You know those people who stop eating and lose weight and when they’re stressed? The kind of people I kind of hate? Like my husband? I am not one of those people. I wish I were. But when I get stressed, chocolate, Vanilla Diet Cokes from Sonic, bread, and pasta suddenly become my best friends (well, maybe more “best” than they already were).
When Sara and I were traveling a lot earlier this year, it was stressful. Definitely good stressful, kind of like moving or house renovating–fun and exciting, but still…there were a lot of frayed nerves, especially at first. Our first book publicity trip in late January/early February was particularly stressful (there was a small rental car crash, lots of weather delays, and it just felt like there was not enough time to get everything done). One of the highlights of our trip, a little shelter from the craziness, was the night we had dinner with Maria and Josh from Two Peas and Their Pod. Their home was gorgeous and peaceful, the food was delicious, and even though it was the first time we met them in person, it felt like we were just meeting up with old friends and picking up where we left off.
The dinner was fabulous, but really, I was mostly in it for the cookies. The Pioneer Woman even calls Maria the Cookie Queen and she totally is. Being the stress eater that I am, I took care of about 4 of these bad boys and thought they were possibly the best chocolate cookies I’d ever eaten.
As we renovate our kitchen (which has now kind of turned into renovating the dining room, which kind of pushed my husband over the edge), I’m having lots of the same good stress feelings–it’s fun and exciting and expensive and terrifying and messy and we are eating a lot of cold cereal and peanut butter sandwiches right now. So what better to remedy my stress? Those magical Chocolate Nutella Cookies that got me through the first time.
You’ll need flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, real butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, hazelnut extract (if you have it/can find it–I couldn’t, so I just used a little more vanilla), Nutella, and milk.
Surprisingly, you don’t need eggs. I found this shocking. I’d never made cookies without eggs before. My friend Jeni, whose kitchen I borrowed to make these cookies, witnessed firsthand an angst-ridden Kate wondering aloud if there was a mistake in the recipe, if I should tweet Maria and ask if there should be eggs, if I was going to fail at Nutella cookies. I decided to have faith and follow the recipe as directed and I was not disappointed–they were just as magically delicious, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, as they were when we ate them at her house.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Set the mixture aside. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes or until smooth. Add the extracts and beat for another 30 seconds or so. Add the Nutella and beat until smooth.
With the mixer running, add half of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add the milk, mixing until combined completely, then add the remaining flour mixture and mix completely. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 15 minutes (and as long as 2-3 days).
When you’re ready to bake the cookies, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and place them on the lined cookie sheet, allowing about 2″ between the dough balls.
Lightly press the dough balls with the bottom of a drinking glass and then bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are crackly on top and soft, but starting to set. Remove from the oven and allow them to stand for about 5 minutes and then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely.
Now…I’ve gotta say…these are really yummy when they’re warm–they’re very brownie-ish. But when they’re completely cool, they are divine. The texture is unbelievable. Add in a glass of milk and you’ve got the perfect afternoon snack. Or sneaky breakfast before your kids wake up. Not that I know from firsthand experience.
Chocolate Nutella Cookies
Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled with a knife
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
2/3 cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon hazelnut extract (you can substitute 1/2 teaspoon vanilla if you can’t find or don’t like hazelnut extract)
1/3 cup Nutella
1/3 cup milk
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325°
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Set the mixture aside. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes or until smooth. Add the extracts and beat for another 30 seconds or so. Add the Nutella and beat until smooth.
With the mixer running, add half of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add the milk, mixing until combined completely, then add the remaining flour mixture and mix completely. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 15 minutes (and as long as 2-3 days).
When you’re ready to bake the cookies, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and place them on the lined cookie sheet, allowing about 2″ between the dough balls.
Lightly press the dough balls with the bottom of a drinking glass and then bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are crackly on top and soft, but starting to set. Remove from the oven and allow them to stand for about 5 minutes and then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
These look so nummy but my little girl is allergic to tree nuts, hence no hazelnuts without big Epipen drama.. Any other suggestions? Peanut butter just won’t work as well would it?
I just bought our first jar of Nutella – and I’ve been wondering what to do with it! (Yes, first one. Daughter was nut-allergic until about a year ago, and it’s also seemed to be a pricey splurge – but our grocery recently had super-doubles, so I sprang for a jar!)
They were so easy to make; my daughter loved eating the dough (which is eggless so no worries there). They taste like fudge. Rich chocolate with just a hint of nutty flavor. Enjoy!
Oh my gosh. I have to make these. I LOVE Nutella!
Mmm… sounds delicious. I am a big stress eater too and unfortunately for me my job is super stressful ALL the time. I always have a snack of some sort at my desk.. lol
I am sooo making these! I LOVE NUTELLA! And, I love hazelnuts, and chocolate. I am totally a stress eater too. These look delicious! 🙂 Thank you!
Are you kidding me? I am so going to make these. I am a Nutella addict. Just give me the jar and a spoon. Please.
Maybe I should make these quickly before Irene gets here–only a few hours to go! They wouldn’t spoil when the electricity goes out!
These sound wonderful! I can’t wait to make them. And for anyone who wants to know…Orson Gygi and Amazon both have hazelnut extract.
If I wasn’t preparing for Hurricane Irene, I’d be making these bad boys! As it is, I’m making “trash” aka, Muddy Buddy Mix…..
These are definitely on the menu for next week though – YUM!
