Chocolate Hazelnut Diamonds

So, this is under the "holiday cookie" section of the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook...there are a bunch of recipes based off of one basic recipe. This is one of the variations...and is quite a pretty and delicious cookie with a delicate crumb.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Diamonds
courtesy of Americ'as Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Prep time: 1 hour 5 minutes (includes making the dough)
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes, plus cooking
Yields: about 50 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar (Superfine sugar will give your cookies a finer crumb and crisper texture. If you don't have superfine sugar or can't find it in the store, process about 1 cup granulated sugar in a food processor for abotu 30 seconds, then measure out 3/4 cup for the recipe)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 16 TBS (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and softened
• 2 TBS cream cheese, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and chopped fine (If you don't have/like hazelnuts, you can substitute another nut. I chose to use almond slivers.)

1. Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl.
2. Beat the butter into the flour mixture, one piece at a time, using an electric mixer on medium-low speed, then continue to beat 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the cream cheese and vanilla until the dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds.
3. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Press the dough in an even layer into a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Bake the cookies until they are light golden brown, about 20 minutes.
4. Immediately after removing the baking sheet from the oven, sprinkle evenly with the chocolate chips and let stand until melted, about 3 minutes. Using an offset spatula, spread the chocolate in an even layer, then sprinkle evenly with the shopped hazelnuts. Cool on a wire rack until just warm, 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Using a pizza cutter, cut into 1 1/2-inch diamonds. Transfew cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.