The town I grew up in lacked most of the typical teenage hangouts: a movie theater, a bowling alley, a mini golf course… Downtown consisted of a short Main Street with Quiznos, Cold Stone, and a few upscale eateries our parents dined at for business meetings and anniversaries. Although we did have a mall, the novelty of nibbling on Auntie Anne’s while wandering around Sears and JCPenney wore off before high school even began.
When we walked across the stage and accepted our diplomas, most of us sped off to separate colleges without a backward glance in the rearview mirror. (I was the weird one and still enjoy visiting home, but mainly to see my family!)
In our rush to escape, many of my friends and I lost contact for days… Then months… Then years. Despite promising to keep in touch through texts, emails, and Facebook, classes and jobs took over our time.
Until Instagram appeared.
Almost everyone from my generation signed up for an account and started sharing their square images. Dogs, cats, cookies, cupcakes, cars, shoes, dinners, dates… An eclectic collection of pictures filled my home feed, and my thumbs grew tired from double-tapping and commenting on them all!
So recently, when my old Baking Buddy (the one who inspired my Strawberry Shortcake Donuts!) posed a question on my photo, I jumped at the chance to reconnect over chocolate.
Because I hadn’t baked cookies since my Spiced Oatmeal Raisin ones the first week of September, I scribbled down a recipe as soon as I set down my phone and sprinted to the kitchen for measuring cups and mixing bowls. (I know, I know. I posted a recipe for Cherry Almond Cookies last week, but I actually began testing this Nutella batch before I baked those!)
To make these White Chocolate Nutella Cookies, you’ll start with some flour—but only a little! You need ¾ cup (measured correctly!) and not a smidgen more. (I started with 1 full cup, which resulted in dry crunchy cookies. Exactly the way my guy likes them, but not the chewy kind I intended to make!) Whisk in some baking powder, salt, and cornstarch too. It may seem like a strange ingredient, but cornstarch keeps the cookies soft. Please don’t omit it!
You’ll only use 1 tablespoon of butter—melted, to make the cookies chewier—because you’ll mix in an entire ¼ cup of Nutella next, along with an egg white (skip the yolk to keep them healthier!) and vanilla. Then comes brown sugar, which also increases the cookies’ chewiness. To finish off the dough, you’ll add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold in the white chocolate chips. I measured ¼ cup, but you could reduce that to 2 or 3 tablespoons instead for a more prominent hazelnut flavor.
You must chill the cookie dough before baking. It’s mandatory. Chilling allows the gluten to relax and butter to re-solidify, which produces chewier cookies. I wrote to chill for at least 2 hours, but I highly recommend 4 hours, if you can plan ahead! (You can also chill longer—up to a day—as long as you tightly cover the dough with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.)
Before baking, roll the cookie dough into balls and flatten them slightly to give them a “spreading head start.” Let them sit in the 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes—no more! They may look underdone, but you’ll leave them on the hot baking sheet, which allows the centers to set and finish cooking without turning the outsides crispy.
And there you have it—my super soft, extra chewy White Chocolate Nutella Cookies. A rich, decadent, and sweet treat for my high school Baking Buddy and cookie lovers everywhere!
| White Chocolate Nutella Cookies | Print |
- ¾ cup (90g) all-purpose flour (measured correctly)
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp cornstarch
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup (74g) Nutella
- 1 large egg white, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (106g) light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (56g) white chocolate chips
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together the butter, Nutella, and egg white. Mix in the vanilla and brown sugar, smearing any clumps along the side of the bowl. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in 3 tablespoons of the white chocolate chips. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into 12 pieces, and shape into balls. Flatten to about ½” in height, and press 2-3 of the remaining white chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
To increase the hazelnut flavor from the Nutella, decrease the white chocolate to 2 or 3 tablespoons instead.
Heyy I was just wondering.. is it okay if I substitute the cornstarch for cornflour?
I meant if I use cornflour instead of cornstarch!
Yes! Cornflour and cornstarch are actually the same thing; they’re just called by different names depending on where you live. That always confuses me though! 🙂
Oh, thank you so much! I can’t wait to try these.
You’re welcome; I’m really excited to hear what you think of them!
Hello Amy, I made the cookies but they had a cake texture and it was not that great. What do you think is the issue? I think it’s because I left the cookie dough in the fridge for 4 hours.
I’m sorry they didn’t turn out chewy for you Reem; that must have been disappointing. Often, cakey cookies are a result of too much flour, so make sure you’re measuring it correctly with the spoon-and-level method. Use a really light hand when spooning the flour into the measuring cup, and that should help! (For a more detailed explanation of the technique, see my Baking Basics guide.) I hope the next batch turns out perfectly!
Hey Amy! I noticed you really love soft and chewy cookies, but I’m afraid I’m just like your guy, I prefer crispy crunchy cookies. Do you have any suggestions as to how I could alter the recipe to get crispy crunchy cookies instead?
I think if you flattened the cookie dough a little bit more before baking and leave them in the oven for longer, that might help them turn crunchier Sylvia!
Omgosh these looked so amazing I had to make them straight away, was slightly worried as a lot of my cookies before have turned out very flat and not chewy at all.But my gosh these are extremely chewy and have kept there shape which i am very happy about, just waiting for my boyfriend to come home for him to try them, I’m sure I will be making more at the weekend. Great recipe Amy.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies Laura! I really hope your boyfriend does too. 🙂 Have fun baking this weekend!
Hi Amy,
Your Nutella cookie recipe looked so amazing that I decided to make it for my cookie swap this year. I baked a trial batch yesterday. I cooked it for 12 minutes which might have been too long. The cookies are hard and crisp today instead of chewy. I will try 9 or 10 min for the next batch. Do you think adding a whole egg and more butter would make them softer? I would love your advice. Thank you.
I’m so touched that you want to bake these cookies for your cookie swap this year! That means a lot to me Liz. 🙂 If the cookies turned out crisp, that could be due to a few reasons. I definitely agree that baking them for less time will help! When they’re ready to come out of the oven, the centers of the cookies should still feel underdone and slightly squishy. It could also be that there was too much flour in the cookie dough. How did you measure the flour? I’ve found that when I scoop the flour directly from the container with a measuring spoon, I end up with 1.5 times as much as when I lightly spoon and level (I describe more here) or use a kitchen scale. This would cause the problems that you saw in your finished cookies. You shouldn’t have to add more butter or an egg for the chewy texture. I hope those tips help and your next batch turns out better!
Hey Amy! These look super good and I’d really like to try them out! However, do you know any conversion tools or methods to convert cups into grams? I always have trouble baking perfectly due to the difference between metric & US measurements, even the ones I google vary! Thanks a lot & have a wonderful day ahead!
I’ve updated the recipe to include measurements by weight, so I hope that helps! 🙂 I’m excited to hear what you think of the cookies Meryl!
Thanks so much for the update, I made them today with a lot less hassle! Mine turned out crunchy (which I like!) but unfortunately, even with quite a reduction in sugar I still found them too sweet for my own liking. Otherwise, great recipe! Thank you so much Amy! 🙂
My pleasure Meryl! Since Nutella and white chocolate are both very sweet, I’m sure you can reduce the sugar even further than what you did. To compensate for the missing volume, add milk (any type will do!) 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture reaches a normal cookie dough consistency. Hopefully that will make them taste exactly as you’d like! 🙂
Could the nutella in this recipe be replaced with peanut butter?
If you’d like to make peanut butter cookies, I’d actually recommend this recipe of mine, and then substitute white chocolate chips for the regular chocolate chips! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try the cookies Morgan!