Gluten-Free Caramelized Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies with Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling

I'm blogging about another failure yet again. Can you believe it? But hold on. This failure is a good failure.

Amy Tan tells a story of a swan that was once a duck in The Joy Luck Club: The old woman remembered a swan she bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. This bird, boasted the market vendor, was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose, and now look! -- it is too beautiful to eat. Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of li wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey she cooed to the swan: "In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband's belch. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan -- a creature that became more than what was hoped for."*

Truth be told, the stories of these fictional women bear no resemblance whatsoever to the story of my life. I am, however, comparing the aforementioned swan to these cookies which, at the time of writing, are sitting on my kitchen counter begging to be eaten with a cup of espresso. They're like that swan -- a creature that became more than what was hoped for.

Common sense is sitting on my shoulder, tearing up with laughter at my irretrievably broken down analogy. I shushed common sense and proceeded to present my story as if it made perfect sense.Here's the scoop. I initially set out to make a glammed-up version of Baci di Dama -- the beloved Italian sandwich cookies featuring sandy texture and gooey chocolate ganache filling. The plan was to achieve similar end results with a few alterations. The all-purpose flour was replaced with tapioca starch (as I am trying to minimize my gluten intake these days). Some of the starch was also replaced with what I thought would make the cookies richer and more caramel-y in taste -- ground-up caramelized hazelnuts. The dark chocolate ganache filling was to work in conjunction with the hazelnut flavor to invoke the remembrance of the universally-adored Nutella.


In terms of taste, the plan worked well -- better than expected, in fact. However, in terms of appearance, these cookies kind of, well, failed. You see, Baci di Dama cookies are supposed to look like this -- minuscule and adorably rotund. If I ever presented these sandwich cookies of mine as Baci di Dama to anyone who knows anything about Italian pastry, they would probably be laughing their natiche off.

Chilling the dough for 2 hours did nothing in stopping these ducks from stretching their necks. These newly-concocted cookies spread in the oven, like, a lot. What went into the oven as round, semi-hard dough balls came out as flat as the pre-Galileo earth. So much for the cute, plump cookies.

But to be honest, if forced to choose one of the two: these cookies and the original Baci, I would gladly pick these cookies 'who stretched their necks' in a heartbeat. The tapioca flour makes for a super crunchy texture. The caramelized hazelnuts add a deep, complex nutty flavor which complements the dark chocolate ganache filling in a reciprocal manner.I love these swans.

Gluten-Free Caramelized Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies with Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling
(Makes 20 sandwich cookies)
Downloadable Version



3/4 cup raw skinned hazelnuts (110 g)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 ounces dark chocolate couverture or morsels (Semisweet chocolate is too sweet for this recipe.)
1/3 cup heavy cream

• Line a cookie sheet or large chopping board with a sheet of parchment or waxed paper.
• Dry-toast the hazelnuts in a skillet over low heat until they turn light brown, about 7-8 minutes.
• Place the toasted hazelnuts on the parchment paper, arranging them in single layer with no space between each kernels.
• In a small saucepan, over low heat, caramelize the granulated sugar until you get dark amber-colored liquid. Pour the caramel over the hazelnuts, making sure every kernel is covered.
• The hazelnuts and caramel will harden in about 5-7 minutes. Peel off the parchment paper and break the whole piece into small chunks.
• Put the caramelized nut chunks in a food processor along with the tapioca flour and pulse until you get fine powder. The tapioca flour is added to keep the nuts from turning into nut butter.
• In a mixing bowl cream the butter and powdered sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, salt, and vanilla; beat until homogenous.
• Add the nut-flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix well. Chill the dough, covered, for 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Form chilled dough into one-inch balls. You should get approximately 40 balls.
• Arrange the dough balls onto parchment- or Silpat-lined cookie sheets. Allow plenty of room for each dough ball to spread. (Each one-inch ball will spread into a 3-inch round.) Bake the cookies for 15-18 minutes. They will turn golden brown yet still soft.
• Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let the cookies cool on the sheets. The cookies will harden and become very crunchy. Gently transfer the hardened cookies onto a cooling rack.
• Make the ganache by bringing the cream to a very gentle boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Turn off the heat and add the chocolate (cut into small pieces, if you use chocolate couverture), making sure all the pieces are fully submerged. After 5 minutes, stir into a smooth, glossy ganache.
• Spread a tablespoon of the ganache on the flat side of one cookie and close with another cookie to form a sandwich.

*Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club, Ballantine Books International, 1st edition, 1989.