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I am looking forward to trying them for my daughter, who is allergic to eggs and peanuts, but can have Nutella. We’ll have to go make a batch together now!
Where were you a week ago?! I “needed” a nutella cookie recipe to bring to a party and I went with a no-bake version and was pretty disappointed in the results. I ended up smearing some nutella on the top of them because you couldn’t really taste it in the cookie. Is this pretty nutella-y or is it just a good chocolate cookie? Either way I’ll still make it!
Jennifer, they definitely taste like nutella, but it’s not overwhelming; it’s a nice mild flavor. If you really want them to taste like Nutella I recommend using the hazelnut extract because that will help.
I make a cookie very similar but I sandwich them with nutella in the middle … Mmmmm 🙂
So glad you liked the cookies! You are welcome at our house anytime! Come visit us soon-I promise I will bake cookies for you:)
OHMYGOSH! I now know what I am making for a treat tonight! Thanks!!
What temp do you bake them at? Or am I just blind and can’t find it on here? It has been one of those days.
No you’re not crazy! Thanks for noticing that. You bake them at 325°
I bet these are really hard to stop nibbling on once you start. I better stay away for now, but I’m going to save the recipe!!
🙂
ButterYum
Where did you find that glass milk container? I have been looking all over for those!!
Leslie, I’m not sure about Kate, but I got one at Target not too long ago! Also, I always find cool things like that at World Market.
Wow, those look delicious!
Wow, I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with myself today, but now I do. I will be baking these yummy looking cookies! 🙂
YUMMMMM!! these look so dang good! can’t wait to make them in the next week or so:) thank you!
Kate, could you taste any difference between Maria’s version of this cookie and yours due to the different extract? Like you, I have no hazelnut extract sitting around. But unlike you, I have Gygi’s not too far away and I’ll bet they sell it. Is it worth the trip?
Patti-kins–hers were a hint more hazelnutty. I’m not a huge hazelnut fan, so I loved her cookies, but I didn’t really miss it.
Ah, yeah my hubby and I just made these and we didn’t have hazelnut extract, either. The dough is currently chilling in the fridge, but we had to taste it (obviously, who can resist cookie dough???) and we could hardly taste the hazelnut from the Nutella. Hoping that it comes out more once they’re baked. Either way, I know they’re going to be delicious….yum, thanks so much for the recipe!!!
I’m not a huge hazelnut fan either, so I’m glad you aren’t making me go to Gygi’s to get some, because that store sucks $100 out of my pocket every time I go in.
Love, Patti-kins 🙂
My Day Care Kids and I are off to make these right now! (I knew there had to be a better thing to do with this gigantic jar of Nutella from Costco besides smear it in a banana!) These look totally D-lish!
Whenever I see a cookie recipe that calls for rolling then into balls, I think, ‘freezer!’ These look perfect for prepping into a freezer dessert!
That is exactly what I just did. Baked half of the recipe and rolled the other halfto freeze for later.
Wow, these look like the perfect cookie! Sounds like you had a great time with Josh and Maria. Food blogger friends are the best! 🙂
did you just use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar. as a pregnant woman who is 4cm and 80% effaced at 37 weeks, i NEED to know!
Nicole, you can definitely use light brown sugar. Dark brown has a deeper flavor, but either would work just fine, so go make your pregnant self some cookies!
bake at 350? that is what most cookies bake at, so i guess i’ll start there. unless you did say it and i can’t find it….
It’s the first line of the recipe 🙂 325°
Looks great! But where do you add the Nutella? I don’t see where it is used in the recipe. Also, what is Dutch-process cocoa powder? Thanks for your help, can’t wait to try these this weekend!
I fixed it! 🙂 Just add it in after the extracts. It’s early and I’m running on, like, 4 hours of sleep and can’t pull from my brain the difference between regular and Dutch process cocoa powder, but I DO know that if you use regular cocoa powder, they’ll come out delicious (because that is what I did.)
Unlike Kate, *I* got the sufficient amount of sleep to enable me to describe cocoa powder facts early in the morning 😉 Dutch process has a little bit milder flavor. It’s treated with an alkalizing agent, so it has a neutral pH while regular cocoa powder is acidic. You can often interchange the two (I actually do all the time, with decent results) but because of the different pH levels, it can cause problems with the leavening agents used in a recipe because those agents are usually balanced with the pH of the specific cocoa called for in the recipe. Baking soda (which is alkaline) is generally used with regular cocoa powder to neutralize its acidity and baking powder is usually used with Dutch process because both ingredients are pretty neutral already. That being said, I interchange the two quite often because I never seem to have both on hand when I need them and I’ve honestly never had a recipe *not* turn out because I used one or the other.
Thanks Kate and Sara! I can’t wait to try these. Enjoy your weekend and get some rest. Greetings from Holland…
So, I have two different kinds of Cocoa. Regular or dark chocolate with dutch chocolate? Which would you go for?
Teresa, definitely go with the dark because it’s a combo that includes Dutch processed
These sound perfect. Love them!
I’ve printed the recipe and checked my supply of nutella.
Guess what I will be eating tomorrow! I can’t wait!
Hey, Katherine! I forgot the Nutella in the instructions, so be sure and print out a new copy! I hope you love them! 🙂
mmmm, perfect combination! I would so eat these first thing in the morning, sounds like a balanced breakfast to me!
(I keep trying to convince myself and my husband that Nutella is a health food 🙂 )