Soft and chewy, Nutella chocolate chip cookies are a yummy chocolate hazelnut treat! This easy Nutella cookie recipe is perfect for holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day.
You won’t regret making this recipe.
These sweet treats have a gooey chocolate hazelnut filling in the middle. It's the ultimate combo of soft and chewy double chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Nutella!
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- It's the perfect chocolaty dessert. If you've never had the chocolate hazelnut spread known as Nutella, you will fall in love!
- Easy recipe for kids to help with.
- Cookies are an easy-to-make treat that everyone loves!
Ingredients
To make this recipe, you'll need:
- Nutella - You'll find this creamy spread in the peanut butter aisle of the grocery store.
- butter - Your baked goods will taste better if you use a high quality, European butter. European butter is more expensive than American-made, but the extra butterfat and less water make a huge difference.
- semi-sweet chocolate chips
- unsweetened cocoa powder - I use Hershey unsweetened cocoa
- milk
- vanilla extract
- Instant coffee - Coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate, and instant coffee isn't very expensive. Your cookies will not taste like coffee!
- eggs
- white granulated sugar
- light brown sugar
- all-purpose flour
- baking soda - Be sure to test it for freshness before you use it, especially if it's over 4 months old.
- sea or kosher salt: Do not use iodized table salt
📖 Time-Saving Tip - Testing Baking Soda or Baking Powder for Freshness
This simple little test can save you time and money, because if your leavener is expired, whatever you're baking wont rise in the oven! This test works for baking soda and baking powder:
- Add about ½ teaspoon of baking soda or powder to a small bowl. Stir in an equal amount of an acidic ingredient, like vinegar or citrus juice.
- If the solution doesn't start to bubble immediately, it's time to replace your leavener.
Substitutions and Recipe Variations
- Nutella: If you can't find this specific brand, you can substitute with any brand of chocolate hazelnut spread.
- butter: If you use salted butter, you may want to omit the additional salt this recipe calls for.
- unsweetened cocoa powder: Use either regular or Dutch process powder.
- all-purpose flour: If you'd like to make Nutella cookies gluten free, substitute with a cup-for-cup gluten free all-purpose flour. Popular brands are Bob's Red Mill and King Arthur Flour.
- eggs: I haven't had much success using egg substitutes in cookie recipes, but, feel free to do your own testing. For tips and suggestions, read my article, Egg Substitutions for Baking.
- white granulated sugar: To reduce the calories in your Nutella chocolate chip cookies, feel free to use any cup-for-cup granulated sugar substitute. Monkfruit sugar is a good option.
- light brown sugar: Dark brown sugar works with this recipe, but your cookies will have a more pronounced molasses flavor.
- baking soda: Baking soda is essential for this recipe. Do not substitute with baking powder.
- vanilla extract: Feel free to use vanilla essence, which is a non-alcoholic flavoring, or for a deeper flavor, use vanilla bean paste.
- milk: Any type of dairy or non-dairy milk is fine to use.
- Instant Coffee: For a more intense mocha flavor, try instant espresso.
- chocolate chips: I use semi-sweet, but any flavor or variety will work. White chocolate chips will add a nice pop of color to the double chocolate cookies.
Cookie Variations
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies: Instead of making Nutella chocolate chip cookies, substitute the chocolate hazelnut spread with peanut butter (or any other nut butter). Or, make my Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead!
Make smaller cookies. If you would like small to medium-sized cookies, use a half tablespoon to scoop dollops of Nutella and use the same amount of dough you would use for a regular cookie.
How to Make Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
Summary only. The complete recipe instructions are in the card at the bottom of this post ⬇️
- Chill dollops of Nutella on a sheet pan in your freezer. While this is chilling in the freezer, you'll make the chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough.
- Melt chocolate chips and butter in a saucepan. Chocolate burns easily, so use low heat. Also, be sure to keep stirring until the chocolate melts completely.
- Stir the cocoa powder and instant coffee. Then, measure and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).
