I woke up one Sunday morning totally craving some cookies. Not just any cookies, but Nutella-stuffed!!! It’s so odd that whenever I crave something, I always have something very specific in mind. Once I craved fried chicken but had to be from this Korean fried chicken joint 15 miles away, KFC didn’t cut it. Another time I craved grilled lamb kebobs but couldn’t find it in any restaurants near me and was too lazy to make them at home. Braised lamb shanks didn’t satisfy my cravings nor did lamb hot pot. The craving went on for weeks until I finally got some kebobs. This doesn’t happen often but when it happens, I won’t stop until I get what I want. And no I’m not preggars but I often imagine how difficult I will be whenever that does come.

Ok that’s enough weird facts about me!

Needless to say I went on a hunt for a good Nutella-stuffed cookies recipe and I found a darn good one! Thank you Monique from Ambitious Kitchen, your Nutella-stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chips Cookies were AMAZING!!!!

As usual, I cut down the sugar by a bit and since I prefer dark chocolate, the milk chocolate chips were omitted. I also scooped out individual scoops of Nutella and froze it for two hours, it made the stuffing process less messy.

Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chips Cookies

Adapted from Ambitious Kitchen
Yields 2 dozen cookies

1. Cover a small tray with parchment paper. Using a small cookie dough scoop or two spoons, form about 24 one-teaspoon sized scoops onto the parchment paper. Freeze for at least two hours until hardened.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
3. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.
4. Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes if you are super eager.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place 1 scoop of the frozen nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; gently roll into a ball — it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled! Make sure that the nutella is not seeping out of the dough. Add more dough (to patch up the holes) if necessary. Work fast because the nutella thaws fast, and once it thaws it’ll be a goopy mess. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand VERY gently. (Really only the tops need to be flattened a bit!)
6. Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Nom nom nom, I’m going to be making these, ALL THE TIME!