There are times when I really love just playing with food and experimenting. Take a few weeks ago when I was scrounging around looking for something sweet to make but of course, we’d gotten rid of all the yummy stuff because we’re on this health kick. I managed to find flour, butter, cashew-macadamia nut butter and hidden way in the back of the cupboard, a half-forgotten container of Nutella. Oooh. There had to be something I could make with this stuff. Then my granddaughter Jasmine came into the kitchen and said “Grammy, lets make cookies.” Aiden chimed in, “Yammy, cookies” and that was all it took. We were going to make some kind of cookie and it was going to involve that container of Nutella.
I scrounged some more and turned up brown sugar and an old recipe for plain peanut butter cookies. Hmmm, I thought I could use the cashew-macadamia nut butter instead of peanut butter and make those cookies but I still wanted the Nutella. What to do? All of a sudden, this crazy idea popped into my head. Why not make a sandwich cookie, something on the lines of an Oreo only instead of a cream filling, how about a Nutella filling? Oooh. Double ooh. The idea was becoming an obsession. I had to make them.
We pulled out the Kitchen Aid stand mixer I had gotten for my birthday and started with a basic peanut butter cookie recipe, substituting the Cashew-Macadamia nut butter for the peanut butter. Nothing else about the recipe changed. The crazy stuff started AFTER the cookies were out of the oven.
Once we had the dough all made, I set about cross hatching every other cookie on the baking sheet and added slivered almonds to the unmarked ones. I baked the cookies just like in the recipe and removed from the oven. While they were still hot, I carefully removed a cookie from the baking sheet and gently placed it on a cooling rack. The cookies had a tendency to want to fall apart because they were so hot, so if you try this, be careful. The cookies need to be hot to get the Nutella to melt. I added a teaspoonful of Nutella on every cross hatched cookie, then topped the Nutella with the top cookie, the one with almonds on it. The Nutella started to melt and ooze and the yummy cookie sandwiches were ready to eat. I served two on a plate and oh my God they were good! The melty, hot Nutella combined with the light nutty taste of the cookies was just to die for. A perfect combination. This recipe is going to be a regular, I can tell.
Cashew Macadamia Nut Butter Cookies with Nutella Filling
INGREDIENTS
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup cashew macadamia nut butter (I get mine at Trader Joes, bet almond butter or hazelnut butter would be good too)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
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2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in eggs.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into batter.
Roll into 1-inch balls and put on baking sheets. Flatten every other ball with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern.
Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for about 10 minutes or until cookies begin to brown.
Add a teaspoonful of Nutella to the hot cookies and top with another cookie. Serve plain or over vanilla ice cream to really fatten things up.
