Nutella chocolate chip cookies are a terrific twist on classic chocolate chip cookies. Rich and flavorful, this cookie recipe calls for frozen chunks of Nutella to be folded into the cookie dough, rather than swirls of hazelnut spread. Making the homemade nutella chunks is easy, and 100% worth the effort. Let's make this small-batch cookie recipe, which yields 12 tasty cookies!
Hi hi! Just popping in to share the recipe for these Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies. I worked on a whole bunch of small batch chocolate chip cookies before we left NYC, and I'm slowly drip feeding them onto the site to add to my Chocolate Chip Cookie Collection which I feel like is an essential service to provide as a baking blogger!
If you love my Perfect classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, I promise you will love these Nutella chocolate chip cookies too. They have a super simple but absolutely game changing step - chunks of frozen Nutella.
These Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies are based on my Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are super simple and don't need a mixer. If you're after a recipe using brown butter, my brown butter chocolate chip cookies and my small batch chocolate chip cookies would be a perfect fit, or if you're looking for a dairy free chocolate chip cookie recipe, check out my olive oil chocolate chip cookies!
How to make Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Nutella chocolate chip cookies are super easy to make. It does take a teeny bit more time to wait for the Nutella chips to freeze and then chill down the cookie dough, but I promise you that it is worth the wait!
- Make the nutella chips. These are just nutella piped out onto some parchment and frozen.
- Mix together the cookie batter. This is a no mixer chocolate chip cookie recipe - I just use a whisk, bowl, and a spatula for folding in the chocolate and nutella. It's super simple - melted butter, sugar and egg get whipped together, then dry goes in.
- Add the chopped chocolate and nutella chips and mix to combine.
- Scoop out your dough and give it a chill for at least 30 minutes. You can take this up to a day if you want, or just freeze any excess dough if you aren't baking them all at once.
- Bake off your cookies! That's it! Super, super simple.
Nutella Chunks for Cookies
For this Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I found that the best way to get nutella into the cookie dough was to make nutella chips. By freezing the nutella first, you are able to delay the melting of the nutella, which keeps it slightly separate from the rest of the cookie. I also held a few back to add on the tops of the cookies, which got pretty melty but was very delicious.
The nutella pairs perfectly with the malted milk chocolate chip cookie - these are a jacked up version of classic chocolate chip cookies and I am very here for it. To make the nutella chunks all you do is pop it into a piping bag and pipe blobs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You then freeze the sheet so the nutella freezes and you get perfect chunks of nutella for your cookies.
If you don't have a piping bag you can use a ziploc bag or you can also just spoon chunks of Nutella onto the pan. I like to loosen the chunks from the paper and then pop it back into the oven to reduce time out of the freezer and to help keep them intact when you add them into the cookies.
The nutella might melt slightly when you are scooping out the dough etc - this is totally fine!
Baking with Malted Milk Powder
This recipe uses Malted Milk Powder. This article recently came out on food52 about it which is a great read on the history etc! I love malted milk powder for the complexity that it brings to baking. It adds an almost savoury taste to things, and is particularly good paired with chocolate. I have also been recently adding it to streusel (like in my Strawberry Rhubarb pie, and to cake recipes such as this malted milk snack cake, and it's just amazing.
The great thing about malted milk powder is that it is a flavour enhancer but doesn't affect the texture of the cookie. So if you don't have any on hand - just leave it out!
Can Nutella Chocolate chip cookie dough be frozen?
Yes, this chocolate chip cookie dough should freeze well. To bake from frozen, reduct the oven temperature slightly and add a few minutes on to the bake time.
To read all about freezing cookie dough and baking from frozen, check out my guide: How to freeze cookie dough
Tips for Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
There are a few tips that I use every time for perfect chocolate chip cookies. These tips can be applied to every cookie recipe. They are completely optional (aside from using a scale of course!) but make a big difference if you're looking for perfect chocolate chip cookies!
- Chop your chocolate. Chopped chocolate gives you pockets of chocolate and perfect chocolate shards distributed throughout the cookie. I prefer chopped chocolate over chocolate chips in cookies forever. Chocolate also melts much better than chips. It's the best ever.
- Use a cookie scoop. You can weigh out your cookie dough balls if you don't have a cookie scoop, but they are a great investment. They help to get the dough all relatively the same size and make things super quick and easy. I use this one.
