Not so long ago, I sent Maus off shopping.  On the list were hazelnuts.  When she came home, she told me she had bought roasted hazelnuts.  She said they were more expensive than the raw ones but thought it would be worth it as it would save me roasting them:)  I liked the logic but I actually needed to roast the hazelnuts with some other ingredients.  Oh, well, now I had some lovely roasted hazelnuts that needed a home.

One of the many cookbooks on my shelf is the Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbook, the 1970 edition.  It was my mum’s.  My cousins, Jen and Gerrie, gave it to her for Christmas in 1974 – they inscribed the book.

The other day, I was using the book and a piece of paper fell out.  It was a cutting from the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine, March 1993.  It was a recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Biscuits.  I was curious to see what my mum thought worthy of cutting out and keeping, and then I noticed that the recipe required a cup of roasted hazelnuts.  I decided to give them a go.

The recipe was contributed by Mrs P Livingston, Corowa, NSW.

Ingredients:

• 200g butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1½ cups self-raising flour, sifted
• ½ cup plain flour, sifted
• 1 cup (125g) roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• ½ cup dark chocolate chips
• coconut, extra

1. Preheat your oven to 175°C.
2. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and continue beating until well combined.
4. Stir in all the other ingredients (except the extra coconut) and mix well.
5. Roll 2 teaspoons of mixture into a ball and flatten with the back of a fork or… do what Maus did, use a falafel maker to make perfect little biscuits, all the same size and shape:)
6. Have a small bowl of extra coconut ready.  Dunk the top of each biscuit into the bowl, coating it with coconut.
7. Put biscuits onto a greased baking tray or tray lined with baking paper.
8. Bake for about 13 minutes or until lightly browned.
9. Cool on a cake rack.