nutella Archives - Sugar et al

Nutella Sandwich Cookies

18|12|2021

I made and shot these cookies way back in October when I bought a few cookie stamps but never got to post the recipe. What can be a better time to share cookies than the official cookie season of the year? The recipe is pretty simple and as you can see the beauty is in the stamp design. However these can be made plain without the designs and simply rolling out and cutting them in different shapes using cookie cutters. Cookie stamps can be found on Ebay, Amazon and almost all cake decorations stores.
We can never go wrong with Nutella, can we?

Nutella Sandwich cookies
Makes 12 sandwich cookies

225 g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/3 cups plain flour
1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup Nutella

Beat the butter and brown sugar with electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix until fully blended. Turn out dough on surface and knead until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Allow dough to sit at room temperature to soften slightly.

Dust a surface with a little flour. Roll out the dough with a regular rolling pin to just thicker than 1cm – around ½”. Press dough with cookie stamp. Cut out cookie flower shapes with a flower cookie cutter.

Place on prepared trays. Refrigerate for 15-20 mins. Bake 12-14 minutes or until cookies are crisp. Cool on a wire rack. Once cool, spread or pipe Nutella onto a cookie. Sandwich with another cookie.

Banoffee Pie with Nutella Mousse

28|10|2018

I’ve had this recipe to share for over a year now. A decadent, uber delicious, no bake banoffee pie/tart that uses Nutella Mousse instead of the classic caramel filling. Tell me, how can you ever, ever go wrong with Nutella, bananas and dollops of cream? Definitely not for the faint heart-ed, this dessert is the one when you don’t care for looks and love serving up rustic slices boasting of several layers. Each better than the other. Believe me when I say, I’m drooling as I write this.

Honestly, this is one of the easiest desserts ever though at first impression it does not seem that way. Nothing in it seeks perfection yet it is the most Divine tasting pie. Even if you’re not a fan of bananas, this will change your mind. I have nothing against the caramel filling that is served in a traditional banoffee pie but Nutella, I thought would be a nice change.

Spring is almost coming to an end and mangoes have started making an appearance. I’m working on mango recipes but my eyes keep searching for cherries and peaches at the markets. Because our summer coincides with Christmas, I feel like it just disappears in a jiffy. One moment I have a plethora of fruits to choose from to create recipes and the next minute they’re all gone. Anyway, one fruit to always fall back on is banana. Always available, always so good!

Banoffee Pie with Nutella Mousse
Makes a round 7 inch tart, serving 6-8 people

200 g digestive biscuits or cookies of your choice
100 g unsalted butter, melted
1 cup Nutella
1.5 cups thickened/heavy cream
2 large bananas, thickly sliced

For the topping
1 cup heavy cream
2=3 tbsp castor sugar (as per taste)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp powdered cocoa

Place the biscuits in a food processor and pulse until fine crumbs form. Add the melted butter into the processor and pulse again to combine. Press the biscuit mixture onto the base and sides of a 7 inch fluted tart pan until uniform. Place the tart pan on a baking tray for ease of movement and store the tray with the pan in the fridge for the base to firm up.

Meanwhile make the Nutella mousse. In a mixing bowl, whip the thickened cream to soft peaks (when it can still hold it’s shape but has softer peaks). Add the Nutella and mix to combine. Pour the Nutella mousse over the tart base and smoothen it with a spatula. At this stage the mousse will be soft but will thicken up upon cooling. Place the pan back into the fridge for at least 2 hours to set.

Make the whipped cream topping. Before getting started, place your bowl and beaters in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes. In the bowl of your mixer or a large bowl (if you are using a hand held mixer) place the thickened/heavy cream, sugar and vanilla extract together. Start mixing on low speed, then increase the speed to medium-high until stiff peaks form. Place in the fridge until needed.

When ready to serve, remove the tart from the fridge. Arrange banana slices over the Nutella mousse. Dollop with whipped cream. Dust with cocoa powder. Enjoy!

Fancy-Pants Nutella Pie Pops

14|04|2016

Instagram is one place where I find lots of creative inspiration. Not only beautiful images and works of talented bloggers, photographers and artists but also like minded people who share similar goals, thoughts and ideas. There are so many friendships I have made over the last few months that I have an ever increasing list of countries and people I would like to meet if I visit their part of the world. The other day I had an interaction with a lovely fellow Instagram-er who also happens to be a Stylist and we agreed that pies are incredible little things but there needs to be wedding pies (just like wedding cakes). Something a bit fancy and decorated that’ll look great on a wedding dessert table. It’s not that I don’t like the rustic appearance of pies. In fact I like it too much. But imagine putting them alongside dolled up, colorful desserts. It wouldn’t hurt to make them a bit fancy schmancy. So I set about creating these that turned out to be easier than regular pies. (Yes, pies again!!)

