LIV BAKES: NUTELLA FILLED CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

I'm home from Uni for Easter and the house has been empty, so I filled some of my spare time by doing a bit of baking. As well as making a complete mess in the kitchen, I put together some Nutella Filled Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Complete with sea salt sprinkled on top.

The cookies use browned butter in their recipe, which means they take on a dark and nutty flavour. To brown butter, you need to heat it in a shallow pan over a medium heat, stirring continuously until it changes to a caramel colour.

Something I noticed with these cookies is that they tend to be better the day after baking, as they're too soft when not completely cool. If you're making these as a present or for an event, ideal time to bake would be the evening before. 

Ingredients:

• 225g unsalted butter
• a jar of nutella
• 315g plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 212g brown sugar
• 56g granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tblsp sour cream
• 340g choc chips (i used chopped dark chocolate)

Method:

1. Put your nutella in the fridge a while before. This will make it easier to add the nutella to your cookies later on.
2. Preheat oven to 160-180 degrees celsius, depending on whether it is fan assisted or not. 
3. You need to brown your butter, so place it in a shallow pan over a medium heat. When it begins to foam, whisk constantly untill it turns a golden brown colour. Remove it from the heat and put aside in a glass bowl to cool.
4. Combine all dry ingredients (minus the sugar and choc chips) in a seperate bowl. 
5. To the browned butter, add the sugars and whisk untill combined. Follow with the egg and egg yolk, vanilla and sour cream. 
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Finally add the chocolate chips. 
7. A good idea is to put the mixture in the fridge for a few hours. Putting a chilled cookie mixture in the oven will stop the cookies spreading out whilst cooking, leaving you with big chunky cookies. 
8. Remove the mixture from the fridge and separate into small balls, placing on baking paper on a baking tray. Gently flatten out the balls and place a teaspoon of nutella in the middle of each one. Fold the edges of the cookie over and make sure no nutella is visible.
9. Bake the cookies for around 9-11 minutes. Be careful not to overcook, as the cookies won't be as chewy.
10. Allow to cool completely, my cookies were more enjoyable the next day.
11. Enjoy!

Let me know if you would enjoy these cookies, or if you can think of a way to improve them!