Nutella Cookies with Chocolate Hazelnut Frosting

Hey friends!  I want to introduce you to a sweet friend who has something extra special for you today!  Roxana is currently not a blogger, but is giving some consideration to starting a blog, so I thought I’d give her a taste of the blog life!  After seeing this post, I think she should defiitely dive in!  Say “hi” to Roxana and enjoy some delicious Nutella Cookies with Chocolate Hazelnut Frosting!  Connect with Roxana on her brand new Facebook page, The Redeye Baker, for more recipes!

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Hello! I must say that I can’t believe that I’m here sharing a post on Sweet Tea & Saving Grace… I still have goosebumps. Before I forget, I’d like to give Kirsten a HUGE cyber hug for inviting me to guest post today!! xoxox

My name is Roxana, I’m a stay-at-home mom to three beautiful kiddos, married to one heck of an awesome guy, and I LOVE to bake!

Here’s a little back story on my recipe.  One evening I was perusing Facebook, with my hubby looking over my shoulder, when I come across a recipe (that Kirsten shared on her page) for 3 ingredient Nutella cookies! I was intrigued… I thought “3 ingredients… really?” So naturally, my husband being the chocoholic that he is said, “LET’S MAKE ‘EM!” lol So, I got out the whopping 3 ingredients that I needed and about 20 minutes later we were having some Nutella cookies for the first time. I must say that I was a bit disappointed… they honestly tasted too “floury” in my opinion and I just felt like they could be better.

That’s when the light bulb went off in my head, “I could make these better!” (cue angel’s chorus in the background). Of course they cease to be a 3 ingredient cookie.  If there’s anything that I’ve learned in baking it’s that everything from the pinch of salt in your frosting, some lemon zest added to your favorite yellow cake recipe, almond extract in your sugar cookies, all work to kick the flavors up a notch and create a symphony for your taste buds.

My brilliant idea was to basically make peanut butter cookies substituting the peanut butter with Nutella. That worked just dandy, but of course I couldn’t just stop there. So this here is the third incarnation of my recipe.

In this version I used hazelnut extract to bring out more of that hazelnut flavor in the Nutella and I also added chopped toasted hazelnuts. Can I just tell ya… something about adding those toasted hazelnuts made the cookies taste like Christmas! Yes, I know it’s early, but when I took a bite I was taken back to being a kid. My mom would always put out a big bowl filled with mixed nuts around the holidays. We’d sit around the kitchen table taking turns with the nut cracker and the hazelnuts were usually the first ones to go.

Oh, and how could I forget the frosting… as if a Nutella cookie wasn’t enough, I made some Nutella frosting to drizzle over the cookies. I just figured that I’d fancy it up a bit for my blogging debut. Why not, right? 😉

I know that these pics are hardly satisfying (don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about the drool you just wiped off your keyboard). The only thing these cookies need is a nice tall glass of cold milk! Enjoy and happy baking!!