- Add chocolate puddles. To get puddles on the top of cookies, press the dough into a disc and press additional chocolate on the top, then squish it back up into a ball of dough. This encases all the chocolate inside and as it bakes you get perfect puddles.
- Scoot your cookies. We all know this one - to scoot your cookies, take a cookie cutter slightly larger than the cookie, and when the cookies are hot out of the oven, scoot them into shape. This rounds them off super nicely. Optional but so good!
For all my best chocolate chip cookie tips, check out my ultimate post: How to make perfect chocolate chip cookies
Why Preheat your oven for so long?
You will notice in the recipe I get you to preheat your oven 10 minutes into the dough chilling process. I always give my oven at least 20 minutes to preheat. Often the oven thermostat will let you know it is at temperature, but the whole oven won't be that hot. Using an oven thermometer really helps here, along with giving the oven sufficient time to preheat.
This is particularly important for things like cookies which have a relatively short bake time. If the oven isn't the right temperature this can affect the outcome of the cookies. Same with how it is important to check if a recipe specifies convection bake or regular bake. Convection is typically hotter, which will cause cookies to spread a lot more. If you are finding you are having cookie spreading issues - check your oven temperature.
Frequently Asked Questions
What tools and equipment do you use?
You can see a full list of all the tools I use here
Can you get Malted Milk Powder in Australia / New Zealand?
I haven't tried to source it in NZ yet so I'm not 100% sure on this. I know you can use Horlick's, but also know that Horlick's has added sugar, so just keep that in mind.
What can I use instead of espresso powder?
Fine instant coffee works great, or you can just leave it out!
How do you store Nutella chocolate chip cookies?
Store cookies in an airtight container. This recipe only makes 12 cookies, so they don't last too long at my house, but they should keep for up to five days at room temperature.
For more chocolate chip cookie recipes, check out:
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Answers to your baking questions
Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:
- baking in grams
- adjusting oven temperatures
- what kind of salt to use
- and many more!
I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Nutella Chunks
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Nutella chocolate chip cookies are a terrific twist on classic chocolate chip cookies. Rich and flavorful, this cookie recipe calls for frozen chunks of Nutella to be folded into the cookie dough, rather than swirls of hazelnut spread. Making the homemade nutella chunks is easy, and 100% worth the effort. Let's make this small-batch cookie recipe, which yields 12 tasty cookies!
Ingredients
- 120g Nutella
- 90g unsalted butter, melted and cooled (re-weigh after melting and add a little extra butter if needed)
- 120g light or dark brown sugar
- 45g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 160g all-purpose flour
- 45g malted milk powder
- ¾ tsp espresso powder
- 3g (½ tsp) kosher salt
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 115g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped, plus extra for the tops if desired
- Flaky sea salt such as Maldon for finishing
Instructions
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Place the Nutella into a piping bag with the end snipped off. Pipe small blobs of Nutella onto the parchment paper about ½ inch diameter (the size is not super important).
- Place the baking sheet into the freezer and freeze for at least 30 minutes until the Nutella is completely firm. Peel the Nutella pieces from the parchment to loosen and place the baking sheet back into the freezer until ready to use the Nutella pieces (this just means that they stay as cold as possible and when the time comes to use them they can be easily added to the bowl without having to loosen them first).
- In a large bowl, place the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla. Whisk until well combined and slightly lightened in colour.
- In a medium bowl combine the flour, malted milk powder, espresso powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to the wet ingredients and mix with a spatula until just combined (some flour streaks still remaining is fine)
- Add the chocolate and frozen Nutella pieces, and mix to combine completely. You can leave a few Nutella pieces for the tops of the cookies if you like - keep them in the freezer until you bake as the Nutella in the cookies itself will melt.
- Line a sheet pan or container with parchment paper. Using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop (or shooting for balls about 55g each), scoop balls of dough onto the pan - they are going to be chilled so you can place them close together. Cover the pan with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
- 10 minutes into the chilling period, preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. This gives the oven time to properly pre-heat. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Arrange 6 cookie dough balls onto the pan. Keep the remainder in the fridge If desired, flatten each ball of dough, press more chocolate or Nutella pieces on the top, and roll into a ball, then space evenly on the pan.
- Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes, or until set around the edges and golden brown. Bake for closer to 11 minutes for still gooey inside, or 12-13 for more set cookies.
- Remove from the oven, and if desired, use a cookie cutter slightly bigger than the cookies to 'scoot' them into a round shape.
