Giant Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

This Nutella cookie recipe is one that delivers brilliant results. It’s a traditional soft and chewy cookie with a decadent filling of Nutella topped with flaky sea salt. It takes a bit of extra effort to get the Nutella perfectly in the middle but the reward more than makes up for it. The sea salt is, of course, optional but it gives it that sweet and salty flavour that’s totally addictive. Combined with the fudgy taste of the soft brown sugar these are one of my favourite cookies.

I am usually good at being restrained and not eating all the things I bake, but these cookies are just irresistible. They are huge, so good to share, although it’s much easier to say that than do it!

INGREDIENTS 

Makes 8 giant cookies

110g unsalted butter, room temperature

250g light brown soft sugar

1 large egg + 1 egg yolk  room temperature

1 teaspoon good vanilla essence or paste

175g Nutella (100g to make the chocolate disks, 75g for the mixture)

300g plain flour

1 ½  tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cornflour

150g milk chocolate chips

Flaky sea salt

METHOD

1.     Preheat your oven to 180c and line two large baking sheets with baking paper.

2.     On one of the baking sheets, put 8 x 2tsp of Nutella (10g each). Use a cup of hot water to warm a spoon and use the back of the spoon to smooth down into disks. Put these in the freezer to harden.

3.     In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter and sugar until combined.

4.     Then add the egg and egg yolk and beat for a minute until fully incorporated, then add the vanilla and the remaining 75g Nutella. Mix on high medium speed until fully combined.

5.     Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt cornflour and bicarbonate of soda) and add to the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients. Slowly mix until just combined (be careful not to overmix!) and then add 150g chocolate chips -  I usually mix these in with a wooden spoon until they’re evenly dispersed amongst the crumbly mixture.

6.     To assemble the cookies, I use a pair of clean digital scales to weigh out 70g of dough. Flatten the dough in the palm of your hand and put it back on the scale, place a disk of Nutella in the middle and top with another 20g of dough (see picture) so it totals around 100g. Use your warm hands to bring the cookie together sealing any edges so it is ‘cookie-shaped’. Repeat the process for each of the cookies - you should have eight but if you have less or more you’ll need to amend the cooking times slightly. You can of course just do this by eye but your cookies might be slightly different sizes and cook at different times.

7.     Put a new piece of baking paper on tray used for the Nutella disks then place the cookies roughly 3 inches apart on each tray.

8.     Bake the cookies for 14 minutes (turn them halfway through so they bake evenly) or until they are golden brown. As soon as they’re out of the oven to sprinkle over some flaky sea salt (be as restrained or generous as you wish). They’ll be really soft when they come out of the oven so be sure to cool them on the baking sheet for a few minutes before you put them on a wire rack to cool completely.

I use a scale to measure out the dough. 70g of dough, add the Nutella disk and then another 20g of dough.