The ultimate gourmet-style cookies, these Nutella stuffed cookies are made with browned butter, flecked with semisweet chocolate, lightly sprinkled with sea salt, and most importantly, bursting with a molten core of Nutella! Despite their gourmet-status and ingredients, they’re actually quite simple to make, and if you’ve never made browned butter before I’ll walk you through all of the steps in detail in the recipe!
I don’t like to think of myself as a bragger (braggart? I’ve thought about this for too long and the word is starting to lose all meaning to me).
I’m proud, sure, of many of my recipes and this little space that I’ve created, and I can get full-on impassioned when talking about egg yolks and butter and the importance of keeping a thermometer (or two) in your oven at all times.
But I don’t really like to boast about my recipes. Sure, here I talk about their best qualities, but in the real world it’s more of a “I thought this was good, and I hope you like it too”, and let the cookie/cake/etc. speak for itself.
But I have been full out bragging about these cookies. Everything short of stopping people in the halls of the hospital where I work and telling them about “these amazing Nutella stuffed cookies that I made”.
Maybe cutting drastically back on the amount of sugar that I’m consuming during Lent has sent my brain into a cookie-obsessed frenzy, but I’m full-on crazy about these Nutella-stuffed cookies, and I want everyone to try them.
They’re actually a Frankenstein of a cookie driven together by my newfound love of browned butter cookie dough (I used nearly the same exact dough in Friday’s recipe, shhh) and merged that with my love of stuffing desserts inside other desserts, and the half-empty jar of Nutella left over after making a video of these Nutella brownies. Rather than finish off the Nutella spoonful by shameful spoonful, I opted to instead stuff it inside my recent favorite cookie dough for these Nutella stuffed cookies.
Part of me wanted to wait a while before sharing this recipe since, as I mentioned, the base cookie dough was just used in my last recipe, but there was no waiting with these. I felt that it was my duty to the universe to release this recipe as soon as humanly possible, and so here we are 😉
Soft cookies flecked with real chocolate, infused with the golden browned butter in every delectable bite, and centers filled with sweet molten Nutella. There was no waiting with this recipe.
I’ve already talked here and here (and about a half dozen other places on the blog) about the joys of baking with browned butter.
If you haven’t browned butter yourself yet, that’s going to have to change because it is essential for the best possible cookie dough and flavor, and ultimate Nutella stuffed cookies. It’s amazing how such a simple technique can take a standard cookie dough and transform it into something amazing, but it can!
For those of you a little leery of toasting your butter, I include detailed notes and a photo in the recipe to make the process as smooth as possible. Just remember to not take your eyes off of it, because the second you turn your back it’s bound to burn.
Rather than use chocolate chips in this recipe, I opted for a single 4-oz bar of semisweet baking chocolate. I chopped it very finely so that there would be a bit in every bite without being overwhelming when paired with the chocolate flavor of the Nutella.
Enjoy!
And P.S.
If you live in my neighborhood you’re more than likely very aware that there’s a giant snowstorm headed our way tomorrow, and the likelihood of a snow day is strong. Do yourself a favor and skip the milk, toilet paper, and bread, and stock up on butter, Nutella and sea salt.
I can’t think of a better way to pass a snow day than with a batch of Nutella stuffed cookies (sure beats shoveling!).
Nutella Stuffed Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter 226g
- 1 cup Nutella 280g
- 1 cup brown sugar 200g
- ⅔ cup white sugar 135g
- 2 eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour 362g
- 2 teaspoon cornstarch cornflour in UK
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 4 oz semisweet chocolate bar very finely chopped 113g
- sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
To Brown the Butter (It's easy, I promise!)
- Prepare your Nutella filling first by lining a cookie sheet with wax paper and dropping Nutella by 2 teaspoon-sized dollops onto cookie sheet. Place in freezer to harden while you prepare your cookie dough.
- Cut your butter into Tablespoon-sized pieces and place in a medium-sized saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat.
- Once butter has melted, increase heat to just above medium heat.
- Swirl and scrape the sides of the pan frequently with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula - the butter will bubble and pop. Once the bubbling/popping slows, the butter will begin to turn brown, it will look like this once it's finished:
- Watch the butter very carefully at this point, and once it begins to brown and you smell the nutty aroma of browned butter, remove from heat quickly and pour into a large, heatproof bowl.
- Allow butter to cool for 25-30 minutes before proceeding with the recipe.
For the Cookie Dough
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Add sugars into cooled browned butter, stir well.
- Stir in eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
- Add vanilla extract and stir.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until ingredients are completely combined.
- Add your finely chopped chocolate bar and stir well.
- Chill dough in refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.
