Peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches used to be a staple of my school lunches when I was a kid. It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized basically nobody else knew about it! I remember one of my friends coming back from a semester in London sophomore year so excited about her discovery of Nutella. I was so shocked that she hadn’t heard about it until she spent months over the Atlantic. We had it so often when I was growing up that I just assumed everyone else knew about it.
Fast forward ten years, and everyone knows about Nutella now! They’ve even opened up a Nutella cafe in Chicago. I just want to know–if you didn’t grow up eating peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches, what where you eating?! I know, I know–there’s the good old peanut butter and jelly, then there’s the fluffernutter, but there’s something so nostalgic for me in having peanut butter, hazelnut, and chocolate in between two slices of bread.
If you didn’t hear about Nutella until you were older, does this mean you never ate Nutella and Fluff sandwiches either? Maybe it was weird that I spent my elementary school years eating what was basically dessert imitating a sandwich, but it was the highlight of every brown paper lunch bag.
Now, let me talk about these cookies. These cookies are so soft and full of Nutella that one of my friends requested I make her a batch for Christmas after just one bite! I had to make three batches of them within the first week I came up with this recipe.
They’re no joke.
When I originally made these for my #52weeks52cookies project, they were the recipe for week 50. How it took me almost an entire year to think about making a Nutella-stuffed peanut butter cookie, I do no know, but when my friend told me she couldn’t wait that long for the recipe, I knew I had to get them on here sooner!
Just look at the texture on these things. The dough is insanely soft. I replaced half of the butter I’d normally use with a combination of cream cheese and peanut butter. If you don’t feel like buying powdered peanut butter you can just omit it, but trust me, even if you get it just for these cookies, you’ll want to make them again and again–it’ll be a worthy investment.
Speaking of peanut butter. There’s three levels of peanut butter in these things: peanut butter, peanut butter powder, and peanut butter chips. They’re deceiving because they look just like regular chocolate chip cookies, but really, each one of these guys is hiding half a tablespoon of Nutella in the center.
That’s right–half a tablespoon. They’re so light and soft that these just about melt in your mouth, leaving a chocolate-hazelnut-peanut butter flavor so powerful that it’ll instantly bring a smile to your face.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 18 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1/2 cup butter cold
- 1/4 cup cream cheese
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg large
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 2 Tbsp powdered peanut butter pb2 or another brand
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup peanut butter chips
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup Nutella
Ingredients
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- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter, cream cheese, peanut butter, and sugars on a high speed until light, smooth, and fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla, mixing to combine between each addition.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and powdered peanut butter.
- Add your dry ingredients to the mixing bowl half at a time. Mix until there's just a dusting of flour left.
- Fold in your peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop the cookie dough. Then, using a butter knife, create a pocket in the center of the dough. You'll end up pushing some of it over the edges of the ice cream scoop. Make sure not to scrape the bottom of the scoop--you want the dough to cover the Nutella!
- Place one 1/2 Tbsp of Nutella into the pocket you've just created and fold the dough over it until it's completely covered. You may need to add a small piece to make sure no Nutella is spilling out. My cookies usually come over the top of my ice cream scoop once they're filled!
- Place cookie onto the baking sheet and repeat the process. Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt and bake 18-20 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven. Carefully and immediately transfer them to a cool baking sheet.
I like to chill my scooped cookies in the freezer for about 5 minutes before baking to help them keep from spreading too fast, especially with such a soft dough.
I honestly can't tell you how long these will keep as they don't last more than a day or two in my house!