Nutella Sandwich Cookies

So I apologize for being MIA lately. April has been a crazy month. Between easter, birthdays, school work, internship applications and everything else I've barely had enough time to cook, let alone write about it. But now, I'm setting aside some time to tell you about one of the most delicious cookies I happened to discover around easter time.

I'd been eying this recipe for Nutella pocket cookies for some time, and decided that easter was the time to do it. I was going down to my grandparent's house and although their kitchen doesn't have a lot of new equipment, its still a great kitchen to work in. What I wasn't anticipating was that I'd be out of a rolling pin when I got to their house, so I had to change the plans around. Instead of making pocket cookies I'd make sandwich cookies, I mean who doesn't love the idea of an oreo-like cookie and who doesn't like Nutella? (as my friend Chelsea said: "Everyone likes Nutella, just not everyone LOVES Nutella.") But with these cookies I got nothing but a positive response, everyone loved them, even people who had never tried Nutella, people who don't really like sweets or people who don't like chocolate.

The cookie was light, and the dough was something pretty unique. I'd never used cream cheese in a cookie dough before, and it added a whole new level to the cookie, it made it somewhat creamy but not overwhelming. Also, the cinnamon in the dough cut the cream cheese taste so it wasn't overwhelming. Although the sandwich cookies required a little bit more effort (mixing the dough by hand is a pain, and waiting for the dough to get cold enough that it won't bend with your hands is tedious) they're worth it. I also had my dad helping out to mix the dough when I got tired, doing it in shifts makes the mixing much easier.

This recipe was adapted from La Fuji Mama's "Nutella Pocket Cookies"

1 cup butter, softened

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

Mix together the butter, cream cheese, sugar until everything is smooth. Mix together the dry ingredients (cinnamon and flour) and stir together to aerate the flour a little (this is my fast way to pretend-sift flour.) The add in the vanilla to the wet ingredients and when that is incorporated slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

When the dough is smooth put on parchment paper in small 1.5 diameter rolls and put in the refrigerator over night. About 30-45 minutes before you are planning on baking the dough place the rolls in the freezer so that they will harden just a little more, doing this prevents the dough from getting warm and losing its shape easily.

When you are ready to start preparing the dough, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, cut the dough into 1/8-1/4th inch slices and place them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper underneath. Using parchment paper allows for an easier clean up, the cookies don't stick to the cookie sheet and the parchment paper doesn't get too warm. Place the cookies in the oven for eight to twelve minutes keeping an eye on them so that they do not burn, if your oven cooks faster in the back make sure to flip the pan about halfway through so that the cookies will bake evenly. This will make about 80 individual cookies.

Take the cookies out and let them cool for a few hours. When they are all completely cooled take the Nutella and spread it on one side of a cookie and take another cookie that is about the same size and sandwich them together. All things considered this is a lot of work for cookies, but it is well worth it. They were a huge hit with everyone I shared them with, so hopefully they'll be a hit for you too!

Monkey Bread

Its been one of those weeks, where everything is incredibly busy. So to decompress this week I went to target and bought a monkey bread making kit. For those of you who don't know what monkey bread, its a delicious cinnamon-y sugar-y doughy mix. There are really simple recipes to make monkey bread, but if you buy the Nortic Ware kit you actually end up making the dough yourself (in most recipes you would usually just use pre-made biscuit dough). Instead of giving you the directions from the kit, I'll give you the simple directions.

Ingredients:

4 cans refrigerator biscuits (about 40)

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

Cut up each individual biscuit and roll into a 1-2 inch balls. Put them into a ziplock bag a few at a time with the cinnamon and the white sugar already in it and shake. When the pieces you put in are covered with the cinnamon and sugar mixture add more dough until there is none left. Place the pieces into a buttered bunt pan (I used cupcake tins and it made about fifteen large individual monkey breads.)

Melt the butter and the brown sugar in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Let the mixture cool for about ten minutes and then pour over the dough in the pan.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. If you used the bunt pan allow it to cool fifteen minutes when you take it out of the oven before you flip it over and serve it.