Nutella Filled Vanilla Cookies (Gluten Free)

Today’s Nutella Filled Vanilla Cookies are a delightful combination of soft cookie and indulgent chocolate-hazelnut filling, just what you want at the end of a meal or when you are looking for the perfect snack.

These beauties are the creation of Jess, the author of Inquiring Chef, a very talented blogger based in Kansas City with a history of living and cooking in Bangkok, Thailand. Her website is a fascinating blending of cultures and recipes, and really fun to browse.

Fresh from the oven!

I was captivated by Jess’ stories, photographs, and recipes. As I hunted for the perfect chocolate recipe to make and share with you as part of the Secret Recipe Club, I kept being distracted by all the beautiful recipes on her site. I must admit I am little enchanted with the exotic natures of the Asian cuisines and can’t wait to come back and make some of her specialties.

After a lot of searching and narrowing down the options, I finally settled on today’s recipe. I love the concept of packing a ball of sweet sugar cookie dough with a filling. As I was making them my mind started thinking of all the different things you could use in this recipe in the place of her delicious Nutella chips.

Of course regular chocolate chips are a natural option, but what about white chocolate or butterscotch? Maybe cinnamon chips for a snickerdoodle flavor, or even a nugget of ganache like the center of a truffle. I think a few toffee chips could be fun too and give the cookies a nice crunch. Hmmmm, something to think about for future batches!

Since I’ve gone gluten-free I have transitioned to weighing the flours which makes it much simpler to substitute my GF flour blend in any recipe. For those of you who are new to gluten-free baking, do yourself a favor and buy a kitchen scale. It will help you in ways you never anticipated!

I didn’t have any chocolate jimmies in the house so I sprinkled the tops of the cookies with coarse sugar. It gives them a nice crunch and enhances the sugar flavor. You could also roll the dough balls in the sugar if you want even more crunch.

If you wanted to make a fun children’s party treat, make a couple of batches of these cookies and use different fillings in some of them. If you don’t mark them, you can’t tell what the filling is, so they become magic cookies! Of course if you want to know which is which, put chocolate jimmies on the chocolate ones, pink sugar on the white chocolate ones, a hazelnut on those filled with nutella, etc.

I made my version with half white sugar and half brown sugar. This helps add a touch more moisture to help the gluten-free flours. They turned out beautifully golden and soft, with a light crunch from the coarse sugar. The dough was so good I’m amazed I got as many cookies baked as I did with all my nibbling, LOL!

I hope you give these Nutella Filled Vanilla Cookies a try and love them as much as The Artist and I have. They are a true delight!

Did you enjoy this recipe? Let me know in the comments, I love hearing from you!

Key Ingredients for Nutella Filled Vanilla Cookies:

• Nutella, coconut oil, gluten-free all-purpose flour or regular all-purpose flour
• Baking soda, salt, unsalted butter, sugar, egg, vanilla

PRO Tip:

A lot of recipes call for piping batters for a variety of projects. If you don’t want to mess with a piping tip and bag, just put your batter into a resealable plastic bag and force it down into one corner. Seal the top and twist it to keep the batter nice and snug in the corner.

Use a pair of scissors and snip a small piece off the corner, creating an opening to squeeze the batter through. If it isn’t big enough, cut the hole a little bigger. When you are done just throw the whole thing away and voila, no mess!!

How to make Nutella Filled Vanilla Cookies:

1. Prepare the Nutella Chips: Chill a parchment-lined sheet pan; in a bowl, whisk together the Nutella and coconut oil, transfer to a resealable plastic bag and press into one corner, then refrigerate to thicken the mixture and make it easier to work with
2. Cut off the corner of the bag and gently squeeze 24 thumbnail-sized dots on the paper; freeze for about 30 minutes to firm up
3. Make the Cookies: Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside; cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the egg and vanilla, beating well; mix in the flour mixture just until incorporated, then using a scoop, form into 24 balls
4. Flatten each ball into a disk using the bottom of a glass dipped in flour, remove half of the Nutella chips from the freezer and place them on half the dough disks; working quickly, wrap the chips with the dough, forming balls, repeat with remaining chips and dough, sprinkle with sugar or other topping if desired
5. Bake the Cookies: Place cookie balls 3-inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 350°F for about 10 minutes, do not overcook; cool cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before carefully transferring them to a rack to cool
6. Repeat with remaining dough and Nutella chips

PRO Tip:

You can press and form the dough balls with the Nutella chips in the center while the first batch is baking. Work on a sheet of parchment paper and then you can easily slide the sheet onto the baking sheet.

