Chocolate Hazelnut Pistachio Cookie Cake

Chocolate Hazelnut Pistachio Cookie Cake 

 

This is a special cake I invented for my mom’s birthday. Almost every ingredient was picked out specifically for what I know about her tastes. She loves pistachios (especially in ice cream) so I made pistachio cookies. The cookies were based off of a simple peanut butter cookie recipe that I made for her once on a whim and she adored. I also made my own pistachio butter with organic refined coconut oil (a healthy fat that she loves to cook with.)  The frosting was made from Neufchatel. It’s a french cream cheese with 1/3rd the fat and the cream cheese that I always use in her favorite frosting recipe. The chocolate hazelnut spread I used was the brand I brought home from France so that I could recreate the crepes I had loved so she could taste them. The ganache was made from a high quality milk chocolate that we both fell in love with a few years ago when we made homemade toffee.

 I also chose to make the layers out of cookies instead of cake because we were traveling on her birthday. I had to make something that would stand up well and last well. The cake actually tasted even better. It acted like a well made fruitcake, where the flavors just got richer and more pronounced over time. This is a perfect cake to make ahead of time. It’s unique enough to be a special occasion meal but classic enough that it suits almost everyone’s tastes.

For the cookies

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup pistachio butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup chopped macadamia nnuts
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 small egg or 1 egg white

Directions

1. Preheat oven for 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together pistachio butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, and the egg.  Mix in chopped macadamia nuts and separate into three balls. Flatten the cookies with your hand or a fork and back on parchment paper for 8 minutes.
3. Cool completely on wire rack.

For the frosting

Ingredients

• 4 oz Neufchatel
• 3/4 cup Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (Nocciolata Rigoni di Asiago)
• 1/4 tsp chocolate extract
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract.
• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2-3/4 tsp salt.

Directions

1. Cream together Neufchatel and chocolate hazelnut cream until smooth and slightly lighter in color.
2. Mix in 1/4 tsp of vanilla,chocolate,and almond extract.
3. Slowly beat in powdered sugar,1/4 cup at a time. Add 1 tbsp of milk and mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Beat in cocoa powder and salt.
5. Frost the cooled cookies and set in refrigerator or freezer to let the frosting stiffen up.

For the ganache (Make after assembling and cooling the rest of the cake.)

Ingredients

• 1 oz (two tbsp) milk
• 3 oz finely chopped high quality milk chocolate

Directions

1. Bring 1 oz of milk (about two tbsp) to a boil and pour over chopped chocolate.
2. Let sit for one minute, then whisk until smooth. Cool slightly.
3. Pour over assembled and chilled cake. Refrigerate to set.

I hope you love it just as much as she did. 🙂 I love you Mom!

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