Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella Cookies for World Nutella Day 2013

Today is World Nutella Day!  A couple of bloggers a few years back decided their love for Nutella needed to be known, shared and united.  February 5 was the chosen day and here we are!  I’ve enjoyed over the last four years or so playing around with delicious things for this day and this one is no exception.  These look like meager, little brown cookies, but the punch of Nutella taste with the crunchy hazelnuts in a soft, chewy cookie is delicious!

I made most of them just as simple, smaller (2  1/2 inch) cookies.  But they really do taste like the perfect hit of Nutella and the fresh roasted hazelnuts are the perfect touch.  I did play around with a little of the dough and made some bigger cookies.  They seemed like they really needed more than just to be bigger.  So---I made them in to a sandwich, and of course, they were sandwiched with NUTELLA!

I had to take a bite.

I will make my oldest, Scott, finish the cookie when he gets home from school.  I would love to indulge, but am still on my not-much-sugar kick.  sigh

Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

4 ounces good, dark chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips)

6 ounces Nutella, divided use

10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter

½ cup (2 ¼ ounces) all purpose flour

3 tablespoons (15 grams) natural cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (125 grams) granulated sugar

½ cup skinned and toasted, chopped hazelnuts

Spread 4 ounces of Nutella on plastic wrap about ¼ inch thick. Lay it flat on a plate or baking sheet and put it in the freezer (this can be done anytime ahead of making the cookies, you probably want to freeze it for at least a half hour.)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate chips, 2 ounces of Nutella and the butter in a microwave safe glass bowl in 20-30 second intervals (or in a saucepan on the stove). Stir to combine well. Let cool 5 minutes.

Whisk together in a smaller bowl the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. Whisk in the sugar and stir until well combined. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the eggs and sugar and stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Working quickly (because the frozen Nutella melts quickly), remove it from the freezer and cut in into small pieces. Put the Nutella chunks and chopped hazelnuts in the cookie dough and carefully stir it together, folding it lightly. It’s okay if melts and looks like it’s making more swirls in the dough than remaining chunky. Scoop mounds of dough onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 11 minutes, you can go a little longer for a crispier cookies, but these are soft and chewy. Makes about 40 cookies that are about 2 ½ inches round.

Confession, okay, I made the cookies yesterday and ate a whole one of these little ones. 

Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso are the two masterminds behind making this day a WORLD holiday. ;)

You can find hundreds of Nutella recipes from years past on the World Nutella Day website or check out the Facebook page.

Here’s a look at some of my past post involving Nutella in all its delicious chocolate and hazelnut glory.

Nutella Brownies

Pretzel Nutella Chunk Cookies and some Frosted Nutella Brownies

Nutella Truffle Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

Nutella Banana Oatmeal

 

Nutella Chocolate Cream Pie

Chocolate Graham Cracker Nutella S'mores

And a little stroll down memory lane with this little guy, Sam is almost six now, but he’ll always be my baby and he still loves Nutella!

Would you look at this face!

Happy World Nutella Day and grab a spoon!