Chocolate and Hazelnuts. Does it get any better? These two just complement each other perfectly, the sweetness and nuttiness are a marriage made in heaven. The fact that this delicious flavour combination is available in the spreadable form of Nutella is, without doubt, better that sliced bread. I remember the first time I tried Nutella, I was about 6 years old and grocery shopping with my Mum when we were offered a small sample (I love free things, especially food, so I never say no to a sample!). Being a chocoholic I had devoured mine within seconds and was instantly hooked, luckily my Mum also has a sweet tooth so it didn’t take much persuading to buy to a jar of the incredible stuff. The rest, as they say, is history – Nutella has been a permanent feature in our cupboard since then and a staple food group of one of my younger sisters, Hannah. I’m sure at one point she lived off of Nutella on toast!
As there was no theme for last weekend’s SBC I just couldn’t decide what to bake. Then I remembered some Nutella filled cookies my boyfriend had mentioned (more than once, and pointed out in Starbucks!). I knew immediately that I had to bake these as a little present for him. The result was amazing! I think they have to be the best cookies I have ever eaten and the recipe is another that is pretty quick, easy and doesn’t require anything you probably don’t have in your cupboards. The cookies are soft and chewy and have a wonderful gooey Nutella centre. Alex was extremely happy with this and has polished off about 20 in the past week, luckily for him (and rather enviously for me!) he has an incredibly fast metabolism and the 4 cookies he has been consuming each day won’t have made the slightest difference to his waistline. The recipe I used made a whopping 32 cookies so fortunately I managed to sneak a couple without his knowledge 😉 It also meant that there was a little bit of room for error which was helpful as I slightly over-baked the first batch I cooked. Forgetting that the cookies would continue to cook once I had removed them from the oven, I thought they looked too soft after 10 minutes so left them in a little longer. This resulted in a more crunchy cookie without a gooey filling. Still delicious though! I urge anyone who likes Nutella in the slightest to try these, you will not be disappointed!
Ingredients
220g unsalted butter, left to soften at room temperature
150 g brown sugar
225g caster sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
440g flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
250g chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella (I used about 2/3 of a 400g jar)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas mark 4 and line a couple of baking trays with baking paper. (I needed 4 trays but only have 2 so had to make 2 batches).
2. Using an electric stand mixer cream the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla, mixing well after each addition.
3. Turn the mixer down to a slow speed and add the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda mixing until just incorporated. Finally, add the chocolate chips.
4. Using a heaped tablespoon create balls of dough. Place each ball in your hand and flatten well. Place a teaspoon of Nutella in the centre of the dough and then fold over and pinch together the edges of the dough shaping it around the Nutella.
5. Place on baking trays and bake for about 10 minutes, until lightly golden. The cookies may not look fully cooked after 10 minutes but they will continue to firm up whilst remaining chewy after removing from the oven.
Sugar Spice and all things Iced 