Monday, June 10, 2013

All Things Nutella: Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Assignment #2:

I would rate this recipe a 7/10 when it comes to difficulty, but a 10/10 when it comes to deliciousness. The thing with "brown butter" is that you have to melt butter until you almost burn it, making it brown in color. Why burn the butter? Well, when the butter become brown, it has a nutty scent. In fact, brown butter in French is beurre noisette which literally translates to hazelnut butter, if my French is correct.

When I tried this recipe today, I took the saucepan off the stove too early, so the butter didn't have that hazelnut flavor it should have, which is fine by me because, to me, Nutella itself has enough of a hazelnut flavor. Make sure your butter is brown. During the prep process, the hard part is keeping your hands clean. When putting Nutella in the cookie dough, you must be careful not to squish the dough to much, making the Nutella ooze out of the cookie. This way, the Nutella explodes surprisingly when one bites into the cookie.




The recipe says to keep the cookies in the fridge for 2 hours, but since my fridge was full, I put my cookie dough in the freezer for 30 minutes. Luckily, my mother was there and helped me during the baking process, helping me scoop out the cookies. Since my oven is more powerful than others, my mother informed me to preheat the oven at 325 degrees F and baked the cookies for 12 minutes. Thanks to my mom, the cookies came out much better than I had expected them to.

I was incredibly happy with the results. See for yourself! Note that I didn't sprinkle any sea salt. The reason for this is because I don't like having salty desserts.


Thank you to Ambitious Kitchen for this awesome recipe and the How To for brown butter!
And thank you to my readers! Make sure you try this recipe out! :)

Ingredients
      2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
      1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
      1/4 teaspoon of salt
      2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
      1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
      1/4 cup granulated sugar
      1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
      1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
      1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
      3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
      1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
      1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
      1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator
      Coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes if you are super eager, although I cannot promise the same results if you do this.
  4. 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 teaspoon of chilled 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 if necessary. 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!)
  5. 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.

1 comment:

  1. Note to self: This recipe can be redone without Nutella. For a better chocolate chip cookie, replace white sugar with more brown sugar.

    ReplyDelete

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