February 06, 2007

Nutella Makes the World Go Round

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Not that you need a reason to eat Nutella, but here’s one anyways: Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Shelley of At Home in Rome are hosting World Nutella Day. I’m offering up two selections for the cause. One breakfast option and one dessert, but they’re easily interchangeable. The first, Nutella and Nanners is pretty straight forward. I just spooned a bunch of nutella into one of the pitas I made yesterday, added some sliced bananas and called it breakfast. My Nutella ice cream sandwiches are a little more complex. I decided to invent my own Nutella cookie recipe and then my own ice cream recipe too. For the Nutella cookies, I took Dorie’s recipe for Peanut Butter Crisscrosses, removed the peanut butter, added some other things and called them, (are you ready for this?) Nutella cookies. Apparently all my inventiveness went into created the cookie and not naming them. The cookies were good, but they could be better. I liked them right out of the oven when the middles were still soft, but they ended up a little too crispy for my liking once they were cooled off. It’s not a bad start though, it just needs a little tweaking. For my ice cream, I basically wanted to take my favourite hot chocolate recipe and freeze it. I combined chocolate, cocoa, cinnamon, sugar, milk, cream and marshmallows, I brought the mixture to a boil, took it off the heat and added Baileys. The result was good, but once again, it needs some tweaking, possibly some more Baileys. Even though both recipes weren’t quite what I wanted them to be, they combined to make a pretty good ice cream sandwich which makes for an excellent dessert, dinner, snack, lunch or breakfast. I’ll leave it up to you.


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Bri’s Nutella Cookies, (Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours)


1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon fleur de sel

A couple shakes of cinnamon

1 stick, (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup Nutella (generous)

½ cup demerara sugar

¼ cup sugar

1 large egg

¾ cup chocolate chips

About a ¼ cup sugar for rolling


Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the Nutella and beat for another minute. Add the sugars and beat 3 more minutes. Add the egg and beat for a minute. Scrape down the bowl and add the dry ingredients on low speed until just mix. Stir in the chocolate chips. You’ll have a very soft, mushy dough.

Use a tablespoon to measure out dough for each cookie, roll the dough between your palms into balls and drop the balls into the sugar. Roll the balls around in the sugar to coat them, then place on the baking sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. When done the cookies will still be a little soft. Let the cookies sit on the sheets for a minute before before transferring to a rack to cool.

Makes about 25 cookies.



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21 comments:

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Your Nutella cookies look amazing (and actually those banana pitas look pretty good, too!). The small market in our village in rural RI now carries Nutella, so I can give these a try.

Heather said...

YOu have me ready to bake cookies!! These look wonderful. Now I have to read how you made the pitas.
I have been eating pitas like a mad woman!

Jenny said...

Very Nice!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is the real nutella evening around here. I am just back from helen's blog ;-) As I told her, a real heavenly chocolate coma.

Anonymous said...

You are a Nutella goddess! I want those cookies!

Shelley - At Home in Rome said...

Man, those cookies look good enough to take off the screen and eat... send some over to Rome! ;-) Thanks for participating in World Nutella Day!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Well, I'll need about 6 of the cookies before I can give you a very good evaluation. I'm sure I like the pita, nutella, banana! The cookies look divine.

FH said...

I have heard of Nutella but never tried it!!Gotta now!:))
It looks like my Elvis Sandwiches(banana-Peanutbutter)!! ;D

Anonymous said...

Hi Bri! Your cookies look awesome - but I'm particularly intrigued by the Bailey's-in-ice-cream development. I'm constantly on the lookout for desserts with Bailey's added! Did you end up adding more Bailey's to the mix?

Lis said...

Oh Yeah Baby. You just let me be the judge on if they need tweaking or not.. happy to do the job.

They look KICK ASS! Rock on my Nutella lovin' friend. Rock on.

Anonymous said...

Why oh why do I look at your blog on days when I tell myself to eat well...no sweets? Now I'm craving chocolate again!

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Now, that's what you call an ice cream sandwich!

Abby said...

I had peanut butter and banana yesterday! I know, I know, Nutella is so different. But I've never had it!

And those cookies? Divine. Can I have one? Now?

Helene said...

Can you see me...? I am staring at the screen with my mouth open...come on throw me one...I'll be good!!!
These look really awesome, good improv!

Sara said...

Yup, you can never go wrong with adding more Baileys!

Anonymous said...

bananas if course, i didnt think of them when i put my offering together. yums!

Anonymous said...

aw shucks! i missed the event this year even though i'm planning to make a roll cake with nutella filing :(

Anonymous said...

Oooh! Both sound heavenly! Nutella and bananas...perfect combi :) I'd love to try those ice cream sandwiches too...do you think you can IM one over? ;)

Rachel Rubin said...

I think those cookies would kill me from sugar shock! But the banana-nutella pita for breakfast is an awesome idea! It make it easy to eat too.

Stinni said...

Nutella cookies, yum! I'm definitely going to try these soon. :)

wheresmymind said...

I would've broiled those pitas