Sunday Sweets: Nutella Infused Chocolate Cookies

Growing up dessert was a very rare thing in my house. My mum hated baking and cooking and, after getting married, my dad never touched another cooking utensil, stove or ingredient ever again. My dad also worked night shifts so family dinners were very uncommon and on the rare occasion my mum might whip up a dessert it was usually entirely devoured by my dad in the wee hours of the morning when he arrived home.

It actually makes me kind of sad to reflect on this and I guess it is a big part of the reason I believe in Sunday Dessert. I haven't made a point of making this a regular thing on my blog but I want to because it is important to me. Also, so there is no confusion, just because I'm making a point of Sunday night dessert, doesn't mean that dessert is banned on other nights of the week!

For my first Sunday Sweets post I bring you: Nutella Infused Chocolate Cookies.
These started from feeling very melancholy on Sunday afternoon and trying to avoid becoming overwhelmed with stress about my upcoming week at school (parent teacher interviews/end of term assessment/Easter holiday planning). So naturally, I was trawling the internet looking for something delicious to make and came across this.

I can't even deal. I don't even particularly like Nutella! These just jumped right off the page and slapped me in the tastebuds. My chocolate-senses were tingling as a very carefully closed the lid of my laptop and tried to focus on something else.

Which lasted all of about 30 seconds because I had to run to the kitchen to see how much Nutella we had. Sadly it was about 1/4 of a VERY small jar. Totally not enough to make these amazing cookies.

In dismay I tried to think of a different kind of dessert (Nutella straight from the jar perhaps?!). When I realised that I am resourceful! I like to bake! I can take a risk and be creative and invent my own chocolate cookie dough that doesn't even require Nutella! So that's what I did....and it was epic.

Nutella Infused Chocolate Cookies
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
115 grams butter
1 egg
Nutella (for filling)

Heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius and line a flat baking tray. Sift the cocoa powder and flour and add the sugar. Mix to combine. Melt the butter and add to the dry ingredients. Crack an egg over it all and whisk to combine.

Scoop tablespoon sized portions of the cookies and shape into balls then flatten onto the baking tray (ideally make these all the same size and I started making 3 at a time just to make sure I had enough mixture)

Spoon a dollop of Nutella onto the cookie then scoop another tablespoon sized of mixture, roll it, flatten it out and sit it on top of the Nutella dollop. Pinch the sides of the cookies together to create a delicious little chocolate house for the Nutella.

I managed to make 6 and had a little bit of the dough left over to eat uncooked (because that's really what making cookies is all about).

Bake for about 10 minutes. The mixture is quite moist but watch it as cookies can bake quickly depending on the thickness.