Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Like the majority of the northeast, we were homebound yesterday in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Though we were very largely spared, it was a pretty decent storm with a ton of wind and rain. Luckily, unlike some people like some of my coworkers and my sister, our power never went out (even though I was discouraged from saying so out loud yesterday for fear that we would be jinxed) so even though we had plenty of bottled water, canned goods, and snacks at the ready, I decided to cook and bake instead. And I ate the snacks alongside it and replaced the bottled water with wine. You know, no big whoop.

I saw this recipe weeks ago and was ever so ready to make it. The problem lay in that I knew it had a bunch of steps and every time I went to go make them, I'd get distracted. Yesterday, I was ready. I wasn't going anywhere all day and figured I might as well make good use of both my time and my electricity. I really thought this would take awhile to do-but in reality it was maybe a half hour of prep time with a lot of time in the fridge to set. And the end result? Oh, that end result. A gooey, chocolate-y warm cookie. Dare I say these were better than my regular chocolate chip cookies? The ones that are the size of dinner plates? Yes.

This cookie has three different kinds of chocolate chips in it. Three. It has nutella stuffed in the middle of it. Nutella, people. Do you see where this is going? Eat it upon removing from the oven. Pure. Bliss. This is the kind of thing you'll want to have on Halloween because you want something better than the Peanut Butter Cups you're handing out (though I'm not totally sure on that. Let's call it a draw. But you see where I'm going.). Even better, make the dough, roll it out, then freeze it. You can make the cookies one or two or six at a time and not worry about them getting stale. Because, you know, you'll have inhaled them in an hour.

Get to work, people. These cookies won't stuff themselves, and you need some dessert tonight. Ready, GO!

Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe obtained from Ambitious Kitchen)

Ingredients
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 sticks (1 C) unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg and 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. plain greek yogurt
3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella, chilled
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Mix together the dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Whisk the butter frequently and make sure to watch as it cooks. The butter will change from foamy to a darker, tan color, and then it will take on a nutty aroma. Make sure you take the butter off the burner immediately at this time-it can burn very quickly past this point. Set the butter aside to cool slightly.

Mix the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer. In the meantime, combine the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt in a separate bowl and whisk together until blended. Add the egg/yogurt mixture to the butter/sugar mixer and make sure they are fully combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Let the dough rest and come together for two hours in the refrigerator to cool. Also chill your nutella at this time.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure out dough into the size of walnuts (about a tablespoon and a half) and roll into balls. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place a small amount (1/2 to 1 teaspoon) of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; then roll back into it's walnut-sized shape, making sure that the nutella is completely encased by the dough.

Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Try not to burn the roof of your mouth while you shovel them all into your belly in one sitting.