These Nutella chocolate cookies taste amazing and have a wonderful chewy, soft and gooey texture. These decadent little cookies are perfect for all the chocolate-hazelnut lovers out there. One bite and you’ll be hooked on the wonderful texture and chocolatey flavour.
They’re so easy to make too. The dough doesn’t even need any special equipment – just a bowl, whisk and spatula! The chocolate cookie dough comes together quickly then they’re stuffed with little blobs of Nutella and baked. That’s it. So easy.
You’ll also love these chocolate sugar cookies and these chocolate chip nutella bars.
This recipe has been hugely updated since the original version posted here on 22nd of May, 2018. The original version was a sandwich cookie and you can email me if you want that old recipe. While the old ones were nice, this new version is even easier to make, with less equipment and taste a million times improved.
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Ingredients & substitutions
With a small collection of super simple ingredients, these Nutella-stuffed chocolate cookies are so easy to make and, if you like to bake, you probably have these ingredients in your pantry.
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
- Nutella: Starting with the stuffing, it’s just pure Nutella, or you can use any other chocolate hazelnut spread. For that matter, you can stuff these chocolate cookies with peanut butter, Biscoff spread or even caramel too.
- Unsalted butter is what I use here but you could also use salted butter, leaving out the additional salt called for in the recipe.
- Flour: Just plain flour (aka all purpose flour). Cake flour will also work if that’s what you have on hand.
- Cocoa powder: I love using Dutch processed cocoa powder for these as it has a smoother chocolate flavour. You can swap it for regular unsweetened cocoa powder if you like.
- Baking soda, also known as bicarbonate of soda, is what gives these cookies a little lift, just the right amount of spread and adds to their fudgy texture.
- Sugar: I use a combination of light brown sugar and white granulated sugar here. Caster sugar (super fine sugar) will work too. Don’t use powdered sugar / icing sugar.
- Egg: Just one large egg at room temperature.
- Pure vanilla extract actually intensifies the chocolate flavour. Don’t use vanilla essence.
You could add some chocolate chunks or chocolate chips to the dough though they’re already very chocolatey so I wouldn’t add too much. If serving these to adults, I find a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top is just devine.
How to make chocolate Nutella cookies
What I love about making these Nutella stuffed cookies, aside from actually devouring them, is how simple they are to throw together. No special equipment means you can easily make these by hand and they’re fun for kids to make too. Why not make two batches and freeze one lot for cookie emergencies!
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
1. Freeze the Nutella
While you can spoon the Nutella into the dough, it can get messy. I highly recommend my little trick of freezing it first (on two separate trays is best as it does soften quite quickly again once out of the freezer).
2. Combine the dry ingredients
In a medium bowl, just whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt then set that aside.
3. Combine the wet ingredients
Combine the sugar and melted butter first, then whisk in the egg and vanilla.
4. Add it all together and turn into cookies
Now simply stir your flour mixture into the wet ingredients, then let the cookie dough rest for 10 minutes to firm up slightly. If it’s warm where you are, place it in the fridge.
Once it’s had a rest, simply scoop or roll small balls of dough – about 1 ½ tablespoons worth. I get 18 cookies out of one batch.
5. Add the Nutella
One by one, squish a cookie dough flat on your hand, then add a frozen dollop of Nutella before wrapping it all up inside. Work quickly as the Nutella does thaw very quickly once out of the freeze. It still works but becomes quite sticky and messy to work with.
6. Bake
While not absolutely essential and they do work without it, I like to chill the cookie balls for 30 minutes before baking. The only reason for that is to keep them more on the chunky side. If you don’t chill them, they just spread a little more that’s all which does slightly affect the thick and chewy chocolate cookie texture.
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes and they’re done!
Tips and tricks
- Weigh ingredients for the best results: This is especially true for the flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are very affordable, but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method. Don’t scoop!
- All ovens vary, so keep a close eye on your chocolate Nutella cookies as they bake. In fact, cookies are the perfect bake to do a tester first. Just bake one cookie on it’s own, then bake the rest according to the results of that bake.
- I use a 1 ½ tablespoon volume cookie scoop to make small balls of dough. You can make these cookies larger, say ¼ cup (golf ball sized) but double up the Nutella and cook for around 12-14 minutes or so.
- Chilling time: While I would normally say don’t skip it, you can bake these cookies without chilling. The only difference is the cookies will spread more which means thinner versus thick and chewy cookies.
Storage
These cookies keep well in a cool spot like the pantry for 5-6 days in an airtight container. You can increase the time they’ll keep by storing them in the fridge for 7-8 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
You can freeze the cookie dough balls too. Once formed, with the Nutella stuffed inside, freeze them on a baking tray before transferring to an airtight container. You can bake the cookies from frozen for about 12 minutes.
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Ingredients
- 113 g unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly (1 stick / ½ cup / 4oz)
- 165 g plain flour (all purpose flour) (1 ¼ cups / 5.8oz)
- 55 g dutch processed cocoa powder (½ cup / 2oz)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda (bicarb soda)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar (135g / ~4 ¾oz)
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar (50g / ~1 ¾oz)
- 1 large egg room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup Nutella (or other chocolate hazelnut spread)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- cookie scoop helpful but not essential
- large baking sheet
Instructions
- Line a couple of small baking trays or plates with baking paper / parchment paper. Place 18x 1 teaspoon sized scoops of Nutella onto the trays. Once they’re all on the tray, swirl the spoon around each one to make them nice and round. Freeze for 30 minutes. Two trays/plates is helpful as the Nutella does thaw very quickly once out of the freezer.
- Make sure the butter is melted and set aside to cool a bit.
- Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan) / 350F. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add both the sugars to the melted butter and whisk (using a balloon whisk) until well combined.
- Add the egg and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and fold it in with a spatula until just combined.
- Let the dough sit for 10 minutes before proceeding (this makes it easier to handle and helps the cookies keep their shape).
- Take roughly 1 ½ tablespoons of the dough, roll it into a ball (or use a small cookie scoop and there's no need to roll). If it’s too soft, just chill the dough for 10 minutes.
- Make a deep dent in the centre and add one piece of frozen Nutella. Now, shape the dough around the Nutella to seal it inside. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough, moving quickly as the Nutella will soften quickly.
- Chill the cookies for 30 minutes in the fridge or 10 minutes in the freezer.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Optional: As soon as you take the trays out of the oven, use a round cookie cutter, just slightly larger than the cookie, and swirl it around the cookie. This will make them perfectly round and also thicken them slightly.
- Allow them to cool on the trays for 10-15 minutes until you can move them to a wire rack without them breaking, to cool completely. Once cool, they will firm up.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
- All ovens vary – if you know your oven runs hotter than standard, take them out 2-3 minutes before the recipe suggests and allow them to cool to see if they crisp and cooked through. With cookies, it’s always easy to do a single test cookie, then bake the rest according to your test bake.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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4 Comments on “Chocolate Nutella Cookies”
Hey there, I just tried it as my first cookie recipe ever and I wanted to thank you so much for sharing it, it worked perfectly!
Love your recipes and how detailed they are, can’t wait to go over the website to favorite recipes to try out later.
I’m so happy to hear this, Luiza. And thank you so much for dropping back to leave a review. Happy baking 😊
Thanks for sharing this fantastic recipe! I love how simple and straightforward it sounds to make these delicious Nutella cookies. Just curious, have you tried using any other nut butters as a filling, like almond or cashew? I’m wondering how they might change the flavor. Can’t wait to try this out at home!
Hi Agnieszka. Thank you. I haven’t tried almond or cashew but peanut butter works great as does Biscoff spread / cookie butter.