I used store-bought short crust pastry, a round and a heart shaped cookie cutter, a jar of nutella, some silver and golden cashous and sprinkles. To make the cashous stick to the pies, I piped a thin line of melted chocolate around the circumference. You could use a brush as well. I just love how simple yet elegant they look. Using ribbons and sprinkles of different colours, one can create pie pops in line with the theme of a get-together or wedding. With Mother’s Day coming up, these would be lovely home-made presents for Mum as well.

Instead of Nutella, flavored ganache like orange, mocha, ginger, cardamom, rose and even white chocolate would make great fillings. Fruit fillings are fine too but I find they ooze out a little bit. Because these are smaller and on a stick, they are convenient to eat. So what do you think about pies served at weddings? Would you go the classic way or try out new, creative ways of serving them?

Nutella Pie Pops
Makes 10

1 sheet ready rolled short crust pastry
1/2 cup Nutella
1 egg, for eggwash
Melted chocolate, to serve as glue for the sprinkles/cashous
Cashous and Sprinkles, for decorating
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Prepare the eggwash by lightly beating the egg with a tbsp of water. Cut out circles and heart shapes (or whichever shape you desire). I used a 2.5 inch cookie cutter. You will need 2 cut-outs each for the tops and bottoms.

Place the bottom half on the baking tray. Place a small wooden skewer/sticks in the middle and press gently to secure in place. Spoon 1 tsp Nutella on the pastry. Close with the top half and bring the edges together to close any open areas. Brush tops with egg wash.

Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Once golden brown, remove from oven and leave aside to cool.
Brush or pipe a thin border of melted dark chocolate around the circumference of the pies. Carefully place cashous or sprinkles around the border. I found it easier to sprinkle with fingers rather than dipping he sides in sprinkles (something I would do with cupcakes generally) as the pies are delicate.

Leave to dry out. The wooden sticks can be decorated by wrapping colored ribbons on them.

Nutella Filled Linzer Cookies

3|12|2013

When I look at the recipes I had bookmarked to try this year, I wonder if I will ever be able to reach the end of my list. Actually, is there an end…will there ever be one! No…not for me! I feel I am just getting started. The holiday season is bringing plenty of excitement to my baking repertoire and my oven is doing a bit of over time already.

Can you believe it, I have not posted a single Nutella recipe till now. So without wasting a moment, I made these Nutella Linzer Cookies. I love everything about these cookies..the nutty texture, the chocolale-y centre and the various shapes and sizes you can do with them. You can also fill them up with jam, the way it is done traditionally or any other filling like lemon curd, ganache etc.

I have used ground hazelnuts in the mix to complement the Nutella filling. Any nut meal will work. These are put together pretty much like any other cookie. The only tricky part is to get the shapes out intact after rolling out the dough. To ease the process, I roll out the dough on a baking paper and then place my cookie cutter all over the dough to make the cookies. Then I remove the balance dough from around the cookies and place the baking paper on a baking tray to bake. I do this twice. Once for the bottom cookie and a second batch for the tops with the centres cut out.

This post is also my contribution to my favourite Chocolate Party with the theme for December being Chocolate Cookies. Do check out the other creations at the end of the post.

Nutella Filled Linzer Cookies
Makes 20 sandwiched cookies

1 cup hazelnut meal (ground hazelnuts)
2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks

1/2 cup Nutella, for the filling
Icing Sugar, to dust

In a bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract and egg yolks. Finally, beat in the ground hazelnuts and then the flour mixture. Divide the dough in half, cover each half with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm (30-60 minutes, or up to two days).

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove one ball of dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch (.5 cm) thick. Using a 3 inch (7.5 cm) cookie cutter (round, square, heart, etc.) cut out the cookies. Place the cookies about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on the prepared baking sheet. Use a smaller cookie cutter to cut out the centers of half of the cookies on the baking sheet. Re roll any scraps and cut out the remaining cookies. Repeat with the second ball of dough. (Note: If you find the cookies are soft, place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to chill the dough. This will prevent the cookies from spreading and losing their shape when baked.) Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Place the cut out cookies on a baking sheet and lightly dust the tops with icing sugar. Spread a thin layer of Nutella on the bottom surface of the full cookie. Place the cut-out cookie on top and gently sandwich them together.

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