Nutella Chip Cookies

Tags

nutella, Nutella & Reeses cookies, Nutella cookies, Nutella white chocolate chip cookies, Reeses Peanut Butter chips

Cousin Hannah visits fairly often these days and I like to prepare a new treat for each of her visits as it gives me an excuse to bake something just for her, that she would love and something that I wouldn’t normally bake. Often this has some element of Nutella, Reeses Peanut Butter and chocolate involved… today was no exception!

Pinterest inspired me to create a Nutella chip cookie but instead of chocolate chips, putting Reeses chips into them… the marriage is probably perfect and I’m sure would make a killer cookie.

We weren’t wrong!

I was shocked at how thin the batter was, thus how far and thin the cookies spread when they baked which made me nervous but after a couple of minutes of cooling, Mei and I shared a half of the smallest cookie and we both reached for a second cookie together. These are nothing short of blowing your socks off amazing and even if you aren’t a Nutella fan, like me, these are sure to please! We even put  sea salt on top of them and that just brought out the rich chocolate in the Nutella which is the part that I fell in love with!

Mei is really into helping these days!

we were making two recipes at once, this day

What is my issue with Nutella? It is just too aggressive for me… something about the combination of hazelnuts (which I love) and chocolate (which I love) is just too rich and I can hardly stand it on its own, so mixing it into vanilla frosting or something else like this cookie mixture, makes it perfect. If you don’t like putting sea salt on your cookies, this can easily be admitted and it won’t affect the taste at all, but the chocolate flavor won’t be quite as rich.

I presented these cookies as a dessert after dinner once she arrived and Cousin Hannah set aside the plate of the cookies, reserving a few so she could make them last. Mei saw us eating cookies and asked for one and enjoyed a large glass of milk with it. This is certainly a cookie that will be made in bulk for the holiday season and given as gifts… and sure to please!

Ingredients:

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 2/3 C whole wheat flour (optional, you can just use all AP flour if you prefer)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 C unsalted butter, softened
• 1 C Nutella
• 2/3 C sugar
• 1 C brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 C Reeses Peanut Butter Chips
• 1 C white chocolate chips
• sea salt for finishing (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt then set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the butter, Nutella, sugar and brown sugar, creaming them together until light and fluffy, about four minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla, beating until smooth.

Using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir in the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Add the chips and stir until just incorporated.

Spoon the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets then bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are golden. Allow to cool before eating… if you can wait that long!

Rugelach

Tags

apricot lekvar, Baking with Julia, Dorie Greenspan, hazelnut, Hungarian cookie, mango, pinwheeel cookie, raisin, rugelach, Tuesdays with Dorie

Alright fellow bakers, I have to admit, when I saw this recipe, I was intrigued. As I read through it, those darned pregnancy hormones said “OH HELL NO!” … It just did not appeal to say the least. I went back and forth for a week deciding to either skip the recipe or give it a shot and give them away, since I really had no interest in actually eating one of these…

Then I saw someone post on the chat post on our main group website about making them this past Christmas and how great they were and with a good picture of the, I became inspired to actually make them – even if I only wanted to try one and give the rest away to another more interested cookie eater. Of course this person posted about shaping them like croissants – which appealed to me as well, and continued to plague my thoughts as I assembled this cookie.

rolled, sliced and being transported to the baking sheet

It was a hell of a lot of work for a cookie that you don’t want to eat in the first place  but I have committed to this group and as with French Fridays with Dorie, some of the recipes that I was really nervous about or resistant to, I actually really enjoyed and have had a few times since! Figures, right?

So here we are, taking two days to bake this cookie, in steps, late at night while Mei napped so I could focus on each step of a rather long recipe for a cookie. Don’t you think?? … It was rather involved I thought.

I was impressed with how hard the dough set up once everything was rolled up and tucked in and chilled … but boy was it a counter tornado to get everything put together! I chose to put in finely chopped hazelnuts, dried mango and raisins to go in the cookies and then instead of doing the egg wash, since I had only made a half recipe of the dough and wound up only having enough fruit and nuts to make a quarter of that, I chose to sprinkle the slices once laid out on the baking sheet with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

looking great!

The baking sheet went into the pre-heated oven, timer set for 20 minutes… I sat down to have a cup of tea and a treat while I waited for the cookies.

The house began to fill up with that magical cinnamon sugar raisin scent that just awakens a need to eat whatever comes out of the kitchen next and then the timer went off!

I ran in, threw open the oven door, excited to see how the delicious pinwheels turned out, excited to try at least one and my heart sank.

The whole tray worth was burnt to a crispy.

I mean, really. See for yourself!!

What happened??? Did skipping the egg wash have this kind of effect on the cookies?? …

I think before I bother with this recipe again, if I come across a rugelach cookie in a store or some bakery somewhere, I will try one and if it works out that I like it, I will add it to my cookie rotation as there were plenty of people I told about this cookie that were interested to see the outcome and possibly try one since I made it very clear that I didn’t want to even bake one nor did I want to eat more than one… but have you ever heard of a recipe that made just ONE COOKIE? … haha!

I know some other bakers had a great experience and have loved this cookie… I know that if I go ahead and bake this again, I would rather roll this as croissant shapes since it would be easier to handle while rolling and chilling, etc.

To see how the other bakers did, click here. To get the recipe, please visit our hosts for this week’s recipe, The Urban Hiker and My Baking Heart! If you would like to join in the fun, pick up a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking with Julia” and jump in!