Hazelnut and Chocolate Ganache Cookies

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put the hazelnuts in a baking dish and roast in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden.

Tip into a tea-towel and rub off the skins. Allow to cool. Place the nuts in a food processor and pulse to coarsely grind. Add the icing sugar, flour, candied peel, orange zest and cinnamon and process again until finely chopped. Whisk the egg and the yolk together and tip onto the nut mixture. Pulse until the dough comes together. It will be quite soft and sticky. Scrape into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until firm.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Lightly sprinkle the bench and your hands with icing sugar. Break off small pieces of dough and roll into marble sized balls. Use a fork to flatten a little, then dip the tops into the icing sugar to give a good coating. Place on lined baking trays.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes or until a light golden brown. Cool slightly then transfer to a cooling rack.

Ganache: Bring the cream to just below boiling point in a small saucepan. Add the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Tip into a bowl and cool to a spreadable consistency.

Spoon the ganache into a piping bag and pipe a layer onto the smooth side of half the biscuits. Sandwich with the remaining cookies and dust the tops with more icing sugar if desired. Makes about 80 single cookies  

Unfilled cookies will keep for 3 days in an air-tight container. Filled cookies will stay crisp for 1 day but will soften on keeping.