Remember the Snickers Cookies I made about 2 months ago? Well, a few weeks ago, one of my readers left me a great tip in the comments section of that post. Not only did she love the Snickers Cookies, she had also come up with a great variation. Instead of rolling the chocolate cookie dough into salted, chopped peanuts and filling the cookies with salted caramel, she rolled the dough in chopped hazelnuts and filled them with Nutella!
Great idea, right? That’s what I thought!
And because I had been wanting to pay homage to Nutella since my trip to Gran Canaria last week – where I was once again reminded how gorgeously delicious the stuff actually is – I quickly decided that those cookies would make the perfect tribute!
This is what the cookies looked like before I drizzled them with Nutella. They were gorgeous. Beautifully soft and cakey on the inside and packed with chocolate flavor and crunchy hazelnuts! No, I didn’t roll them in the hazelnuts. I decided that I wanted something else for these cookies!
Anyway, once drizzled with Nutella, these cookies are messy…
As in: sticky hands, sticky mouth, sticky-everything kind of messy! If you don’t like messy, go clean something. Do the dishes. Be neat and perfect. Just know that this is not the place for you… This post is for people who like to get messy. People who don’t mind getting their fingers covered in Nutella and their foreheads accidentally smudged while eating a delicious cookie.
Or am I the only one who regularly walks past a mirror, only to think: “how did I get food on my forehead?!”
I think my baby niece will love these cookies too! Last night, the Rocking Rebel and I were having dinner at my sister’s place. The Rocking Rebel and I had just taken little Lucy, my 4-year-old nephew and my 3-year-old niece (she just turned 3 this Tuesday!) for a walk in the forest behind their house, my sister had given the baby a bath and my brother-in-law had made bow-tie pasta with red sauce.
I guess you can imagine what the now 11-month-old baby looked like after dinner, but just for the sake of fun, I’ll provide you with a detailed description. First image the cutest baby ever. She was wearing pretty, white pajamas and was grabbing fistfuls of pasta like she hadn’t been fed for weeks. When she finished her plate, she decided to wear it as a hat!
After dinner, her once-white pajamas were covered with red tomato sauce and grated cheese and my baby niece looked like a 70s punk rocker, with bright red, spiky hair! She may not even be a year old, but that little baby rocked the punk look like no one else!
Anyway, my point is: she likes to get messy. She’ll love these cookies! But if you’re one of those neat and perfect people In talked about or if you plan to serve these on a wedding day or something, just chill them in the fridge before eating to set the Nutella. That will that care of most of the mess!
Enjoy!
- 120g (or 4 ounces) semisweet chocolate
- 40ml (or 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) regular milk
- 60g (or 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 150g (or ½ a cup + 3 tablespoons) light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 80g (or ½ a cup + 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
- 30g (or ¼ cup) cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 130g (or ¾ of a cup) hazelnuts, chopped
- 150g (or 5 ounces) Nutella
- In the bowl of a double boiler, gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally to make sure it completely melts. Once the chocolate has melted, take it off the heat and add the milk. Stir to combine, then set the mixture aside to cool.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix to combine.
- Add the cooled chocolate mixture, the flour, the cocoa, the baking powder and the salt. Stir until combined, using a rubber spatula. Once the flour has absorbed the wet ingredients, mix briefly with the mixer to make sure it's smooth. Finally, add the chopped hazelnuts and mix in.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. I usually use my hands to shape the dough into a rough rectangle before wrapping it in plastic wrap, as it allows me to easily divide the dough once it has chilled.
- As the dough chills, preheat your oven to 175°C/350°F and line a cookie sheet with baking parchment.
- Once the dough has chilled, divide it into 24 chunks, roughly roll each chunk into a ball and place the dough balls on the lined cookie sheet, placing them 5-cm/2-inches apart.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are no longer shiny. Take out off the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, the cookies should be soft, chewy and cakey.
- While the cookies cool, gently heat the Nutella in the bowl of a double boiler until it's almost liquid. Plop it in a piping bag or ziplock bag, snif the end off the bag or a corner of the ziplock bag and drizzle the Nutella over the cookies. Allow to chill in the fridge or serve immediately. Enjoy!
The best food is the messiest! These look fantastic!
Thanks Laura! 🙂