Nutella and Salted Caramel Stuffed Dark Chocolate Cookies
A dark chocolate cookie studded with chocolate chunks, filled with Nutella and caramel, and sprinkled with salt for extra flavor. My idea of perfect.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened at room temp
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water see notes*
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract see notes*
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt + more for sprinkling
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- 200 g 8oz ish dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
- ¾ cup Nutella or any chocolate and hazelnut spread may need 1 cup
- Between 35-40 caramel stuffed chocolate pieces see notes*
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F or 200 C.
- Line a plate or cookie sheet with parchment paper and dollop on top 1 tsp sized mounds of Nutella, spread apart by at least 1 cm.
- Pop the tray into the freezer until ready to use.
- In the meantime, break apart the caramel filled chocolates or unwrap if they are individually sized.
- In a medium to large sized bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until light and creamy.
- Add the coffee, vanilla, eggs and continue beating.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, salt, cocoa and flour.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture in 3 different intervals – this just makes it a lot easier to work with. Scrape the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is blended.
- Once all of the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed, fold in the chocolate chunks.
- Take the Nutella dollops out of the freezer.
- Take 1 tbsp of the dough and flatten it out in your hands. Peel one of the dollops off the parchment and place it on the center of the flattened dough, and place a piece of the chocolate covered caramels on top of the Nutella.
- Take another tbsp of dough and flatten it out. Place it on top of the caramel/Nutella centers and seal the edges of two pieces of dough together, rolling it slightly to form a ball shape. Be careful as the Nutella melts quickly and may ooze out of the dough, which you don’t want.
- Add 2 tbsp more of flour to the cookie dough if you find it is too sticky to work with.
- Place the cookie balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet two inches apart and place into the oven for 8-9 minutes or until the tops are no longer glossy. Keep checking because you want to remove it immediately after the cookies are set.
- Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with some of that salt- sea salt works great, or any slightly coarse salt.
- Cool for 10 minutes before digging in.
Notes
*The coffee- I use Nestlé instant coffee granules but any sort of coffee powder should be fine, you may use less if it is a very strong variety, or omit it if you don’t like coffee – though it enhances the flavor and doesn’t add a strong taste to the cookies.
*Vanilla extract differs from country to country. I know that in Poland you get very high concentrations of vanilla- vanilla essence, in which case you only need a few drops. Using too much vanilla can make these taste gross, so be careful!
*The caramel stuffed chocolate pieces- I used Milka but Rolos work great and so does Cadbury Caramello.
Control recipe for cookie dough adapted from Very Best Baking
Control recipe for cookie dough adapted from Very Best Baking