Nutella Swirled Chocolate Hazelnut Chunk Cookies!

So unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure social media has made you aware that it is national chocolate chip cookie day today! I simply couldn't let this 'food holiday' pass by without paying homage to that classic cookie! 

Choc chip cookies are one of the things my mom baked most when we were growing up...and then when my older sister was old enough she started whipping them up too so there was always a good chance of finding a fresh batch in the kitchen! Whoever invented chocolate chip cookies deserves a giant trophy and a medal, make that a million medals...they've paved the way for cookie goodness forever! I like my desserts to be on the extravagant side, but even I can't turn down a simple humble chocolate chip cookie - they are timeless classics! and I think they are the kind of sweet treat that will be peoples favourites forever! 

On that note...let me introduce the humble chocolate chip cookie's older and crazier sister - the Nutella swirled chocolate hazelnut chunk cookie! yes you read that right.  Let's take a minute to break this down.  You start off with a brown sugar cookie which by itself would be delicious enough...but then you swirl a ton of dreamy creamy Nutella through the dough, and instead of just adding regular chocolate chips, you pimp it up by adding chocolate chunks because everyone knows chunks make a superior cookie! but not just any chunks, oh no...we're adding in Cadbury's whole nut chunks! so that to compliment the Nutella you have actual hazelnuts in your cookies too! 

I mean, if that description hasn't lured you in, I don't know what will! 

You need to bake these today! Sally, who invented this cookie on her blog shared a picture of them to instagram and that very same evening I just had to bake a batch because they looked too good not to! I then baked another batch two days later which is rare in this house, but we ran out of them so quick that it was essential to make more!! 

Don't say I didn't warn you, these are dangerously addictive! and will probably become your new favourite cookie! They are definitely the BEST cookie I've made this year! 

Nutella Swirled Chocolate Hazelnut Chunk Cookies:

Makes 18 

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar 

1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar

1 large egg + 1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup (148g) Nutella, divided

2 1/3 cups (295g) plain flour 

1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cornflour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups (225g) whole nut milk chocolate, divided

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line three large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  

In a free standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute on medium speed until creamy.  Add the brown sugar and caster sugar and beat on medium high speed until fluffy.  Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla on high speed until combined.  Stir the Nutella in the jar vigorously before using so the oils are not lurking at the top as this will cause your cookies to spread.  Beat in 1/4 cup (74g) of Nutella until combined.  

Whisk the flour, cornstarch, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a large bowl.  On low speed, slowly mix into the wet ingredients until combined.  Chop chocolate into chunks.  Add 1 cup (180g) of whole nut chocolate chunks and mix on low for about 5-10 seconds until evenly distributed.  Turn the mixer off and add the remaining Nutella.  Beat for 5-10 seconds so the Nutella streaks through the cookie dough and is not fully mixed...be careful not to overbeat.  Dough will be a little crumbly but that's not a problem. 

Roll dough into balls, larger than a tablespoon.  The warmth of your hands will help them come together.  Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, until slightly golden brown around the edges.  Rotate the sheets once during baking time.   The baked cookies will look extremely soft in the centre when you remove them from the oven.  Allow them to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet.   Gently press the remaining chocolate chunks into the tops of the slightly warm cookies (this is purely for looks!)

Transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.  

Smarties & Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I have a smarties obsessed husband! I haven't had the inclination to eat anything smarties related since I was about 10! Byron, on the other hand, requested smarties birthday cakes for three years running!  So when we were in the supermarket the other day he picked up a multi pack of smarties and asked if I could turn them into cookies - how could I say no?!

 

 I decided to add in some big chocolate chunks too, because I was going to be eating some of these after all as well! we had to add a little sophistication to them somehow! Actually sophistication should have probably come in the form of dark chocolate chunks but I can't stand the taste of dark chocolate...milk all the way for me!

 

 These cookies were the perfect mix of chewy and soft on the inside and golden and crisp on the outside.  I got served a very overdone choc chip cookie at a cafe the other day and it made me sad! Surely everyone knows the rule that you take out cookies when they look underdone and that will let them bake to the perfect consistency as they cool down on the tray!

