Healthy Tasty Chowcleaner recipes, reviews and food chatter

Oh, I have so many ideas for Nutella it’s not even funny.  It’s pretty dangerous for me to have a jar of it at my house as it is one of my many weaknesses.  But that did not stop me from stepping to the plate when bell ‘alimento suggested a Nutella Challenge (you see the pretty jar of Nutella in the side bar?).  I happily went and bought the two gigantic jars at Costco, which I’m sure is not necessary since a little Nutella goes a long way.  Originally I wanted to do some Nutella Swirls/Pinwheels (which I think I will still do soon anyway) but the cookie batter I made wasn’t quite right.  Previously, I made these hazelnut meal cookies- which are awesome.  I wanted an excuse to make those again, so I changed the recipe  to make flatter, crispier and less sweet cookies (since Nutella is so sweet).  Then, I tried to do a dollop of Nutella - sorta like the Hershey kiss cookies, but of course since I made this batter to be thin, it didn’t work out - my fault for changing the plan after making the batter.  However, the flavor was excellent so those are already gone:)  Then I burnt the first batch of  regular cookies by not checking the time.  But then, the last two batches worked!  Phew!  I thought they weren’t going to stick together, but once they cooled, they were just fine!  A little delicate, but completely tasty and delicious.  Yay! 

I received a gallon of palm oil shortening in the mail from Tropical Traditions, and I wanted to try out a recipe using it, there will be different recipes to follow and a giveaway as well.  I made these cookies with the intention of a healthier version of Nutella sandwich cookies.  With gluten-free oats, these are also gluten-free!  There are plenty of recipes out there for Nutella sandwich cookies, but I haven’t seen one like this yet.  The ones that usually catch my eye are the hazelnut meringue Nutella sandwich cookies.  Talk about melt in your mouth!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup palm oil shortening (non-hydrogenated) - you can also use coconut oil or butter - DON’T use hydrogenated shortening!
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used organic)
• 1 TB agave nectar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup oat flour
• 3/4 cup hazelnuts, roasted, blanched and then finely ground in food processor
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• Nutella

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350
• Toast the hazelnuts in the oven roughly 8 minutes or until you can smell them, don’t let them burn!  I like to toast extra in case of duds.
• Remove the hazelnuts from the oven and with a towel, rub as much of the skins off as possible (on is okay if you don’t feel like doing this)
• Grind them in a food processor until finely ground- it’s not going to look like flour- it’ll be slightly lumpy
• Cream sugar with butter and shortening, add egg, vanilla and agave nectar and mix
• In a separate bowl, combine oat flour, hazelnut meal, salt and baking powder, mix and slowly combine with wet ingredients
• Refrigerate the batter for 20 minutes, try not to eat all the dough.
• By small cookie scoop-full, place batter roughly 2 1/2 inches away from each drop since dough will spread.
• Bake 5 minutes or until edges are slightly brown.  Allow to cool slightly and carefully transfer to cookie rack.  Allow to cool completly before adding Nutella
• Take about 1/2 cup of Nutella and warm it in the microwave or stove until it’s easily spreadable (Nutella is too thick for these cookies and spreads much easier warm) - no need to measure, spread a little and sandwich those cookies!