Nutella Sea Salt Stuffies

The Nutella Sea Salt Stuffie, shaped with a moon cake mold.

Earlier I showed you a hybrid chocolate chip cookie that used a method from America's Test Kitchen and ingredients adapted from a cookie found in Shauna Niequist's "Bread & Wine."

Then came the discovery of Christina Lorrey's Nutella Sea Salt Stuffies. Lorrey is a member of King Arthur Flour's human resources team. She won first place in the company's "Crunch Time: The Great King Arthur Flour Cookie Challenge," a fund-raiser for the local medical center.

Chew on that a moment. Her cookie was best in show in a company loaded with top-tier bakers. Naturally we had to taste for ourselves and see whether it needed a hybrid approach. The finding is, this darling is so swell, all I could offer was shape play using a mold for a traditional Chinese moon cake.

When you make it, don't try to form the Nutella into balls, it's too smooth for that. Use a scoop to drop this classic hazelnut spread on a silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet, then freeze. After you've followed the directions for wrapping the dough around the Nutella centers, place the dough inside a moon cake mold, if you have one, flatten it a bit with the rough side of a meat-tenderizing mallet, or scratch the top with a fork in cross hatches for a pleasing effect. Give it your stamp.

Now hide it if you hope to keep it. Guys who don't like sweets are quick on the draw with this cookie.

Nutella Sea Salt Stuffies by Christina Lorrey of King Arthur Flour

 

Filling

Filling

1/2 cup Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread

Cookie dough

1 cup Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread

1 cup King Arthur Flour 100% White Whole Wheat Flour or unbleached all-purpose flour 

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, optional; for enhanced flavor

Topping

coarse sea salt such as Fleur de Sel

Directions

1) To make the filling: Scoop small balls of Nutella (chestnut-sized, about 1" diameter) onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. A teaspoon cookie scoop, filled level, is the perfect tool for this job; your goal is about 2 level measuring teaspoons of Nutella. You should have about 12 small balls.

2) Place the baking sheet into the freezer (uncovered is fine), and freeze until the balls are completely frozen, about 3 hours; or up to overnight.

3) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line it with parchment.

4) To make the dough: Mix together all of the dough ingredients; the mixture will be cohesive, fairly soft, but not sticky; think modeling clay.

5) Scoop out heaping tablespoons full of the dough; a slightly heaped tablespoon cookie scoop works well here.

6) Flatten a ball of dough (I rolled it out a bit bigger). Place one of the frozen Nutella balls in the center. Wrap the dough around the Nutella like a dumpling, enclosing it completely. Roll the ball of dough between your palms to seal any cracks and round it out. Repeat with the remaining dough and frozen Nutella balls.

7) Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet; they won't spread much, so should all fit on one sheet. Sprinkle very lightly with a bit of coarse sea salt.

8) Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes; when done, they will have lost much of their shine, and you may see a very faint lightening of color around the bottom third of each cookie.

9) Remove the cookies from the oven; serve warm, or at room temperature. For the full melting-center, lava-like effect, serve warm; if they're at room temperature, the centers will be solid. Reheat very briefly in the microwave to liquefy the centers, if desired.

Yield: 12 rich cookies

*Special thanks to King Arthur Flour for permission to reprint this recipe. For more ideas, visit them online at www.kingarthurflour.com