PinTried: Nutella Stuffed Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies With Sea Salt

The original pin came from The Bite Sized Baker

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Rating: Nailed It!

 There are a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes floating around that claim to be the best ever, but I think these really are. When I first saw the recipe, I thought "Wow, that looks really complicated," and I already have a good chocolate chip cookie recipe, (Wookiee Cookies from the Star Wars cookbook) so why go to all that trouble? But these are stuffed with Nutella, the amazingly rich and gooey chocolate-hazelnut spread. So I decided it was worth a go.

 What makes these different (besides the Nutella) is plain greek yogurt, browned butter, and sea salt. The browned butter threw me, I'd never done it before. But I Googled it, it wasn't that hard, and it definitely adds a layer of nutty richness that isn't there with regular softened butter. Adding sea salt to sweet things seems to be a real trend lately, and one I heartily approve of. That touch of salt really brings out the sweet of the chocolate.

  I've now made these three times, twice sticking to the recipe, once with some tweaks to fit our personal taste. (I also made them once without the Nutella, since DH is allergic to hazelnuts.) Both ways these cookies got almost unanimous raves - the one holdout was my 10-yr-old godson. He asked what the white stuff on top was, and when I said sea salt, he looked at me like I'd lost my mind. ("Sea salt? On a cookie? Ewww.") I made them most recently for a gathering, and forgot to take pictures until they were almost all gone, so excuse the hasty cell phone pics (thanks Jeff!)

The last of the batch

An action shot for scale. As you can see, it's a two-handed cookie!

Here's the recipe, with my personal tweaks in parentheses:

2¼ cup all-purpose flour

1¼ teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter (I used salted once when I was out of unsalted, and liked it better)

1¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use one cup of dark & leave out the milk choc.)

½  cup milk chocolate chips

1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator (Nutella jar says don't refrigerate, but it has to be cold, or it's too gooey to work with.)

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

1. In a large bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt until combined. In a saucepan over medium heat, brown butter and set aside to cool.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. (I don't have a stand mixer or paddle attachment. Regular hand mixer worked just fine.) Mix in egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Place cookie dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours to let the flavors meld together. (I have never been able to wait the whole two hours, as long as the dough is cold enough to work with, it's fine.)
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll 1½ tablespoons of dough and flatten the dough to make a flat circle. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled Nutella in the middle then place another flat circle of cookie dough on top. Crimp edges to seal. (If you make them this big, they spread to the size of saucers. You can make them smaller, just adjust the cooking time.)
5. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.
6. Sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on wire racks. (I've put the sea salt on before baking - still tastes good, but the sea salt almost disappears. Good for picky people who don't like the look of salt on top. Personally, I prefer to add it after baking, though.)