{Recipe} Nutella Cookies

My brother-in-law bit into one of these, stared at me as he chewed, then asked, "Do you know what heaven tastes like?"

Apparently, it tastes like these cookies.

Recipe included after the jump!

This is a recipe that I found somewhere online about three years ago. The source died with my old laptop, but the recipe survived in my recipe book with minor alterations. These cookies were not made with macadamia nuts, because I couldn't find those to save my life. Better luck next time! But these cookies really are amazing when macadamias are included.

Nutella Cookies Recipe

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup Nutella

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

I am a forever fan of Alton Brown's "Muffin Method." It involves keeping the dry ingredients separate from the wet ingredients until the end of prep, which helps prevent over-beating batters and doughs.

Mr. Brown is also one of those people who would Hulk out if he saw someone using flour that wasn't properly sifted. He'd talk about aeration and other scientifical things but to me, sifting is as simple as keeping my flour from being lumpy. This is the flour, baking soda, and sugar...

And now it's nicely sifted AND mixed together.

In the Muffin Method, sugar is actually treated as a wet ingredient, as it's always beaten with the butter until it's fluffy. I remember Alton Brown talking about the sharp sugar granules cutting into the butter and breaking it up so that it eventually mixes better with the dry ingredients.

(I'm convinced I would not know any science whatsoever if Alton Brown hadn't taught me some of it through food.)

The gooey goodness known as Nutella is added. 

Then the egg and vanilla extract. My dad subscribes to the idea that more vanilla extract is a good thing, but I think too much of it could ruin the composition of the baked good... which is why one of my clearest childhood memories is from when I was 7, and my dad had baked a cake for my mum's birthday (on Halloween) and it came out completely lopsided. Dad hasn't baked since then.

Then it's time for the dry mixture, which I usually add in two or three batches.

Then the white chocolate chips (and macadamia nuts if you so choose) are mixed in until just combined.

Bake these babies at 375° for 8 mins. These things crisp up very quickly, so if you want chewy centers, you have to be vigilant about the 8 minutes.

My husband and brother-in-law ate through these in the space of two days. I brought two of them to my mum on Mothers Day and there were only three left out of this batch.

Late last night, I baked a double-batch of these again for Mr. Cheddar's best friend, who is currently stationed in Afghanistan. I can't wait to send these out today.