Chewy "Nutella" Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies (gluten-free)
This cookie has no trace of Nutella in it, yet it tastes exactly like one! These are seriously addictive.
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Kitchen scales
Ingredients
- 140 grams unsalted butter softened
- 110 grams brown sugar
- 100 grams caster sugar
- 5 grams fine salt
- 1 whole egg
- 2 grams vanilla bean paste/essence
- 310 grams ground hazelnuts
- 2 grams baking soda
- 340 grams dark chocolate, chopped good quality
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced. Line a sheet tray with baking paper, set aside.
- In a bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, place the softened butter, both sugars, and salt. Start the mixer on a low speed, gradually increasing the speed until combined. Mix on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture appears light, creamy, and doubled in volume; this method is called the creaming method. Add the egg, and vanilla to the sugar mix and mix until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the ground hazelnuts and baking soda. Make sure to sift the baking soda as it tends to clump up. Add to the rest of the mix and put the mixer on a low speed, only mixing until just combined. Add the chopped chocolate last.
- Using the kitchen scales, weigh 95 grams per cookie and place on the lined sheet tray. Make sure to space out the cookies around about 3 inches apart as they spread out quite a bit as it bakes.Bake cookies for approximately 20 minutes, check after 18 minutes. Cookies should be lightly golden in colour, let the cookies rest on the tray for around 10 minutes before attempting to lift it.Best served warm of course :)
Notes
- Ground hazelnuts can be hard to find and also I'm aware they are pricey. A great substitute for this and I actually also highly recommend ground almonds as a replacement if you can't find ground hazelnuts. It won't obviously taste like Nutella but the cookie will still be absolutely amazing (I switch between the two depending on what I feel like)
- I like to slightly under-bake my cookies because I find that once they cool down completely, they don't go hard at all, they stay chewy and soft in the middle. But of course this is just preference so you do you!
- I cannot stress enough using good-quality dark chocolate or any chocolate as a matter of fact, this makes the biggest difference in everything you use it for.
- Even if you're using chocolate chips for this recipe, I really do recommend chopping even half of them into small pieces, you'll see while you're forming the cookies you'll see the chocolate all scattered and once they're baked, you'll get pools of melted chocolate, and some just completely seeps through the cookie.