Nutella Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies – The cookies, made largely from Nutella are some of the fudgiest, richest, and most intensely chocolaty cookies I’ve ever had. You will devour them!
I’ve made quite a few chocolate-peanut butter cookies in my day.
But had yet to bake Nutella into cookies until now. What was I waiting for.
They turned out moist, soft, chewy, and are some of the fudgiest, richest, and most intensely chocolaty cookies I’ve ever had.
The Nutella is the star of the show, and trumps the peanut butter flavor, which is more subtle.
I got the inspiration from my Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Those cookies don’t use any flour, butter, or white sugar. I was going to just swap Nutella for peanut butter, but realized that wouldn’t be a good idea. Nutella is about twice as runny as peanut butter, and I was afraid of spreading issues. It’s also sweeter than peanut butter.
To compensate, I cut the brown sugar amount in half, added a bit of flour, and supplemented the Nutella-dominant dough with just one-quarter cup of peanut butter since it’s thicker and provides more structure. And there’s NO butter and NO white sugar used, and very little flour.
I was so pleased when these came out of the oven and my strategies worked.
To make the cookies, cream together one egg, Nutella, peanut butter, dark brown sugar (or light if that’s what you have), vanilla, and let your mixer really work this dough over. In my stand mixer, I let this beat on high power for about 5 minutes. The batter goes from granular, gritty, and sloppy to smooth and oily-looking. It should look like a big, greasy ball of Play-Doh. If it’s not, keep beating and creaming until it is.
Add the flour, baking soda, and this causes the mass of dough to separate into tiny balls about the size of larger non-pareils sprinkles. The dough is not pretty, not combined, and you’ll think you’re on the wrong track. You’re fine.
Add the chocolate chunks and beat momentarily. A tip when chopping chocolate is to put a piece of parchment on your cutting board before chopping it, which contains the chocolate sawdust, making cleanup a snap. The whole dusty mess slides easily off the parchment and into your mixing bowl.
I used Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus Bar. Use your favorite level of chocolate intensity. I wanted something dark, rich, and very intense and it delivered.
Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form 15 mounds and place them on a large plate, or use your hands. If you’re using a cookie scoop, after the mounds are formed, squeeze and compact them in your hand.
The dough comes together when squeezed, yet is crumbly and loose without pressure as it lays in the mixing bowl. It’s oily yet crumbly, all in one.
Cover the plate with plasticwrap and chill it for at least two hours, up to 5 days, before baking. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until tops have just set. Don’t overbake, which is easy to do with dark-colored cookies. They set up as they cool so don’t be afraid to pull these out when they’re still on the loose and jiggly side.
Biting into one of these dark beauties, with a sea of melted chocolate chunks scattered throughout the rich, Nutella-based dough, is just pure bliss.
Nutella lends a fudgy, gooey quality to the cookies, unlike other types of chocolate cookies that are made with cocoa powder, which I find are prone to turning dry and cakey.
Although there are hints of peanut butter flavor that come through, these are for chocolate lovers.
The edges are chewy, and the center is squishy soft, supremely moist, and ultra chocolaty.
In comparison to some of my other chocolate cookie recipes, these are a slam dunk. There’s no chocolate to melt nor having to wait for it to cool before beating into the other dry ingredients, making them so much faster and more foolproof.
I’m glad the recipe only makes 15 small cookies.
Having a big batch of these around would be dangerous.
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Nutella Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup Nutella
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter or chocolate peanut butter, do not use natural or homemade, it's too runny and cookies could spread
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed (light may be substituted)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 5 ½ ounces dark chocolate, chopped (I used Trader Joe's 72% Pound Plus Bar)
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large mixing bowl and hand mixer), combine the egg, Nutella, peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and beat on high power to cream ingredients, about 5 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. The dough will go from very granular, gritty, and loose to smooth, oily, and well-formed in a large mound. If your dough has not come together or is at all gritty, continue to mix until it smooths out.
- Add the flour, baking soda, optional salt and beat to incorporate. Dough will not look like normal cookie dough and will be tiny balls and flakes that seem almost feathery in the bowl. This is okay. Add the chocolate chunks and beat momentarily to incorporate.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons) or your hands, scoop out 15 mounds of dough and place them on a large plate. Using your hands, gently squeeze and compact each mound so that it's tightly packed together. Dough will be both crumbly and oily, but when squeezed, it should stay together. Cover plate with plasticwrap and refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days, before baking.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line 2 baking sheets with Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mats
- parchment, or spray with cooking spray; set aside. Space dough 2 inches apart (8 per tray) and bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until top have just set, even if slightly underbaked in the center. It's difficult to discern if they're done or not because they're dark, but watch them very closely and don't overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool, and baking too long will result in cookies that set up too crisp and hard (The cookies shown in the photos were baked for 9 minutes, with trays rotated at the 5-minute mark, and have chewy edges with pillowy, soft centers).
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Recipes links welcome.
Thanks for the Odwalla Juices Giveaway entries!
I didn’t use natural peanut butter, and my cookies are flat and spread out. I did use reduced fat Jif, could that be why? I followed the recipe exactly. Any ideas??
Could be the reason. I also have this post about cookie making success tips, i.e. Silpat, King Arthur flour, etc. Follow everything there and I bet your cookies won’t spread. https://www.averiecooks.com/the-best-soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Im a baker!! I made these cookie 3 times and they have never turned out the way yours look! Once they spreaded so the next time I added flour however still don’t even look even close to yours! Weird!
Hi!
So I made these cookies last week and they were a-ma-zing.
Even though they tasted amazing when making them I noticed that my dough was a lot more oily and runny than what you described it should have been and as a result my cookies spread quite a bit and they did not look so great.
They were still chewy and delicious but I was wondering if to remedy this I could simply add a bit more flower? And if so, should I add a bit more sugar as well to keep the flavors??
I’m thinking it was because I did not use 100% nutella but a cheaper version of a hazelnut spread that is a bit more oily than the real deal.
Any suggestions would be great!
You answered all your own questions. Nutella, even the brand name, from jar to jar, there is wild variance. Some jars are very oily, some are very dry. Some are like natural Pb in that they separate and a jar can turn oily/crumbly all at once. I hate that and you really can’t fix it so you have to open a new jar. If you’re going to stick with the generic Nutella, then yes, add more flour so the dough isn’t oily. I wouldn’t mess with the sugar. Also make sure the dough is well chilled and you’re baking on a Silpat. Huge insurance against spreading, even with oily batter. Glad they taste amazing!
I have just put the dough in the fridge, it went all oily I couldn’t really stop it from leaking. Is this normal?
It is an oily dough since there’s a high degree fatty spreads (PB & Nutella) with a low amount of flour but it’s manageable. I think after it comes out of the fridge it will solidify more and you’ll be fine.
love, love, LOVE them!! tried them out yesterday – also with slightly different duration in the oven and as you said, the ones the longest in (11min?) were a bit too hard later, but those about 10min were just perfect!
this was my first try at cookies, wonderful recipe! :)
Glad they came out wonderfully for you and it’s your first time ever baking cookies? Well these are good ones to start with! :)
well, i bake quite a lot and of course i’ve baked a few recipes for cookies for christmas or easter, and also some oatmeal cookies. what i meant were actual typical “american cookies”. although i love them, i never tried them. now i’m wondering why ;)
want you to know, my colleagues at work loved them as well! :)
So glad they were a hit with your work colleagues, too! And glad you’ve now tried American cookies :)