Giant Nutella-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I discovered these cookies on Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria Lichty is the undisputed Queen of Cookies, and this is yet another one of her genius brainwaves. These were perfect for last Thursday's show (mostly because I didn't have enough chocolate chips to make decent cookies!) They turned out even better than I had expected. 

Think Nutella lava cakes, but better! I hear you- how could anything be better than those sweet little cupcakes? Because the juxtaposition between the crunchy cookie, and the vanilla-sugar taste of the dough is deepened by the addition of luscious addition of Nutella... I could sit here and drool over my keyboard all day. YUM! I intend on making these again soon minus the chocolate chips but with extra Nutella, as a kind of pillow cookie... Watch this space ;)

These cookies were HUGE! I scooped them into relatively medium sized balls yet they still spread so much during baking. Here's a large baking tray that just fits my oven (as in, slots into the tray holders at the side). Yes, it only held four cookies!

I did find that my yield was a little smaller than the dozen Maria had suggested; nonetheless every morsel was delicious!

I've been saying this a lot lately, but these cookies could just be the nicest thing I've ever baked!

Apologies for the lack of 'before' shots, my brain was not in blogger mode... I made these at 8.30am last Thursday! You probably already knew that if you follow me on twitter @orlmurf. FYI, you can use your twitter account to follow the blog, so handy!

They're incredibly easy to make though, just bung everything into a stand mixer and let it do all the work! :) This is a really great base cookie dough recipe and until I find a better one (if that's even possible) I'll use it as my standard one! 

Two exceptions to the listed recipe: 

1. I didn't include any salt in the actual cookie because I used normal butter (some claim that by using unsalted butter, you can regulate how much salt you bake with by adding it in yourself after, personally I find unsalted butter hard to come by so I just used regular Irish Creamery Butter!). I did however sprinkle sea salt on top of the cookie dough mounds before baking, definitely a must-do! 
2. I only used a teaspoon of Nutella inside the cookies **Confession: this was a mistake, my sleepy eyes misread the quantity! But it worked out great, as you can see below!**

I love the philosophy behind these cookies, the same as that of a Baked Alaska, or the Mint Cupcakes I made for St. Patrick's Day... Once you seal in whatever you're hiding inside your dessert it won't melt. So the world is your Nutella-stuffed cookie! Check out Picky Palate for loads more stuffed cookie recipes!

I also compared these cookies to Subway's Chocolate Chip Cookie (all in the name of research!) and found that this is a much more similar cookie to those I made last year (however the Copy Cat Cookies have a much larger yield so might be better for large gatherings!)

Make your Monday a little brighter, and bake these cookies!

Stay sweet! x