The Sea of Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

“‘Most princesses have adventures before they get to their castles,’ Jack said.
’Sometimes awful ones,’ said Lucy. She yawned and snuggled close.
’They get carried off by ogres or even fed to dragons. Can you imagine a worse thing than being tied to a tree in front of a deep dark cave?’”

— Nancy Farmer, The Sea of Trolls, page 108-109

I read this book for the first time when I was in middle school, and I remember being blown away by the story. It was full of adventure and fun, trolls and bards, dragons and vikings. And the protagonist was my age!

I needed to bake something for this book that kids would love.

Of course it had to be chocolate chip cookies.

But the addition of the Norse mythology, Beowulf, and the poem at the end that reveals that the entire story is an elaborate re-telling of a classic nursery rhyme, made me want to remake the classic cookie recipe. 

"She distracted Lucy with a handful of hazelnuts. The little girl applied herself to smashing them with a rock and picking out the kernels," (84).

Adding hazelnuts was easy enough, but I still wanted to do more. Not too much though, since the vikings weren't overly frilly people.

One of the main themes of the book is good vs. evil. The characters get attacked and kidnapped and face incredible struggles throughout the book. So I decided to add some dark chocolate chips with semi-sweet chocolate chips, instead of a milk chocolate.

Cookies (I quadrupled the recipe, so my bowl will have a lot more in it than your bowl will.)

-1/2 c  unsalted butter, semi-melted

-1/2 c  white sugar

-1/4 c  light brown sugar, packed

-1 egg

-1 1/4 c  all purpose flour

-1/2 tsp  baking soda

-1/2 tsp  baking powder

-1/2 tsp  salt

-1 c  semi-sweet chocolate chips

-1 c  dark chocolate chips

-2 c  crushed hazelnuts

1. In a large bowl, combine the slightly melted butter and the two sugars.
2. Add the salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and stir until combined.
3. Whisk in the egg.
4. Mix in the flour.
5. Add in all of the chocolate chips and the hazelnuts, and stir until they are evenly distributed.
6. Scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet, making sure to leave space between each ball.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. You want to take them out when the sides are golden brown.
8. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, then move onto a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

And that's it! You can probably put some ice cream on it if you want, but I prefer to eat them without anything else, right before they make their way to the cooling rack, while the chocolate is still gooey and the cookie is still warm.