Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella Stuffed Cookies

Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella Stuffed Cookies combine a homemade chewy chocolate hazelnut cookie that is wrapped around a melted mouthful of creamy Nutella.

These rich cookies with a surprise in the middle are perfect any time of year, but are extra loved during the holidays. Warm or cold, they’re delicious!

Every Christmas I used to bake about six kinds of cookies, plus a few kinds of fudge, and pack them into tins to send to my family. These Nutella stuffed chocolate cookies earned their spot in those tins. They turned out perfect the first time I made them.

Why You’ll Love These Cookies

Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella Stuffed Cookies are the most satisfying craving satisfier there is out there. Craving satisfier? Is that a thing? Why, yes it is.

I have many craving satisfiers on my blog. You know the type of treat. The kind of recipe that has just the right amount of fat and sugar to extinguish the meanest of cravings. Yeah, that kind.

I can think of no greater craving satisfier than my Granny’s Monkey Bread recipe, but these soft centered chocolate hazelnut cookies are a total showstopper. Like, you take a bite and can hear the mic drop kinda cookie.

• A chocolate cookie, not chocolate chip. Most Nutella stuffed cookies use a chocolate chip dough. This one is a chewy cocoa dough, so it’s chocolate wrapped around chocolate.
• Real hazelnuts. Toasted, crushed hazelnuts in the dough double down on the hazelnut flavor in the Nutella.
• Big, bakery-size cookies. A large cookie scoop of dough around a tablespoon of Nutella makes a cookie worth sharing (or not).

Ingredients for Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

• Nutella: two 13-ounce jars. You scoop it and freeze it before the dough is even made. To be honest, I only buy Nutella for baking recipes like this, because I know how it behaves in the oven. It contains palm oil, and I avoid using products that contain palm oil that is not sustainably sourced.
• All-purpose flour: I measure mine by dipping the cup in the flour and leveling it off. The weight in the recipe card is what that gives me.
• Cocoa powder: unsweetened cocoa makes these chocolate cookies, not chocolate chip.
• Baking soda, baking powder and salt: for lift and to balance all that sweetness.
• Unsalted butter: softened, so it creams up light and fluffy with the sugar.
• Granulated sugar: in the dough, plus a little extra in a bowl for rolling.
• Egg and egg yolk: the extra yolk keeps the cookies chewy.
• Vanilla extract: I use my homemade vanilla extract, but store-bought pure vanilla works too.
• Hazelnuts: toasted and crushed. Toast them on a baking sheet at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes, then rub them in a kitchen towel to knock off most of the papery skins.

Full amounts are in the recipe card below.

How do you get the Nutella to melt and the cookie to bake?

If you’ve ever had a soft centered cookie or something like a lava cake, you might wonder how the center can be so melted and smooth while the outside is a completely cooked cake or cookie.

The trick, more often than not, is to freeze whatever is going in the center. Then, you wrap said frozen morsel with whatever sweet dessert is going on the outside and then you bake.

The result is that the frozen center takes longer to heat up, thus it won’t bake at the same rate as the cookie or cake on the outside.

So yes, you need to freeze the Nutella. Room-temperature Nutella is too soft to wrap and smears right into the dough.

How to Make Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

The Nutella freezes while the dough chills, so start with the Nutella.

Step 1: Freeze the Nutella

Scoop small balls of Nutella onto a parchment-lined tray and freeze them. Use a small (1-tablespoon) cookie scoop. The rounder the shape, the easier it will be to form into cookies.

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients

Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and set it aside.

Step 3: Cream the butter and sugar

Beat the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Start on low speed to combine, then crank it up to high. Scrape down the sides.

Step 4: Add the eggs and vanilla

On low speed, mix in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla just until combined.

Step 5: Add the dry ingredients and hazelnuts

Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low just until combined. Fold in the crushed hazelnuts.

Step 6: Chill the dough

Cover the dough and chill it for at least 1 hour. Cold dough is firm enough to wrap around the Nutella without tearing.

PRO TIP: Crush the hazelnuts small, about the size of a grain of rice. Big chunks can poke right through the dough when you wrap it around the Nutella.