- Sprinkle with flaky sea salt if using. Leave to cool on the pan for 10-15 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Repeat the baking process with the remaining 6 balls of dough.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
Comments
xean says
hi do you use top and bottom heat to bake the cookies?
Erin says
Hi! Yep I just use regular bake - my oven is just bottom heated 🙂
Rafi Khan says
The cookies turned out amazing!!!
So delicious and gooey
Nadia says
Hi
Saw your lovely recipe and wanted to try it but don’t have malted milk powder. Can I use regular powder?
Thanks for a response
Have a nice day
Erin says
Hi! You can just leave it out 🙂
Caribou says
these are the best!
Stacy says
Love these cookies! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Allana says
My nutella blobs were a bit wonky and melted easily when transferring into the dough, but this made for lovely swirl patterns. Very tasty!
Ni says
Can I use a flax egg here to make it eggfree?
Erin says
I haven't tried it sorry!
jill says
could this recipe be converted to a bar/brownie/blondie?
Erin Clarkson says
I haven't tried it sorry! It should work though!
Jennifer says
I made these without the nutella (more chocolate instead as suggested) and they were delicious. It is sort of hard to tell when they have browned enough because of all the chocolate but no biggie.
I am planning on making these again this weekend (this time WITH the nutella!) but I would like to double the batch and I am a little confused at the explanation of doubling the recipe only doubles the ingredients not the quantity? Wouldn't 2x the ingredients make 24 cookies instead of 12?
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! It means that within the recipe (so sometimes I will say 90g butter within the actual method of the recipe), that quantity will not be doubled. Same with pan size, bake time etc. If within the instructions it says to divide into 12 pieces, using the 2X on the recipe will not change that etc. It ONLY changes the quantity within the ingredient list and not any values within the instructions. This is mainly to avoid people making mistakes in recipes with brown butter where I say 'weigh out x amount' and then they double it without checking the instructions and all the numbers are off. I hope that makes sense!
Claire says
Love this recipe - it will definitely be a go-to for cookies in the future.
I made the dough late one evening before bed and made a double batch. It was only after it was all weighed out and I was tidying away that I realised that I had only put in 1/3 of the chopped up chocolate that was meant to go in. I was a little worried, but I baked half the following morning for my bake club and they were amazing. In fact, I wonder where all of that additional chocolate would have gone as they were full of the stuff!
Have got a few balls of the dough in the freezer (always make extra cookie dough) so that I can have one with a hot drink when I am working from home.
NB - used Horlicks and it worked great!
Stella says
Baked in a 20cm square slice tin for cookie bars, worked amazingly!
Michelle says
Delicious cookie! I didn’t have malted milk powder so I left that out. The Nutella blobs melt quick so move with haste! However, the Nutella swirls beautifully into the dough so I highly encourage making extra blobs to put onto the cookies dough prior to making. My SO said it was a very photogenic and delicious cookie so go make this today!
Emily says
Oh these cookie puddles are so so good! I made a few substitutions: I used chocolate malted milk powder (that's all my store had) and I sprinkled the tops with kosher salt (because damn Maldon is expensive! And I don't have any). Kosher works well because it just adds a hint of salt. The Nutella busted through my piping bag but that just meant I got to eat more of it!! Fun recipe Erin!
Hilary says
I just finished making these and they turned out great! I used 72% dark chocolate so they’re not super sweet, next time I might try 50% but that’s just because I have a massive sweet tooth. Even though I froze the Nutella for a couple hours I found it started melting extremely quick so I had to work quite fast so they didn’t melt too much. For anyone in NZ making these I used Milo instead of Horlicks because it was a little bit cheaper. It still gave them a yummy malt taste. I’m looking forward to making these again!
Fozia Qureshi says
Hi there, can you brown the butter before adding it to the eggs and sugar?
Thank you 🙂
Erin Clarkson says
Hi, yep you can, make sure you brown a little more to account for the loss in moisture and volume when you cook the water out.
Amy says
These cookies have the BEST, MOST AMAZING chewy-crispy-yet-soft delightful edges. They are nearly impossible to stop eating, and every time I make them someone says “Oh My God, these are incredible.” Make them, make them NOW!
Amritha says
Hi, this may be a silly question, but can I use non-diastatic barley malt powder? I have this at home. The only other malt powder I have access to is Horlicks and I don't want to use that.
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! No Horlicks is what you want to use, not the one for making bread 🙂