Nutella Surprise Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last summer my sister spent six weeks in Paris and fell in love with this stuff called Nutella.  Maybe I've been living under a rock for the past 26 years, but I had never really heard that much about it until her love affair began.  Still, it took about 16 months and a special occasion for me to ever buy a jar of this chocolate hazelnut spread.  

I had stumbled upon a recipe for nutella stuffed cookies on Pinterest (surprise, surprise) a while back and figured Sarah Beth's birthday would be the perfect time to give these babies a go.  Sure, they took a bit longer to make than your average cookie, but they were so good that the extra effort was MORE than worth it.  

These cookies have brown butter, brown sugar and three (yes, three) different kinds of chocolate chips mixed into the dough.  A nice plump dollop of nutella fills the middle while a light sprinkle of sea salt on top gives these cookies an unexpected pop of flavor.

While these cookies are certainly nothing less than delicious once they cool, they taste the best just out of the oven when the dough is still incredibly soft and warm and the nutella just spills out when you bite in.....can you tell I ate several of these and know just how they taste best???  If you're not near the oven when they come out just pop them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.

Nutella Surprise Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from Ambitious Kitchen

Printable Version
2 1/4 C flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 sticks (1 C) unsalted butter

1 1/4 C dark brown sugar

1/4 C sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp plain greek yogurt*

3/4 C semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 C milk chocolate chips

1/2 C dark chocolate chips

1 jar of Nutella, chilled in fridge

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

*I didn't have any greek yogurt and used sour cream instead. 

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.  Set aside.  

To brown the butter, melt butter over medium heat in saucepan, whisking constantly.  Butter will begin to foam.  Remove butter from heat just as soon as it begins to brown on the bottom after a few minutes. It will also begin to give off a nutty aroma.  Pour into large bowl and set aside to cool.  

Beat sugars into butter with electric mixer until thoroughly blended.  Beat in egg, egg yolk, vanilla and yogurt.  Beat on low speed while slowly adding dry ingredients until everything is fully incorporated.  Use large spoon to gently fold in chocolate chips.  

*Make sure the batter isn't too hot from the butter or the chocolate will melt!

Chill dough in fridge for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease or line large baking pan.

Gather 1 1/2 Tbsp of chilled dough and roll into ball.  Press ball of dough flat in your hand.  Place 1 tsp nutella in middle of dough.  Roll back up around nutella, making sure none is seeping out.

Place balls of dough on prepared pan 3 inches apart.  Very slightly flatten tops of dough balls.  *My cookies spread more and I didn't need to flatten them.

Bake 9-11 minutes or until edges of cookies are just beginning to turn golden brown.  Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool on wire wrack.

The cookies may look raw in the middle when you take them out of the oven, but mine firmed up perfectly by the time they cooled.