Step 7: Get ready to bake

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Pour a little sugar into a small bowl for rolling.

Step 8: Wrap the dough around the Nutella

Scoop the dough with a large (3-tablespoon) cookie scoop, flatten it into a disk in your hand, and set a frozen Nutella ball in the center. Wrap the dough around it, pinch the edges to seal, and roll it into a smooth ball. Keep the rest of the Nutella balls in the freezer while you work.

Step 9: Roll in sugar

Roll each ball in the sugar and set it on the baking sheet, seam side down. Leave about 3 inches between cookies.

Step 10: Bake and cool

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until the tops crinkle. Let them rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack.

KRISSY’S RECOMMENDATION: You can’t watch a chocolate cookie turn golden, so go by the tops. When the sugar crust has cracked all over and the edges look set, they’re done, even if the centers still look soft.

Common Nutella Stuffed Cookie Problems To Avoid

• Nutella leaking out: the Nutella wasn’t frozen solid, or the dough had a thin spot or an open seam. Pinch the seam closed, roll it smooth and bake it seam side down.
• Flat cookies: the dough got warm. Put the tray of shaped cookies back in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking if your kitchen is warm.
• Uneven cookies: use a cookie scoop for both the Nutella and the dough so every cookie bakes in the same time.

★★★★★

“These cookies are so delicious. So hard not to eat the whole batch in one day!”

Erika, reader comment

The Nutella center will stay soft even after the cookie has cooled!

You read that right. Even after the cookie has completely cooled, the Nutella center will remain smooth and creamy. Must be all that palm oil.

No need to burn your fingers and your tongue by eating one of these chocolate hazelnut cookies the second it comes out of the oven. Okay, you caught me. That’s exactly what I did.

Warm from the oven, the center is runny. Once they cool, it’s more like a soft, thick frosting. If you want that warm, melty middle again, microwave a cookie for about 10 seconds.

Making Ahead, Storing and Freezing

I was originally going to save this post for Christmas, to share with all of my other Christmas treat recipes. You know, things like Five Minute Microwave Fudge and decorated sugar cookies. I figured these were just too good not to share now. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be an everyday cookie, right?

But if you’re packing cookie tins like I used to, they hold up well. Tuck them in with some eggnog fudge and homemade peppermint bark and you’ve got a tin anyone would be happy to get.

• Store: in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
• Freeze baked cookies: cool them completely, then freeze in a freezer bag or container for up to 3 months. Thaw them at room temperature.
• Make the dough ahead: the dough keeps, covered, in the fridge for up to 2 days. Let it sit out for a few minutes if it’s too firm to scoop.
• Freeze stuffed dough balls: shape and stuff them, skip the sugar, and freeze them on a tray before bagging them. Roll them in sugar and bake from frozen, adding 1 to 2 minutes.

Variations

• Chocolate chip base: wrap the frozen Nutella in my perfect chocolate chip cookie dough instead.
• Candied hazelnuts: swap the toasted hazelnuts for chopped candied hazelnuts for a little crunch and extra sweetness.
• Sea salt: sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt on top right when they come out of the oven.

Can I use a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer?

Yes, a hand mixer will always work! I just prefer a stand mixer. Beat the butter and sugar a little longer so they get light and fluffy, and stir in the hazelnuts by hand.

Can I use a different chocolate hazelnut spread?

Yes, but freeze a test ball first. Spreads vary in sweetness and thickness, and a thinner one stays softer even when frozen, which makes it harder to wrap.

Can I leave out the hazelnuts?

Yes. The cookies will still be great, just with less hazelnut flavor and no crunch. Keep in mind that Nutella itself is made with hazelnuts, so these cookies are not nut-free either way.

Why roll the cookies in sugar?

The sugar coating gives the tops their sparkly, crackly crust. It also smooths over any small seams in the dough.

Can I make smaller cookies?

Yes, but shrink the Nutella balls too, so there’s still enough dough to seal around them. Smaller cookies bake faster, so start checking them a few minutes early.

More Christmas Cookie Recipes

Looking for more Christmas cookies? These are a few more favorites, and my hazelnut brittle fits right in too.

Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Shortbread Cookie Bites

Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies

Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies