Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

People! You need to lock these cookies away immediately after you bake them! Or you will find yourself coming back for seconds, thirds, fourths… These cookies are THAT good!!!

These are the best cookies, and my favourite, that I have made to-date.

The flaked sea salt gives the cookie an interesting first bite, balance out the sweetness, and makes it moreish. The brown butter adds a beautiful nutty caramel flavour to the cookies. (What is brown butter, you might wonder. It is simply just cooking the butter until hazelnut brown.) The nutella gives a gooey chocolaty centre. The cookie is crispy around the edges and still slightly chewy and soft in the middle. The whole cookie explodes with different flavours and textures. It is out-of-the- world good.

I tried the peanut butter stuffed version of this cookie, and it is equally good. Oh and a tip; don't bake these cookies without freezing the cookie dough first (or at least refrigerate for 2 hours), or they will not bake properly.





Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Adapted from Ambitious Kitchen)

Makes 48 cookies

48 x 1 teaspoon Nutella

225 grams unsalted butter, cut into cubes
275 grams dark brown sugar
50 grams caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt (or natural yogurt)
280 grams plain flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Flaked sea salt for sprinkling

At least 1 hour before making cookies, spoon or pipe about a teaspoon dollop of nutella on baking paper. You will need at least 48 dollops. Freeze nutella until firm.

Put the butter in a small saucepan and bring it to the boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Allow the butter to bubble away until it turns a hazelnut brown colour. Keep your eye on it- the difference between brown and black is measured in seconds. Immediately transfer butter to a bowl to prevent burning and set aside to cool slightly (about 10 minutes).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

With an electric mixer, mix the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until thoroughly blended. Beat in egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined.

With mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.

Scoop out 1 1/2 tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Flattened dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place a dollop of frozen nutella in the middle and fold dough around it. Gently roll into a ball. Place dough balls on cookie tray. Freeze dough balls for at least 30 minutes. (At this stage, if you do not wish to bake all 48 cookies because you might end up eating it all, you can pop the frozen dough balls in a freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. You don’t have to thaw the frozen dough before baking.)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (or 160 degrees celsius fan-forced). Place dough balls on baking tray, at least 5cm apart. Bake the cookies until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown (about 15-18 minutes). The cookies will be soft and appear undercook in the middle but they will continue to cook and harden once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets for at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.