- Using medium-high speed, beat white and brown sugars with the eggs.
- Combine the egg/sugar mixture with the Nutella mixture. It's important to avoid over mixing, which can cause your Nutella cookies to be dry and crumbly.
- Stuff the double chocolate chip cookie dough with dollops of Nutella. Be sure that the dough completely covers the Nutella. Otherwise, it may ooze out of the cookies during baking.
- Cool the Nutella filled cookies on the pan for 5 minutes. After that, transfer them to a wire cooling rack.
Liz's Tips for the Best Cookies
- Avoid freezing the Nutella for too long. You want the dollops to be firm, but still malleable. Avoid freezing the spread for longer than 30 minutes. Otherwise, the Nutella inside the cookies may not melt properly.
- Leave enough room between each of the dough balls to allow for spreading. It's best to space them 2 to 3 inches apart.
Storage
Storing: You can store the Nutella stuffed chocolate chip cookies for up to 5 days in an airtight container at room temperature, or in the refrigerator.
Freezing: You can freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months in an airtight container. Thaw completely at room temperature before enjoying.
Freezing Unbaked Cookie Dough: You can freeze the Nutella chocolate chip cookie dough. Scoop into balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet or use these cookie dough freezing trays.
Check out my post, How to Freeze Cookie Dough, for more tips on making dough to bake later.
Nutella Cookie Recipe FAQs
American and European Nutella are supposedly the same, but many people say that they're different. Allegedly, the European chocolate spread has more hazelnuts and is less sweet than the American version.
Freezing an entire jar of the chocolate hazelnut spread is not a good idea, because there isn't enough room in the jar to allow for expansion. However, freezing dollops of Nutella to stuff inside of cookies is perfectly fine!
Other Delicious Cookie Recipes
Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Nutella or other chocolate hazelnut spread
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons instant coffee or instant espresso powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt omit if using salted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set one aside.
- Using a tablespoon or small cookie scoop, place dollops of Nutella on the cookie sheet. Transfer to the freezer to chill while you prepare the cookie dough.
- Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When butter is completely melted, add chocolate chips and stir constantly until the chocolate melts.
- Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in milk, vanilla, instant coffee, and unsweetened cocoa powder.
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat together sugar and eggs, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture and continue mixing for another 2 minutes, until well combined.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add half of the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture, and mix on low speed to combine. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix on low speed, until just barely combined.
- Remove Nutella dollops from the freezer. Place scoops of cookie dough on prepared cookie sheet, and use a spoon to create a well in the middle of the dough. Place one Nutella dollop into each well.Fold the cookie dough over the Nutella, then roll dough in the palm of your hands to form a ball, ensuring that the Nutella is fully covered by the dough.
- Arrange unbaked cookies on the baking sheet in a single layer, about 2 inches apart. Allow plenty of room for them to spread as they bake.
- Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Helpful Notes and Tips From Liz
- Storage - Nutella cookies will last about 5 days in an airtight container at room temperature. However, you can also store freeze them for up to 4 months. Thaw them in a microwave on high power for about 30 seconds for a decadent treat.
- Make them smaller - If you would like small to medium-sized cookies, use a half tablespoon to scoop dollops of Nutella and use the same amount of dough you would use for a regular cookie.
Karen
These were awful. Taste and texture both were off. Recipe is also not clear. Why divide the chocolate chips when it only says to add them once? I made one sheet which came out dry, refrigerated dough for 2 days and tried again. Ew, throwing the rest of the dough out. wasted my food Ghirardelli chips too.
Liz Marino
I'm sorry you felt that way. The chocolate chips are added in the beginning and melted - I'm sorry if that was not clear!
Bruce Archer
They all sound yummy 😋 can any of them be made gluten-free?
Liz Marino
I'm sorry butI can't be sure without testing it! If you'd like to experiment, I find that Bob's Red Mill Gluten free 1:1 flour usually works well as a substitute 🙂