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Recipes | Desserts | Cookies, Brownies, & Bars | Chocolate Nutella Thumbprint Cookies

Chocolate Nutella Thumbprint Cookies

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Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
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A close up photo of three chocolate Nutella thumbprint cookies on a clear plate.
A close up photo of three chocolate Nutella thumbprint cookies on a clear plate.

 
I make thumbprint cookies every Christmas. Yummy little buttery cookies filled with seedless jams and lemon curd, small enough to pop into your mouth with one bite! Yum.. After reading through this thumbprint cookie recipe and noticing that ground hazelnuts played a big roll, I immediate thought that Nutella would be an ideal filling.
A photo of chocolate Nutella thumbprint cookies resting on a cooling rack.
The chocolate (not the Nutella) idea was actually an after thought. I had already rolled one full cookie sheet (by the way, I doubled the size of the cookies, 60 was just too many) when I decided to add a tablespoon of cocoa to the remaining dough. So half of my cookies were as written and the other half were a little chocolatey.
A close up photo of Nutella being piped onto the thumbprint cookies.
As lovely as they look, I think I made a mistake. You see, as I was grinding the hazelnuts I realized that they weren’t toasted, but raw. The ground nuts were sticking together a little bit, so I was concerned that there would be too much moisture. So I went ahead and toasted the hazelnuts, which brought out the wonderful flavor they possess. However, I think they may have contributed to the cookie’s unfortunate dryness. :( I don’t think the added cocoa had anything to do with the dryness as both versions were equally dry. :-/
A close up photo of a half bitten chocolate Nutella thumbprint cookie.
I also am not certain if the Nutella was really the ideal filling for these. Perhaps if they were fill halfway through baking, and then allowed to back again, the filling may have set up. Not sure. As soon as you take a bite, and long string of Nutella hits your chin. Still tasty… Nutella is always tasty. :)
A close up photo of three chocolate Nutella thumbprint cookies on a clear plate.
I looked back at my own thumbprint recipe, which always turns out tender and buttery, and found that the only ingredients are flour, butter, sugar, orange juice, and an egg yolk. Dorie’s recipe contains flour and ground hazelnuts for the dry ingredients, and sugar, butter and extracts for the wet. There’s no egg yolk or any other liquid. That leads me to believe that she used the moisture from the ground nuts to contribute to the moisture.
An overhead photo of three chocolate Nutella thumbprint cookies on a clear plate.
Another difference between mine and Dorie’s is that hers bake all the way before filling them. Mine you bake 10 minutes, fill them, then bake 5 minutes more. Dorie boils the jam and fills the cookies after they are baked. These were fun, they were easy to make, but I still like my thumbprint recipe better. Special thanks go out to Mike from Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude (don’t you just LOVE that blog title?? Hee hee!) for hosting this week’s Tuesday With Dorie pick! You can get the recipe below, or turn to page 164 of Baking From My Home to Yours by the fabulous Dorie Greenspan.
A close up photo of three chocolate Nutella thumbprint cookies on a clear plate.
A close up photo of three chocolate Nutella thumbprint cookies on a clear plate.

Chocolate Nutella Thumbprint Cookies

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Course: Desserts
Servings: 60
35 minutes
Author: Amanda Davis

Ingredients

  • 1 ¾ cups finely ground hazelnuts
  • 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter room temperature
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • Confectioners' sugar for dusting
  • 1 cup Nutella

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Whisk together ground nuts, flour and cocoa.
  • In a mixer beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add extracts and beat to blend.
  • Reduce speed of mixer to low and gradually add flour mixture until a dough forms.
  • Use a cookie scoop or a teaspoon to portion out dough. Roll it gently in your hands and place balls two inches apart on cookie sheets. Use the end of a wooden spoon to create a well in each dough ball. Do not go all the way down to to the cookie sheet.
  • Bake 1o minutes minutes.
  • Remove from oven and fill each well with Nutella (to come level with the top of the cookie). Return cookies to oven for 5 minutes more.
  • Remove to wire cooling racks and dust with Confectioners' sugar.
  • Allow to cool completely.
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Amanda Davis

President at Amanda's Creative Studio, Inc.
Amanda Davis is the entrepreneurial mom of four grown children and four step children. She and her husband, Chef Antoine, love to cook together creating recipes for this blog. Amanda also make kid's crafts and creates decorative items for her home. She is a crafting expert and guru in the kitchen and has appeared online and in print publications many times over the years. She is also a craft book author five times over and product developer as well as the owner of FunFamilyCrafts.com. You can find her on social media by using the buttons to the left!
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Comments

  3. Teanna says

    I'm sorry these weren't a hit with you, but I loved reading your comparisons between your go-to recipe and Dorie! And I love the description of the Nutella coming out in a string and landing on your chin! That is so accurate! But I do love what you did with the recipe! You're brilliant, woman!

    Reply

  4. Erin@The Sweet Life says

    You did it! When I ate my first Thumbprint tonight filled with blackberry jam, I thought to myself, "I shoulda filled these with Nutella!" But just last week I ate what was left of my jar. Straight out of the jar. With a spoon. Therapy in the form of chocolate hazelnut spread. Anyway, your cookies look delicious!

    Reply

  5. CB says

    What a great idea. Adding cocoa powder. Now I wanna try that the next time I bake these cookies. Sorry yours came out dry. :( I was a little suprised that Dorie's recipe didn't have eggs either. I used almond meal instead of ground hazelnuts and the texture wasn't dry for me.
    -CB
    http://iheartfood4thought.com

    Reply

  10. Lauryn says

    Thats too bad that they came out dry! They look amazing!! I'm surprised that the nutella wasnt a better filling. I used dark chocolate in some of mine and they were great!!

    Reply

  11. Heather says

    They look good! Not one of my favourite recipes but will have to find another version of thumbprints too try.

    Reply

  15. biz319 says

    My daughter was introduced to Nutella at the age of 8, when I met my now Italian husband – she loves the stuff, and it will be in her future apartment! :D

    The cookies look pretty though!

    Reply

  16. myfamousrecipe says

    Your post reminded me that I had to add a good bit of water to the dough in order to get these to roll into balls. They were too dry and crumbly to work with at first. Anyway, Nutella!? Yum!

    Reply

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