{Nutella Cookies & Cake Balls} Recipe

Nutella seems to be one of the most popular ingredients in baking lately. I think it’s for a pretty good reason. Have you ever had it? Well then you’ll agree with me that there really is nothing that compares to the taste and the smooth texture! 

So one day my husband said, “You have to come and watch this!  It’s so funny, and the cookies this guy is making look super good!”  It was Fabio Viviani and he was making a 5 ingredient chocolate cookie.  Guess what the chocolate ingredient was?  That’s right!  Nutella.  These cookies are also sprinkled with salt, yes you heard me right, salt.  If you know anything about salt, you know that it will really make the flavors in these cookies POP!  Don’t be afraid to add the salt!

I have changed it just a tiny bit because I think the flavor of nutmeg really adds to rich flavor of these cookies.  We also played around with the cake ball maker and this recipe.  Just make sure you DON’T overbake the cookies or the cake balls, because you won’t be able to bite into them 🙂  They will be a little gooey on the inside, which makes them even better!

So let’s get on with the recipe!  Oh, and if you want to watch the video Fabio did, Click Here.  You will laugh a lot.

Ingredients:
2 cups chocolate hazelnut spread, like Nutella
4 tbsp. brown sugar
2 egg
1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
coarse sea salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 350F.
In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, combine Nutella, brown sugar, and egg.
Mix on low speed, until blended.
Slowly add the flour and mix just until a dough is formed.  Do NOT over-mix.
Scoop cookies onto a sheet tray lined with parchment paper.  Top each with a sprinkle of sea salt.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Cool cookies before removing from sheet tray.

I tried lowering the temperature of the oven and cooking them a little longer to see if I could make them a little less gooey, but I didn’t like those as much as I liked the gooey ones.  They were too hard.

If you are making the cake balls, just preheat your cake ball maker and add 2 teaspoons (I used a cookie scooper), close and let bake about 6-10 minutes.  Keep checking on them, as soon as they have puffed up into a ball, remove them.  NO overbaking!  I stuck my stick in melted semi-sweet chocolate chips, then stuck them in the COOLED balls.  Let the chocolate set.  Then dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate and coat, sprinkle with decorations.  And viola!  You are done!