Salted Nutella-Filled Chocolate Chunk Cookies

An anything-but-ordinary chocolate chip cookie meets a gooey Nutella center in these delectable Nutella-Filled Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

These cookies were a genius idea on my part (if I do say so myself).

I had a hankering for chocolate, which isn’t super frequent but happens every so often (and I always know how to squash it – with my Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe). But I also had a jar of Nutella that was approaching its final days and I knew I needed to use it somehow when… ding ding ding! The clouds parted, angels sang, and these Nutella-Filled Chocolate Chunk Cookies were born.

These start as my Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie but they have a secret surprise inside that’s bound to delight any chocolate lover. And that fudgy Nutella center? HEAVEN.

So basically you make up the dough which consists of your usual suspects: butter, brown sugar, and sugar. The higher brown sugar count makes for soft & chewy cookies, and the granulated sugar is there for those delightfully crisp outer edges. Beat those all together and add in your egg and egg yolk – the yolk alone makes for a thicker, softer cookie, FYI – and your vanilla.

Then the baking soda, cornstarch, salt, and all-purpose flour get added to the pot and mixed in. But before you add in the dry ingredients, do yourself a flavor and add in some instant espresso powder. TRUST. It enhances the chocolate flavor ten-fold and makes for such a supremely rich and decadent cookie. The cookies will not taste mocha-y or coffee-ish at all, I promise (unless you want them to, in which case, add up to a Tablespoon!).

Lastly, fold in your chocolate chunks. For these cookies, I used Guittard Super Cookie Chips which are VERY large chocolate chips – almost chunk-like. If you don’t want to use chocolate chunks, don’t – I won’t boss you around. Just use regular chocolate chips! But more chocolate > better, no?

While the dough chills (which is a must, btw), make your Nutella filling by simply dropping little teaspoons of Nutella onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and freezing it. Ta-da! Want it to be even easier? Spoon the Nutella into a zip-top bag, seal out the air and snip off a corner, and pipe little Hershey Kiss-sized swirls of Nutella onto the baking sheet. Freeze until firm, about 1-2 hours.

When it’s time to bake, just roll out a big scoop of cookie dough, place a Nutella swirl in the center, and bake as normal. Salt the bad boys when they get out of the oven – another trust me, but it is SO good. And prepare to swoon.

Have a super sweet day!

xo, Hayley