Pastry course part 2: Rolling out and cutting - Hazelnut biscuits

Here is the recipe if you'd like to make the biscuits yourself. It's adapted from a family recipe.

For 20-30 biscuits

Ingredients:

150 g whole hazelnuts
300 g self raising flour
150 g caster sugar
200 g cold butter
2 eggs

Topping
Nutella
Crushed hazelnuts or flaked almonds
Icing pens

Method:

- heat a frying pan to medium hot and toast the hazelnuts till they slightly colour
- crush them finely in a food processor or if you don't have one, arrange them in a single layer in a ziplock bag, cover with a tea towel and hammer with a meat pounder or similar till they are finely crushed
- mix eggs with sugar
- in another bowl mix the butter and flour with your hands until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs
- pour it all together, add the hazelnuts and stir with a spoon till combined
- spoon the mixture into a clear plastic bag, close the bag and shape the whole thing into a ball
- chill in the fridge for at least two hours, preferably overnight

- when you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180'C/fan 160'C and line two baking trays with baking paper
- dust with flour your worktop, rolling pin and biscuit cutters
- cut up the plastic bag with scissors to get the pastry out
- roll out the pastry to 3 mm thick, cut different shapes and place them on the baking trays
- bake one tray at a time in the oven for 10 minutes, or until golden on top

- when they've cooled down, spread Nutella on top and sprinkle with nuts or draw on them with icing pens

And a few tips:
- the quicker you roll out and cut, the easier it is, because when the pastry warms up, it gets sticky. When it's too sticky, roll it back in a ball and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes
- for the same reason, before you roll it out, cut the pastry ball into two, and if you're baking alone, put one half back in the fridge so it stays cold while you deal with the other half

*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*