Nutella Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Moving on with my stock clearance exercise, it is a really great excuse to bake some cookies! This time it is Nutella. Two bottles of it with bits of hazelnut chocolaty goodness sticking at the bottom and sides. Do you know what expired Nutella smells like?

It has an awful fishy smell. If you look above, one of the Nutella already expired on 07-11-2014 but it smelt and tasted OK. So I used it. I believe that the expiry date in this particular case is not on the dot but there is a margin of error so that consumers can still use the product by a certain time after the date of expiry.

The recipe I am using is from Diana of The Domestic Godess Wannabe but instead of chocolate chips, I am using Cadbury mini diary milk chocolate just for the fun of it. And no, these tiny chocolate pieces are not from my stash of kiddo bait. I purposely bought these to bake my cookies.

What I did was I broke the chocolate into smaller pieces and then mixed them into the cookies batter.

I used a small ice-cream scoop instead of teaspoons to scoop the batter. That's because I was pressed for time and it was a lot faster using the ice cream scoop. I got bigger cookies and these were all baked in two batches. Has I used teaspoons, I reckon I would have had to bake in 4 batches.

Before.

Since these are big cookies, I baked the first batch for 20 minutes, turning the baking tray at half-time for even baking. These cookies spread out quite a bit and it was good that I allowed for more space between the cookies dough.

After.

The cookies were quite browned after 20 minutes just the way I like it. I love my cookies crunchy and not chewy. These cookies were crunchy but the center was a bit soft but that was alright with me.

This is why we need to space them out more.

With my second batch, I tried to squeeze in all the batter which was not a good move at all. My cookies got fused together and I had to separate them. Of course the shape wasn't nice but it was OK because I was baking for myself.

Once the cookies were cooled, it was time to have a taste. They smelled pretty good. I mean Nutella and chocolate, what could go wrong, right?

Chomp! Hmmm..nice, crunchy.

It was crispy and crunchy with rich chocolaty taste. But the chocolate bits were not visible though the taste was there. I think I may have to double the amount of chocolate.

Chomp! Chomp!

But I have one complaint. Even though Diana already reduced the sugar by half (100g from 212.50g), the cookies were still way too sweet for me. I cannot imagine what they would be like with the full amount of sugar. I will reduce  the sugar further in my next bake. 

Mission accomplished with the Nutella. And guess what? I stil have a big bottle (325g) in my kitchen cupboard. But no worries, that one still has a long way to go till expiry. I'm thinking Nutella cake, what say you?

Nutella Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Adapted from : The Domestic Goddess Wannabe

Ingredients :

- 115g butter (salted), at room temperature

- 100g caster sugar (I find this too sweet, to reduce to 50g in future)

- 165g self-raising flour

- 1 egg

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 65g Nutella

- 110g Cadbury mini chocolate, broken into smaller pieces (to increase chocolate pieces, maybe 150g?)

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 160C

2. Line a baking tray with parchment paper

3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter until soft

4. Add sugar and beat until soft and fluffy

5. Add in vanilla, egg and Nutella. Mix well.

6. Add in flour and mix until just incorporated.

7. Add in chocolate pieces.

8. Use a small ice-cream scoop to scoop cookie dough and place onto tray and leave about 2 inch space between the dough.

9. Bake for 20 minutes, turning tray halfway at half-time.