Ingredients for about 24 pieces

• 420 g white flour
• 20 g of bitter cocoa
• 140 g of sugar
• 250 g butter, not too cold
• 1 egg
• 30 ml espresso coffee

For the icing

• 150 g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa
• 1 handful of hazelnuts

Procedure

Put the flour, sugar, butter cut into chunks, egg, and espresso coffee, prepared if possible with a coffee machine, in a bowl. Knead vigorously until you have a smooth, homogeneous dough. When kneading by hand, the key is to be fast enough so you don't overheat the dough.

Gather the dough from the bowl, wrap it in a piece of plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator to rest for about an hour. If you make it the day before (in my opinion, it is better), take the dough out of the refrigerator 1 hour before kneading it.

Turn on the oven and bring it to 180°C-static. Prepare a large baking pan lined with baking paper.

Sprinkle the work surface with a little flour. Roll out the dough using a rolling pin, also flouring it so it does not stick. You must get a thickness of 4 to 5 mm; if it is too high, the dough bakes poorly and the cookies turn out ugly. But if it is too low, it can burn easily.

Using a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter, cut as many cookies as you can make and arrange them on the baking sheet. Knead the scraps and shrink the dough until you have finished it. Be careful not to add too much flour, or they will be tough. If you work the dough too hard and it becomes sticky, put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes so that it comes "back into shape."

Bake the cookies and let them bake for about 15 to 18 minutes. Watch the cookies and remove them from the oven as soon as you notice the tips start to darken.

Prepare the icing by melting the chocolate in a double boiler and chopping the hazelnuts with a knife. Dip the cookies halfway into the chocolate, then let them dry on a wire rack, sprinkling them with the chopped hazelnuts before the chocolate solidifies.

Store them in an airtight container-they stay perfect for 5 to 6 days.