Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter & Sea Salt Choco Chip Cookies

Pure tasty.

So, it's been a while.  Been a rough couple of days, especially for the BF.  We all said goodbye to one of the cutest, most spirited little buddies of all time, Turbo.  However, calories totally don't count when you're sad so, I've had several of these ridiculously amazing cookies.  Seriously, best cookies ever.

Every September, our company has it's annual Community Support Campaign, where offices raise money for charity and do more volunteering.  My office's biggest fundraiser is our annual auction.  After an "I'm having a bad day and need some fresh air SBux run for a Salted Caramel Mocha," I figured out what to bake for the auction, these fabulous cookies.  They might not look like anything special but, they're amazing.  Seriously. 

These cookies are seriously life changing and easy to make, albeit slightly time consuming.  However, in the 2hrs that the dough was chilling, I had time to clean up the mess I made in the kitchen and paint my nails.  Talk about efficient.  However, the best part might have been that come 11-something pm, I realized that I was out of regular sea salt and didn't think that TJ's Smoked Sea Salt would taste good with these.  Worry not, I was able to get salt this morning and it worked out just fine.  

Also, since one roomie likes weird food combos and the other doesn't like Nutella (crazy, right?) I made a couple different variations as well.  I made a few with peanut butter pretzels in the middle and a few others with just peanut butter in the middle.  Both we're delish!  The straight peanut butter in the middle ones were quite the hit with the roomies!

At the office, the cookies were a hit!!!  I sold a dozen of these things (Nutella version only) for $35- not too bad.  And because I had to get the extras out of the house for the sake of my ever expanding waistline, I was able to get people to buy the extras for $2/each in the name of charity.  Annnnd I auctioned off another lot of, "I'll Bake You Something" which sold for $50; I promised to make a double batch of cake-batter popcorn for the winner (don't worry there will be a post about the amazingness that is cake-batter popcorn).    

Anyway, onto the tasty details...

Sans Salt, still good.  With salt, way good.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (ie 2 sticks) of unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg and 1 egg yolk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

3/4 cup semi-sweet choco chips

1/2 cup milk choco chips

1/2 cup dark choco chips

1 jar of Nutella, chilled

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350

• Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt, then set it aside.
• Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  The butter is going to foam (keep whisking).  After a couple minutes, the butter will start to brown (keep whisking).  Remove the butter from heat as soon as it starts to brown and smell nutty.  Then, pour it into a bowl to cool for a minute.
• Mix the butter and sugars until blended.  Beat in the egg and the yolk, along with vanilla and yogurt until combined. 
• Add the dry ingredients slowly, mixing on low-speed until just combined.
• Add the choco chips.
• Chill dough for 2hrs in the fridge.  You can put it in the freezer for 30 minutes but no promises on how it'll turn out.  
• Once your dough is chilled, make a ball with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough.  Flatten the ball out in the palm of your hand.  Stick a teaspoon or so of chilled Nutella in the middle and fold the dough around it.  Re-roll your ball (doesn't have to be perfect).  
• Put your balls on your cookie sheet, and slightly flatten them (slightly).  
• Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookie start to turn golden brown.  They'll look a little underdone in the middle, but have no fear, they'll keep on cooking while they cook on the sheet for a few minutes.  
• Sprinkle with sea salt and let them finish cooling on a wire rack.  

Tips & Tricks

• This is really more of a FYI, you're going to need to wash your hands off every couple of cookies because they get so gooey with goodness.  

May you forever chase the giant tennis ball in the sky.
July 2004 - Sept 2012