Healthier Vegan “Nutella” Stuffed Cookies
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1/3 cup runny natural almond butter
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 4 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/2 tsp pink salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip plus more for topping
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
- 8 tbsp, divided chocolate hazelnut spread of choice
Instructions
- First, you’ll need to freeze your chocolate hazelnut spread ahead of time. Grab a cookie sheet and line with parchment paper. Use a tbsp and drop 8 servings of chocolate hazelnut spread onto the parchment paper. Make sure each one measures 1 tbsp. You can choose to a little less but don’t do more than 1 tbsp. Try to keep the shape somewhat circle so it fits in the cookie dough easily. Place in the freezer for about 1 & 1/2 to 2 hours.
- Once the chocolate hazelnut spread is frozen, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (don’t take the hazelnut spread out of the freezer until you’re ready to stuff the cookie dough! It melts fast).
- For the cookie dough: grab a mixing bowl and add all of the wet ingredients: almond butter, almond milk, coconut sugar and vanilla. Stir until well combined then add the dry ingredients: almond flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well and then fold in the chocolate chips. Set aside.
- Line another baking sheet with parchment paper and grab a large cookie scoop. Scoop out 8 cookies. Now take your frozen chocolate hazelnut spread out of the freezer. Try to work fast because it melts!
- Here’s the best way I have found to stuff the cookies and get a nice even bake: take your eight cookie dough balls and split each one in half. Roll all of those pieces of dough into balls and then flatten each one about halfway. Add the frozen hazelnut spread in between the two layers of dough and make sure to cover the hazelnut spread with the dough completely. Once you have your eight cookie dough balls put back together, flatten as much as you can. You’ll only be able to flatten these a little bit because of the frozen hazelnuts spread, but that’s OK.
- Bake on the middle rack for about 11-15 minutes. All ovens are different so check closely but mine are perfect at 14 minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool for about ten or so minutes, top with sea salt and enjoy! Store leftover covered on the counter. Don’t place these in the fridge or the hazelnut spread will harden.
Notes
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread: feel free to use your favorite healthier hazelnut spread or classic Nutella if you’d like. For this recipe, I used Justin’s Chocolate Almond and Hazelnut butter and it worked perfectly.
How much Chocolate Hazelnut Spread to Use: I tested these cookies out using 1 tablespoon of hazelnut spread each cookie. Feel free to use less if you don’t want too much hazelnut spread in your cookies. It does contribute to a sweeter cookie so you can use 2 teaspoons instead. Do not do more than a tablespoon though, as that can compromise the texture of the cookie.
Ingredient Substitutions: For these Healthier Vegan “Nutella” Stuffed Cookies, I do not recommend any ingredient substitutions. For the best results, I recommend using the ingredients as written.