check and make sure as the skins are usually on the bitter side. I’m anxious to try them, thank you!
You can do it either way, Glenda. Sometimes I find skinless hazelnuts and I’ll use those, but I don’t mind a little bit of hazelnut skin, either.
Thanks for the quick reply Sue, I’ll try them with the skins on!
I’ve made these cookies several times & they are truly delicious! This will also be my 2nd year making them for my Xmas cookie platters. I skip the liquor & make a spiced maple glaze instead. These also freeze really well. Thanks for a great recipe!