PRO Tip:

If you learn better with visuals, check out Jess’ webpage, she has wonderful process shots that I didn’t get a chance to take. 

Recommended Tools (affiliate links; no extra cost to you):

• Mixing bowls
• Kitchen scale
• Measuring spoons
• Small baking sheet (quarter sheet pan)
• Regular baking sheets (half sheet pan)
• Parchment paper sheets or Silpats
• Stand mixer or hand mixer
• Cookie scoop

Gluten-Free Tips:

You can adjust any recipe to gluten-free by using 120 grams per cup of my favorite gluten-free flour blend. If you are using another brand of gluten-free flour, whisk the mix, spoon it lightly into a measuring cup until mounded, level off the top with a straight edge, and weigh the flour left in the cup. Use that weight as your standard per cup of that specific flour. Do this for each flour blend you use. Commercial blends such as Pamela’s, Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1, or King Arthur Measure for Measure are all good choices.

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Yield: about 24 cookies

Nutella Filled Vanilla Cookies (Gluten Free)

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Today's Nutella Filled Vanilla Cookies are a delightful combination of soft cookie and indulgent chocolate-hazelnut filling, just what you want at the end of a meal or when you are looking for the perfect snack.

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 20 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Ingredients

Nutella Chips

• 1/2 cup (220 g) Nutella
• 3 tsp pure coconut oil, melted and cooled

Cookies

• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour or gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
• 10 tbsp (141 g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar (or 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar + 1/2 cup (100 g) brown sugar)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Toppings

• Chocolate jimmies, coarse sugar, crushed nuts, or sprinkles, optional

Instructions

1. Prepare Nutella Chips: Line a small baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat. Refrigerate while you are making the Nutella mixture.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the Nutella and coconut oil. Transfer the Nutella to a small resealable plastic bag and press it into one corner. Refrigerate 15 to 20 minutes to help make it thicker and easier to work with.
3. When chilled but still pliable, cut off the corner of the plastic bag and gently squeeze the Nutella out onto the chilled parchment into 24 evenly sized chips. Each will be about the size of your thumbnail. Place the baking sheet in the freezer until the Nutella is firm, 30 to 45 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with
   parchment paper.
5. Make the Cookie Dough: In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt (if using). Whisk until thoroughly blended. Set aside.
6. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes on medium in a stand mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated.
7. Using a small cookie scoop, portion the dough into 24 pieces and flatten each into a round disk. I used the bottom of a water glass dipped in a little extra flour. Remove half the Nutella chips from the freezer. Working quickly, set one chip onto each ball of dough and roll the dough into a ball around the Nutella chip.
8. Place the cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar or other topping if desired.
9. Bake the Cookies: Bake for 5 minutes then spin the tray and continue cooking until the edges of the cookies start to turn golden, about 5 minutes longer. Do not overcook.
10. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack. Cool thoroughly.
11. Shape and fill the next batch of cookies on a second chilled baking sheet while the first ones are baking and cooling. Refrigerate while you are waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven if you get them done quickly.  
12. VARIATION: If you do not have Nutella on hand or don’t want to take the time to make the Nutella chips, you can substitute a combination of regular chocolate chips with peanut butter chips to approximate the flavor. You probably could even chop up peanut butter cups for an interesting change of pace!

Recipe found at www.theheritagecook.com

Notes

You can adjust any recipe to gluten-free by using 120 grams per cup of my favorite gluten-free flour blend. If you are using another brand of gluten-free flour, whisk the mix, spoon it lightly into a measuring cup until mounded, level off the top with a straight edge, and weigh the flour left in the cup. Use that weight as your standard per cup of that specific flour. Do this for each flour blend you use. Commercial blends such as Pamela's, Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1, or King Arthur Measure for Measure are all good choices.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

24

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 101Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 119mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 2g

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