Crispy Hazelnut Japonais Cookies

Preheat the oven to 170 °C fan.

Whip the egg whites together with the granulated sugar (part 1). As soon as it turns foamy, sprinkle in the sugar (part 2) and whip the mixture really stiff. The egg whites are perfect when they form peaks that hold their shape.

The Bowl must be grease-free: a trace of butter or a drop of egg yolk is enough to stop the egg whites from stiffening.

Mix the ground hazelnuts with the granulated sugar (part 3). Add the mixture to the egg whites in two or three portions and fold it in with the Rubber scraper — from the bottom upwards, don't stir.

Finally, stir in the melted butter. It must no longer be hot, otherwise the egg whites collapse. Hand-warm is right.

Place the Silicone mat on a Baking tray lined with baking paper and spread the mixture into the hollows with the Angled spatula. Draw the Spatula flat across the mat until the wells are filled and the ridges are cleanly scraped off.

The mat determines the shape: tongues and ovals, circles, hearts or flowers — the recipe stays the same.

Then carefully release the mat from the Baking tray and put a little leftover mixture under each corner of the baking paper. That way the paper sticks firmly and doesn't lift off the tray during baking.

How the scraping looks is best seen in the video above — of all the steps, it's the only one you really need to see.

Bake the Japonais for about 8 minutes in the preheated oven. They should be light golden, not brown — otherwise the hazelnuts turn bitter.

Then let them cool on the tray for about 10 minutes. While warm they're still soft and break when you release them; cold they're firm and crunchy.

Beat the soft butter briefly with the whisk and stir in the Soft melting fondant. Important: Soft melting fondant, not Sugar paste.

Once the mixture is smooth, stir in the tempered Milk couverture in three parts. Work quickly here — if the couverture sits too long, it sets and you get small lumps.

Finally, add the Hazelnut filling. Now you should have a smooth, firm cream.

Fill the cream into a piping bag with an 8-mm round piping nozzle. Pipe a dab onto one japonais half and gently press the second half onto it — far enough that the cream reaches the edge but does not squeeze out.

Then put the filled cookies in the fridge for about 5 minutes so the cream firms up.

Dip the chilled cookies halfway into tempered Milk couverture or into Cake icing. Let the excess chocolate drip off briefly and set them down on baking paper.

Finally, drizzle them with dark couverture — thin lines using the piping bag or a bag with the tip cut off — or sprinkle Hazelnut brittle onto the still-moist chocolate.

If you work with tempered couverture: how it's done is explained step by step in the post Tempering couverture and chocolate correctly. With Cake icing you don't need to temper.