Food: Nutella-stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies Tutorial

I've already made this cookie a while back and it was delicious (especially when you eat it a little after it was baked). HEAVEN, seriously. So, let me share this recipe I found from Cooking Classy. I just made a few adjustments to the recipe.

YIELD: 2 1/2 dozen cookies (or more if you make small ones, it really depends on the size you're making)

You will need the following:

COOKIE DOUGH INGREDIENTS
1 cup salted butter, 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt. 1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 1/2 vanilla extract, 1 cup chocolate chips, nutella

COOKIE DOUGH EQUIPMENT
measuring cups & spoons, mixer and dough hook (not the whisk), whisk, 2 big bowls, spoon, pan, heat-resistant bowl, air-tight container, small bowl, small plate

NUTELLA FILLING & BAKING EQUIPMENT
nutella, small plate, ice cream scoop or spoon, 2 small spoon, cookie sheet, parchment paper, oven

STEPS:

1. First thing you will need to do is to dice one cup (two sticks or one whole) of butter.

2. Browning butter

I got help from Simply Recipes. Thanks!

Heat the pan on medium heat, throw in your diced butter. The butter was diced so that it will melt evenly. Whisk the butter until it completely melts.

When you observe that the butter is turning gold to a little bit brown in color, whisk away the foam on top so that you can see if brown specks are forming at the bottom already. If it smells like lengua de gato already, you're getting close.

Watch closely because they said that it burns easily so when you see that the color of the specks are brown already, it's time to turn off the heat. 

Transfer it to a heat-resistant bowl. Don't use the plastic ones because it is smoking hot, literally. When I transferred my browned butter, it produced smoke for about a second and sizzled like when you put gravy on a hot plate. Scrape off the brown specks off the pan with a spatula.

Let it cool until lukewarm.

3. Prepare a big bowl. Put 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour,

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

Just a tip, use a small plate to place used spoons, spatulas, etc.

3. In a much bigger bowl, put 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar.

Add the cooled brown butter.

Mix on low-speed. I think you can actually use a whisk attachment here but this dough hook worked for me too.

Add 2 1/2 tsp vanilla. The actual recipe actually called for seeds of vanilla beans (or 2 tsp vanilla extract) and  1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Since our pantry does not have vanilla beans, I just used vanilla extract.

Actually, I think adding 2 1/2 tsp vanilla is too strong. You can probably add 2 tsp or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla. Smell  the scent of vanilla. If the scent is just right for you (and not too strong or intense) you can stop adding vanilla.

Add the two eggs one at a time. You should probably crack the eggs into a small bowl to make sure that it is not spoiled. If in case you put it directly into the big bowl and the egg is spoiled, all the other ingredients inside the bowl are compromised and you have to start over again.

After adding the eggs and mixing, it will look like this.

4. Add the bowl of dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients. You should put a small amount of the dry ingredients into the wet ones and mix first. Add, mix, repeat until you have emptied the bowl of dry ingredients. It's very hard to mix the two so it will really be helpful if you follow this tip.

Your dough should kinda look like this. You know that your dough is ready if it does not stick on the sides of the bowl. Perfect!

Add 1 cup of chocolate chips. Omnomnom. Add gradually and mix with a big spoon. I just added 3/4 cup. If you want to add more, you can do so.

5. Put the cookie dough in an air-tight container and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.

6. After 1 hour and 15 minutes (or 15 minutes before you take out the cookie dough), preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I just preheated my oven to about 325 degrees.

7. Prepare the cookie sheet. Put wax paper on the cookie sheet. Get a small plate, two small spoons, a big spoon or ice cream scoop and the most important ingredient, nutella! 

Take the dough out of the refrigerator.

Scoop out some dough. The amount depends on the size of the cookie you'll be making. Make dough balls and flatten them.

Use two small spoons to put nutella on top of the cookie dough.

From here, you have two options..

You can top the cookie dough with another flattened one and secure the sides,

or you can fold the dough.

You can add chocolate chips on top of the cookie if you want.

Just a tip, you can refrigerate the cookie dough before making another batch of nutella-filled cookie dough because it tends to get sticky and hard to form when it is out of the refrigerator for several minutes.

8. Put the cookie sheet in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

After about 8-9 minutes, try to poke the cookie with a toothpick. If something sticks on the toothpick, don't take it out yet. If nothing sticks on it, it's ready. Don't worry if the dough is still soft, just let it cool for a while. Taking it out in this stage will make the cookie chewy. If you want it to be harder, pop it in the oven for a few more minutes.

TADA