Layered Nougat Cookies

MAKES 1 TRAY

For the dough: 1½ cup + 5 tsp (200 g) flour, ¾ cup + 2 tsp (80 g) ground hazelnuts, 34 cup (175 g) butter, ½ cup + 2 tbsp (75 g) powdered sugar, 2 tsp (8 g) vanilla sugar, zest from 1 organic orange, 1 egg yolk

For the filling and icing: ½ cup + 1 tbsp (100 g) chopped hazelnuts, 4½ oz (125 g) nougat, 1/3 cup (75 g) butter, 5¼ oz (150 g) dark couverture chocolate, 3½ oz (100 g) good-quality nut glaze

Additional: flour for the countertop, parchment paper, plastic wrap

Knead flour, ground nuts, butter that has been cut into small pieces, powdered sugar, and vanilla sugar, as well as orange zest and egg yolk, into a smooth dough. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and let sit in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 355°F (180°C), unless you have a convection oven, in which case preheat to 320°F (160°C), or a gas oven, in which case preheat to level 3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Separate the dough into several pieces and roll it out thinly on a floured countertop. Cut out rectangles or circles with wavy edges in three different sizes, making an even number of each type. Place them on the baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven (second shelf from the bottom) for 6-8 minutes. Remove and let cool.

For the filling and glaze, toast the chopped hazelnuts in a nonstick frying pan (without fat) and let cool. Mix the nougat and butter together until creamy. Stir in half of the cooled nuts. Spread the nougat mixture—not too thinly—onto the cookies of the largest and medium sizes, stack them together along with the smallest cookies, and place onto parchment paper. Chop the couverture and/or glaze and melt them together using a double boiler. Make a piping bag out of parchment paper, fill it with the frosting, and cut a small hole into the tip of the bag. Squeeze fine lines of frosting over the cookies diagonally, sprinkle with the remaining coarsely chopped nuts, and leave out to dry.

Let the nougat cookies sit out overnight at room temperature before placing in an airtight container to ensure that the nougat filling is completely dry.

 

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