I got out my triple tiered cooling rack in anticipation of the vast amount of cookies we were going to bake up, but I needn't have bothered because we'd demolished the first batch before the second was even out of the oven! I seem to remember it was a grey and rainy Saturday afternoon...and when all your friends down south are posting gloriously sunny blue sky antics on instagram and facebook and you're stuck in gloomy Scotland on a grey day when it SHOULD BE THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER, well...eating your way through whole batches of cookies is the only thing to keep spirits up!

Smarties & Choc Chunk Cookies:

Makes 18

Adapted from Picky Palate

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups plain flour

3 tbsp instant vanilla pudding mix

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 cup large milk chocolate chunks

1 cup smarties

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper, or a silpat liner is what I use.

In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until well combined.  Add the egg and vanilla, mixing to combine.  Add the flour, pudding mix, bicarbonate of soda and salt, stirring to combine with a wooden spoon.  Chop up the chocolate chunks and add them in with the smarties, stir with a spoon or spatula until they have all been incorporated.  

Using a medium cookie scoop, place dough 1 inch apart from each other.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until cooked through (but still appearing to look underdone).  Let cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Eat and enjoy!

Giant S'mores Stuffed Choc Chip Cookies for National S'mores Day!

Happy National S'mores Day!

We couldn't have asked for better timing here in the UK because after a few weeks of washout weather the sun has FINALLY remembered it's late to the party and has put in an appearance which means everyone should be BBQing it up tonight and in our house BBQ's = S'mores! So for all you first timers out there who have yet to enjoy the s'moreish goodness I'm urging you all to go out buy some marshmallows, buy a pack of biscuits, buy some super delish choc (Milka was my choc of choice this time) and join in the s'mores party, seen as how it's National S'mores Day it would be rude not to!!

My search continues to incorporate s'mores into every baked good possible! so when I stumbled upon Tara's amazing s'mores stuffed chocolate chip cookies I knew I had to bake some up!

Tara made her own graham crackers from scratch but after trying my hand at these a few months back I don't think they compare to regular graham crackers - there's not enough crunch to them! so I stuck with Nabisco's boxed ones to keep the cookies as authentic as possible!

I decided to incorporate both milk and white chocolate chunks into my cookies just to add to the fun! and yes that's about a fistful size of cookie dough you have to put either side of the ready made s'more! 

So I ended up baking my cookies on one baking tray at the time because by the time they spread out in the oven they were the size of small pizzas! 

Yes, they're over the top! but who could deny a giant warm and melted chocolate studded cookie complete with a gooey marshmallow s'more baked into the middle! Not me, that's for sure!

Go get some s'mores love, you won't be disappointed!

Giant S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Makes 4

From Smells Like Home

For the cookie dough:

2 cups plus 2 tbsp plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

1 cup soft brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk chocolate chunks

3/4 cup white chocolate chunks

For assembly:

1 cookie dough recipe, at room temperature

8 graham cracker squares, broken into halves

4 marshmallows, chopped in half lengthwise

2 rows of milk chocolate from an 100g bar of Milka (or your chocolate of choice)

Prepare 4 s'mores: Break each graham cracker square in half.  Place 2-3 squares of milk chocolate (depending on which size/brand you have used) on top of the graham cracker.  Cut marshmallows lengthwise, place one half on top of the chocolate.  Finish with the graham cracker half.  Set those 4 s'mores aside for later.

For the cookie dough: Whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in the egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined - the batter should look a little lumpy.  Stir in chocolate chips.  

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.  Line two baking trays with parchment paper.  

Get two large spoonfuls of cookie dough and shape them into a flat circle.  Put the cookie dough round onto the baking tray and place a pre prepared s'more on top.  Take two more spoonfuls of cookie dough and shape them into a round and place them on top of the graham cracker and then shape the dough around the s'more until it is completely covered - at this stage it will resemble a cookie dough mound!

Mine were so big that I had to use one tray per cookie, so I baked in two sessions.  Bake for 20-24 minutes or until the tops and edges are slightly browned and the edges just lift off the tray with a spatula.  The s'mores will most likely peek out of the cookies but it just adds to the charm so go with it! 

Leave them to cool on the trays for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool for a further 10 minutes.

If you have made something s'moreishly delicious then hop on over to Mandy's blog where you can add your blog post to her link party - go on...then we can have a giant collection of s'more related baked goods - it will be amazing! It doesn't just have to be something you've made today either!