If you have never made any made browned butter you are going to do this step by step. This recipe uses two sticks of brown butter, so to make the brown butter you will want to cut your butter up into tablespoon-sized pieces and place in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Use a wooden spoon and stir the butter until it’s completely melted and then well turn the heat up just a notch to medium we will cook the butter stirring completely until it starts to crackle.

Cooking out all of the liquid and you are going to be browning that butter giving it a rich nutty flavour continue to stir your butter constantly while it is crackling and popping. Once the butter starts getting the brown flecks in the bottom you want to remove from your heat and continue to stir it then pour this browned butter into a large heatproof bowl and then let this cool for at least 20 minutes.

You do not want to use superhot butter for these cookies so let it cool and move on to the next step, which is the Nutella filling. You are going to scoop Nutella and place it on top of a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet or a large plate. Once you have your Nutella portion now take them over to the freezer and freeze these Nutella balls until your cookie dough is ready. Now as your Nutella filling is freezing, our browned butter probably still needs a little more time to cool.

So go ahead and prepare our dry ingredients. For this recipe, you will need all-purpose flour then to it add cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Use a spoon to mix everything together until it is well mixed together, now let’s move on to wet ingredients. You do not want to jump over to your wet ingredients together until your browned butter has cooled. You want it to be no longer warm to the touch otherwise you could end up cooking your eggs and melting your sugar and you will have a huge mess on your hands. So once your butter is cooled, we can move on.

We will add 1 cup of light or dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar to your browned butter and then use the spatula or a spoon to stir everything together until it is well combined. The nice thing about this recipe is that because we are using melted butter, there is no stand mixer or electric mixer required to make this. You can just use a spatula or a spoon. Now add large eggs, and you want these eggs to be at room temperature. And also add in your vanilla extract and then stir everything together well. With your wet ingredients combined, bring your dry ingredients, and gradually add these to the wet ingredients.

Add it in about three parts and use a spatula to stir everything together until it is well mixed. Set that cookie dough aside for now and the last thing you are going to need is dark or semi-sweet chocolates and chop it finely. Use a knife and cut it almost like you are mincing garlic so that the pieces of chocolate are fine shards. And add that chocolate to your cookie dough and use a spatula to stir in the chocolate pieces into the cookie dough until you have chocolate flecks all throughout.

This dough is going to be a little sticky now, so we are going to put it in the fridge and let it chill for about 15 to 20 minutes to make it manageable and easy for us to fill with Nutella. Meanwhile, you can preheat your oven to 375F and let that get ready for the cookie dough. Once the cookie dough has chilled remove it from the fridge and also grab your Nutella filling that is frozen. Now scoop your cookie dough by about 1 and ½ tablespoons and take one of your Nutella dollops and press that into the centre of your cookie dough and then fold your cookie dough around it you can add more cookie dough if you need more and then roll it into a ball.

Repeat this until your entire Nutella filling has been stuffed into your cookie dough. But if your Nutella filling gets too soft or too melted just return it to the freezer for about 5 minutes because it can warm up pretty quickly. Once you have scooped all of your cookie balls transfer them back into the freezer and freeze them for another 15 minutes. Once your cookie dough has chilled and now you have to put them 2 inches apart on a separate parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake this in your 375F oven for about 12 to 13 minutes. After about 12 to 13 minutes the edge of your cookies should be lightly golden brown and they will be finished baking. At this point, while your cookies are still hot sprinkle them with sea salt. Use coarse sea salt and lightly sprinkle the cookies while they are still warm. The cookies will still be fragile while warm so you are going to want to let them cool completely on the baking sheet before digging in.

Ingredients;

  • 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter
  • 1 cup (280g) Nutella
  • 1 cup (200g) brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup (135g) white sugar
  • 2 eggs at room temperature preferred
  • 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 3/4 cups + 2 Tbsp (362g) all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 oz (113g) semisweet chocolate bar very finely chopped
  • sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions;

  1. Prepare your Nutella filling first by lining a cookie sheet with wax paper and dropping Nutella by 2 teaspoon-sized dollops onto the cookie sheet. Place in the freezer to harden while you prepare your cookie dough.
  2. Cut your butter into Tablespoon-sized pieces and place them in a medium-sized saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat.
  3. Once the butter has melted, increase heat to just above medium heat.
  4. Swirl and scrape the sides of the pan frequently with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula – the butter will bubble and pop. Once the bubbling/popping slows, the butter will begin to turn brown, it will look like this once it’s finished
  5. Watch the butter very carefully at this point, and once it begins to brown and you smell the nutty aroma of browned butter, remove it from heat quickly and pour it into a large, heatproof bowl.
  6. Allow butter to cool for 25-30 minutes before proceeding with the recipe.

For the Cookie Dough;

  1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Add sugars into cooled browned butter, and stir well.
  3. Stir in eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
  4. Add vanilla extract and stir.
  5. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  6. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until ingredients are completely combined.
  7. Add your finely chopped chocolate bar and stir well.
  8. Chill dough in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.
  9. Remove frozen Nutella from the freezer and cookie dough from the refrigerator (if at any point the Nutella becomes too sticky and hard to work with, return to the freezer for at least 5-10 minutes)
  10. Scoop dough by heaping 1 1/2 Tbsp-sized spoonful and press the frozen Nutella dollop into the centre. Form around Nutella until it is completely concealed (add more dough as needed).
  11. Roll into an even ball and place on a wax-paper lined sheet. Repeat until all Nutella dollops are concealed in cookie dough, and freeze cookie dough balls for 15 minutes.
  12. Place cookie dough at least 2 inches apart on a parchment paper-lined sheet, and bake at 375F (190C) for 12-13 minutes, or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown.
  13. Sprinkle immediately with sea salt. Allow cookies to cool completely on the cookie sheet before removing them (they’ll be quite fragile when warm, but will become more sturdy as they cool).