A simple twist turns classic peanut butter cookies into elegant chocolate hazelnut cookies. Depending on how long you bake them, they can be either soft and chewy or crunchy.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line with parchment.
Beat together the shortening, sugars, egg, vanilla, espresso powder, hazelnut flavor, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate-hazelnut spread until smooth.
Add the flour, beating gently until everything is well combined; the dough will be quite stiff and a bit crumbly. If it doesn't hold together well, drizzle in enough water or cold coffee (1 tablespoon or less) to bring it together. Watch out, though; if you add too much liquid, the cookies will flatten and spread out too much as they bake.
Drop the cookie dough by teaspoonfuls or tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets (a teaspoon or tablespoon cookie scoop works well here), leaving 2" between them. The larger balls of dough will be about 1 1/2" in diameter, and weigh a generous 1 ounce each (if you have a scale); the smaller ones will be about 1 1/4" in diameter, and about 1/2 ounce in weight.
Use a large dinner fork to flatten each cookie to about 3/8" thick, making a cross-hatch design.
Bake the cookies for 7 to 12 minutes, until they don't appear super-moist any longer, and seem set. Since they're dark colored, it's difficult to tell when they're done by whether or not they're browned; it's a good idea to bake one test cookie first, to figure out the timing. Smaller cookies baked for the shorter amount of time will be softer; larger cookies baked for the longest amount of time will be crunchy. See "tips," at left, for more details.
Remove the chocolate hazelnut cookies from the oven, and cool right on the pan; or on a rack.
Want to make these chocolate hazelnut cookies with whole wheat flour? Go right ahead; we often substitute King Arthur Unbleached White Whole Wheat Flour 1:1 for the all-purpose flour, no additional changes needed.
Hazelnut flavor takes these cookies over the top, taste-wise. If you don't have hazelnut flavor, the cookies will taste good, but not overly "hazelnutty." Substitute 1/4 teaspoon almond extract for the hazelnut, if you like; almond will give the cookies a vaguely nutty flavor, though it won't be hazelnut. A better substitute is 3/4 teaspoon vanilla-butternut flavor, if you have it.