- Remove frozen Nutella from freezer and cookie dough from refrigerator (if at any point the Nutella becomes too sticky and hard to work with, return to freezer for at least 5-10 minutes)
- Scoop dough by heaping 1 ½ Tbsp-sized spoonful and press frozen Nutella dollop into the center. Form around Nutella until it is completely concealed (add more dough as needed).
- Roll into an even ball and place on a wax-paper lined sheet. Repeat until all Nutella dollops are concealed in cookie dough, and freeze cookie dough balls for 15 minutes.
- Place cookie dough at least 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined sheet, and bake on 375F (190C) for 12-13 minutes, or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown.
- Sprinkle immediately with sea salt. Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before removing (they'll be quite fragile when warm, but will become more sturdy as they cool).
Nutrition
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Fatima Mansour
Hi I just wanted to thank you for all these AMAZING recipes you make it so easy and sooo yummy I love your recipes they’re always PERFECT!!!
Sam
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoy them so much! 🙂
Jode
Hi there ,
Ive made it them kike ten times before and they tasted great wach time , thank you , but this time they looked like scones ????!!!!! , What might be the reason even tho i did everything exactly as you said .
Sam
Hmm I’m not sure what you mean by saying they looked like scones. If there’s too much flour in the dough the cookies won’t spread properly.
Sara
First time ever making these and they turned out amazing ! I have never done a recipe with brown butter and it’s 100% worth it ! The taste is amazing , we did find we had to add a little extra butter as the dough was quite dry but overall turned out perfectly ! I would recommend freezing Nutella for closer to an hr so the Nutella balls are really hard.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Sara! 🙂
Soar
My cookies are still in the oven, however this dough is EXTREMELY drier than normal cookie dough. There’s either a mistake in the recipe or that’s how they’re supposed to be. The texture reminds me of the crumbs on crumb cake. I even added a bit more butter but that didn’t do enough and I didn’t want to add more. Hopefully it’s still okay
Sam
Hi Soar! While this is a dry cookie dough, if it’s that crumbly then most likely the flour was added too quickly and not stirred enough after each addition or the flour was accidentally over-measured. I hope they still turned out well for you 🙂
Su
Easy to follow! The only challenge is keeping Nutella frozen. Got into quite a bit of mess. My cookies ended up being giants. 🤣 They tasted good nonetheless.
Daphne
Hi! Please correct me if i’m wrong but is the flour 2 cups with 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons?
Sam
You are correct. You will need close to 3 cups of flour. 🙂
Haley
These were a total hit last year at our family Christmas. Basically the best cookies ever. I’m guessing it wouldn’t be possible really to maintain their perfection, but I’m really reaching for a little holiday lift. Do you have any recommendations or think it would even be feasible to ship them? I live in Michigan, and would love to brighten Christmas for my brother in law in New York, who obviously can’t visit. Any tips or a reality check would be greatly appreciated! I’m happy to go with the old candied nuts or otherwise hearty, shippable baked goods.
Sam
Hi Haley! These are typically good for about a week at room temperature in an air tight container so if you can get them there that quickly you shouldn’t have any issues. He can reheat them in the microwave for a few seconds to get that gooey center back.
Connie
Hi, thanks for the recipe! If my Nutella isn’t molten in the middle, is it because I used the oven fan setting or the Nutella isn’t chilled enough? I tried to find out how to troubleshoot these cookies online but I can’t find it :/ Thanks!
Sam
Hi Connie! Have your cookies cooled? Once they cool that center will set up again. You can always reheat them for a few seconds in the microwave to get that melty center again. 🙂
FIONA
Could I reduce the sugar amount on this? 🙂 E.g. halve the sugar amount. Thank you for the awesome recipe and video!
Sam
Hi Fiona! You could cut some of the sugar but it will definitely change the taste. Enjoy! 🙂
Ramlah Rehan
Hey Sam! I am 14 years old and this was the first-ever thing I baked all by myself. It was an extreme hit in the family and everyone loved them a lot. I have baked them about 7 times in 2 months. Thank you for the delicious recipe!
Sam
I am so glad everyone has enjoyed them so much, Ramlah! 🙂
lisa
Do you think I could make the Nutella filled cookie balls and refrigerate them for 24 hours before baking?
Sam
Yup! Enjoy 🙂
Maria
Hi how long would you cook the cookie balls from frozen for?
Sam
I haven’t tried it myself. I would just add an extra minute or two and see how they look. 🙂
Danica
Hi Sam,
This looks amazing!!
I have a question, can we freeze the cookie dough and just take 1 or 2 to bake and let the rest stay in the freezer about 1 month? Or anytime we feel like to bake the cookie we just take it out from the freezer. Please advise. Thank you
Sam
Hi Danica! That will work great! You can bake them from frozen, they may just take a minute or two longer to bake. 🙂