Hazelnut Shortbread

Recipe
3 cups of plain flour.
¾ cup of granulated sugar.
?½? cup of hazelnuts?
¼ teaspoon of salt.
1 ¼ cups of unsalted butter, in pieces.

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C)

Shell the hazelnuts and place directly on a baking tray. Roast for 5-10 minutes or until the skins begin to crack. Remove and place on a tea towel. Roll the contents inside to dislodge the skins.
Remove from tea towel and dispose of skins then place hazelnuts in plastic freezer bag and bash with rolling pin (or use food whizzy thing) until effectively ground.

Now reduce the oven temperature to 325°F (160°C).

In a suitably sized bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, hazelnuts and salt.
Cut the butter into flour mixture with a knife until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
Knead until the mixture holds together; then divide the dough in half.
Position each of the halves on an ungreased baking sheet.
Pat each out into a nine-inch circle, then crimp the edges.
Cut each circle into 12 equal wedges, but do not separate.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Recut to separate wedges.
Allow the shortbread to cool completely

Notes
The main Shortbread recipe was lifted from http://www.hazelnutrecipes.org/hazelnut-shortbread.html but since i'm not keen on destroying the whole flavour with Chocolate, i removed that bit. I also picked the hazelnuts myself so needed to roast them. I lifted that method from the utube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7bb1GsMEok

Update
Last year saw a bumper crop of wild Hazelnuts in late August/early September and i collected and stored a big tub of them. Only now in January have i considered making something out of them and what better sweet than Hazelnut shortbread.