Nutella cookies

If you passed the period in your life of eating Nutella by the spoon, this cookie is a sweet little option to enjoy just a delicate taste of the fabulous chocolate spread. A cup of coffee, a couple of cookies and you are in Nutella dreamland again...

Giada's cookies looked a lot darker on the picture. The reason could be that Nutella varies by country. I've tried French, Belgian, Italian, German, Polish, American. In my research, lasting about 3 good years, German is number 1. Today, I used one made in Poland, for obvious reasons.

I skipped hazelnuts, I wanted a simple cookie kids like. I'm taking the cookies (the rest of them) tomorrow for Hania's volleyball tournament.  The cookies are between chewy and crunchy or brittle. Lighter and thinner than an American cookie but not as firm as an Italian biscotti.

And very easy to make. Foolproof. And you don't have to be exact with the Nutella amount. It could get too messy to figure it out. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup. We did use the exact measurement but I could have just done it directly from the original Nutella jar. 1/2 cup equals 8 Tablespoons or 8 overloaded teaspoons. I wouldn't use any less. More - OK.

So here it's, your next afternoon fun!

Recipe adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis
time: 15 min preparation +10 min baking + 20 min cooling = 45 min

ingredients
1/2 cup (about 200 g) Nutella
1 stick (115 g) soft butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon genuine vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups (190 g) flour
1/2 teaspoon (4 g) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (2 g) salt
1/2 cup (100 g) white sugar
1/2 cup (110 g) brown sugar

directions
Preheat oven to 375F/180 C, fan forced function. Line two baking sheet with parchment paper. If you want the paper to stay on the sheet, make a large cross across the paper piece and stick it on the baking sheet.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Put it aside.
In a bowl of a standing mixer, place butter, sugars and Nutella. Blend it till fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add egg and vanilla. Mix it for about 1 minutes. Turn the mixer off. Sift in the flour mix and using a rubber spatula fold it in to combine.

Using two tablespoons, apply about 1 Tablespoon size cookie dough onto the baking sheet, spacing it about 4 inches (10 cm) apart. You should have about 16 cookies on each sheet. Flatten the dough with a back of a fork. Place two baking sheets in a hot oven for 10-12 minutes, one in the top 1/3, the other the bottom 1/3 of the oven. Rotate and switch sheets half way through to ensure even baking, just don't burn yourself. Cookies are ready when just browned around the edges. 1 minute longer and they will turn out dry and burned. Take the sheets out and let cookies cool on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. They are even better a couple of hours later or the next day.