Chocolate Nutella Cookies with My Niece and Nephew

Chocolate Nutella Cookies alla Anna, Carson and Gary

My niece, nephew and I made some cookies together and they turned out great. I used one of my old recipe creations and added in some stuff that the two kids wanted in a cookie.

In a sauce pan, combine:

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
• 1 Cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat until butter and chocolate have melted. Do not overheat as chocolate may become bitter. Once melted, place in a bowl (or stand mixer bowl) and mix on medium speed until mixture cools to slightly warm.

Once mixture is cooled, add in:

• 2 eggs

Continue mixing on medium speed until mixture becomes lighter in color (approximatley 3 minutes).

Once mixture is lighter, add in:

• 2 tablespoons of good vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of almond extract
• 1/2 cup of Nutella

Mix on medium speed for a minute so it is fully mixed.

In a seperate bowl (while the wet mixture is mixing), combine:

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (or 1 teaspoon if not using salted butter)
• 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips (or more)
• 1 cup of broken cookies (we used Bourbon Indian/British cookies)

Mix these dry ingredients together.

Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir just until combined. It requires very little stiring...maybe 10 strokes.

Once it is combined, add in:

• 1 cup of Nutella

stir the Nutella into the batter so that there are ribbons of Nutella throughout. You do not want to mix it so much that it becomes part of the dough. You want ribbons or gobs of Nutella. I hope you're mouth is already watering.

The dough will be very wet and seem like it needs more flour. It doesn't! Put it in the fridge for a half of an hour before baking. Right when you put it into the fridge, you can start your oven.

Preheat your oven to 375F.

Scoop out 1-inch diameter balls onto your baking sheet. I use parchment paper; if you don't have parchment, use a non-stick pan or a little cooking spray.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. They will be done and ready to come out when the cookies have spread out on the pan and the tops are slightly cracked. They may be slightly puffy looking in the center at 10 minutes but they will flatten once you take them out to cool.

A little nerdy information on the cookies (Vidya, this one's for you!). I love food and I love science. I love food science! There is always a battle inside of me between my artistic side and my logical side with everything in life. It's a delicious battle though! I can never make the same thing the same way twice. I rarely use recipes--even with baking--and instead rely on the science, experience and desire to taste different things, feel different textures and take in different flavors. It sounds so complicating, but it isn't. I'm driven by my need to stuff myself full of cookies.

These cookies come out with a melted, doughy inside and a somewhat crisp outside. The texture is great! I melt the butter with the chocolate, sugar and milk so that once the flour is added, the cookies will spread out (flatten) and not become cakey. There's nothing that I hate more than a cakey cookie. If ever I have a big, puffy cookie, it's got to be tender like a Russian Tea Cake, benne biscuit or pie crust. If they are not like that, then I want it flat, chewey on the inside and crispy on the outside or outer ring.

In an old recipe that I created a while back, I would use only egg yolks instead of the whole egg because it lead to a softer cookie. I used the whole egg this time because the egg white creates the crispy shell on the outside. There's something about the egg white plus the melted chocolate that creates this one-of-a-kind shell that holds in soft, chewy center.

Make sure that your oven is HOT. Even though I suggested that you preheat your oven when you put your dough into the fridge, I will always turn my oven on an hour prior to baking anything (cake, bread, cookies, etc.) because I want the heat to penetrate the crappy oven walls so that when I have to open the door, I don't loose precious heat. That's another thing...do not open your oven door unless you have to when the cookies are baking. You will loose at least 100 degrees each time you do it and when you're baking cookies for such a short time, that change in temperature can significantly change the texture of your cookie.

{cheers}

As always, some music to go with this. I chose "Moon River" even though it has nothing to do with these cookies. I just like this song (and coincidently the movie).