Have you ever wondered “how can I possibly consume more Nutella in other ways than by putting it on toast”? If so, you’ve come to the right place. I definitely have had my chocoholic/Nutellaholic moments, from cleaning out the jar with nothing but a spoon, to changing my grilled cheese to grilled Nutella, and to creating these three Nutella-filled recipes (literally, Nutella-filled). I was challenged by my friend, who told me that lockdown is the best time for creativity and challenges, and inspired me to make this video on three different recipes that are all created around one ingredient. Clearly I chose Nutella, because it’s a spread that I’ve grown up with, and loved my whole life, and is something I think most people are quite familiar with.
The first recipe is a Nutella-filled banana crêpe. The reason I chose this is because this recipe brings back a whole bunch of fond memories of making crêpes at my friends places, usually late at night, or after dinner as the perfect dessert. It comes together so quickly and so easily, and it gets everyone involved towards the end when people start dressing up their own crêpes. If you go out to get dessert, having sweet or savoury crêpes is almost always an option because of how popular they are. This recipe is a recipe I’ve been using for ages, a recipe that’s ingrained into my mind, usually popping into my thoughts whenever my sweet tooth kicks in.
The second recipe is a slightly more innovative one — a Nutella-stuffed peanut butter cookie cup. I love the combination of peanut butter and Nutella, so when coming up with these recipes, my mind naturally went straight to peanut butter cookies. Yes, you could easily bake off some classic peanut butter cookies and sandwich them together with Nutella, but then it becomes less of a dainty-bite sized snack, and more of a hefty cookie sandwich. By making it an all-in-one dessert, it’s ready to go as soon as you pop it out of the oven, out of the pan, and straight into your mouth. I would like to note that since peanut allergies are super common, I would recommend swapping out the peanut butter for any type of nut butter such as almond butter, cashew butter, wow butter — whichever works best for you! These cookie cups are so delicious — just when you thought peanut butter cookies couldn’t get any better, these happened.
The third recipe is a Nutella puff pastry pocket. Try saying that five times and fast. I inspired myself to create something other than pie dough for once, and came up with puff pastry. My puff pastry recipe is a no-fuss, easy peasy, blitz puff pastry — meaning it comes together in a blitz (super fast). I oftentimes do not have the patience to make a giant pat of butter and and the stiff dough for traditional puff pastry — especially when I have a hankering for flaky-type pastries. I also cannot find it in myself to buy store-bought puff pastry since I would much rather have something homemade, so I find a compromise. I make this super easy and quick blitz puff pastry and enjoy every moment of it. If you buy store-bought puff pastry, you’re already halfway done the pockets, but I definitely would encourage you to make your own. These puff pockets are simple and easy, with Nutella being the only filling, but you can definitely go wild and make it your own.
Don’t forget to check out the video tutorial below, and here are the recipes.
Nutella Crêpes
This recipe makes about 10-12 small crêpes.
Ingredients
128g (1 cup) all purpose flour
30g (2 tbsp) sugar
2g (1/2 tsp) salt
250g (1 cup) milk
5g (1 tsp) vanilla
1 egg
15g (1 tbsp) melted butter
Fillings:
147g (1/2 cup) Nutella
2 whole ripe bananas
sliced strawberries (optional)
Toppings
Nutella or melted chocolate to drizzle
Icing sugar to dust
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the milk, vanilla extract, and egg, and stir until fully combined.
- Chill the in fridge, covered, for 30min-1 hour to let the gluten relax.
- On a non-stick pan on medium heat, pour out around 1/3 cup of batter per crêpe, cooking it for about 2-3 min or until completely matte and set on the edges before gently lifting and flipping to cook for another 1-2 min.
- Fill with Nutella, bananas and/or strawberries, fold into third, and top with the desired toppings.
- Enjoy!
Nutella-Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookie Cups
This recipe makes 12 mini cupcake-sized cookie cups.
Ingredients
55g (1/4 cup) peanut butter
55g (1/4 cup) soft butter
100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
1 egg
5g (1 tsp) vanilla extract
155g (1-1/4 cup) all purpose flour
2g (1/2 tsp) baking powder
1g (1/4 tsp) salt
80g (4 tbsp) Nutella, or more, depending
Method
- In a 12 cavity mini cupcake tin, brush some melted butter on the insides of the cups to grease the pan. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter, soft butter, and brown sugar with a spatula until just combined.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract and stir until all the wet ingredients are fully combined.
- In a separate medium mixing bowl, sift and whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and add to the butter sugar egg mixture. Gently mix together until fully combined, and spoon in 1 tbsp of batter into each mini cupcake cup on the pan,
- Once all the cavities are filled, using cold, wet, clean fingers, push down into the centre of the dough to create a little well for the Nutella.
- Pipe the Nutella into the centre of each dough cup, and top with more cookie dough until the cup is full and packed to the top of the pan.
- Using a fork to create a criss-cross pattern, and sprinkle with more sugar, and poke the fork through the top once to allow any steam or airbubbles to come out and through.
- Chill the cookie cups for about 30 min, then preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
- Bake the cookie cups for about 12-15 min or until the tops of the cookies are slightly browned and matte.
- Take it out of the oven and allow for it to cool at room temperature until just slightly warm to the touch, and carefully wiggle the cookies out of the pan.
- Enjoy!
Nutella Puff Pastry Pockets
This recipe makes about 12 Nutella Puff Pastry Pockets.
Ingredients
For the Blitz Puff Pastry Dough
120g (1 cup) all purpose flour
120g (1 cup) cake flour
240g (1 cup + 1 tbsp) cold butter, cut into cubes
5g (1 tsp) salt
120g (1/2 cup) cold water
Nutella to fill (about 160g (8 tbsp)
1 egg for egg wash
30g (2 tbsp) sugar for dusting
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flours and salt.
- In the same bowl, using a pastry cutter or your hands, add the butter chunks and cut the butter into the flour until the butter is 3-4 inch- 1 inch wide.
- Add in the cold water and mix just until the dough starts to come together.
- Dump it out onto a clean work surface and push together to form a shaggy rectangle of dough.
- If your dough is still nice and cold, dust your work surface and the top of the dough with flour, and roll out into a large rectangle about 18″x10″ and do a single fold, into three panels, like a pamphlet. Feel free to refer to the video tutorial for a better understanding.
- Turn it 90 degrees and continue to roll out again into 18″x10″ to do another single fold. As soon as the dough begins to shrink or stick to your surfaces, finish up the fold and place in the fridge for 1 hour or the freezer for 30 min to chill and let the gluten relax between folds.
- Repeat the rolling, folding and chilling process until you have completed 6 single folds.
- After the last fold, chill it thoroughly again before beginning to make the puffs.
- Once the dough is ready, roll it out into a rectangle again into 16″x9″. Take a pizza wheel and cut the dough into 8 pieces lengthwise, and then cutting each strip into 3, so each pocket layer is around 2″x3″ tall.
- Pipe Nutella onto half of the rectangles, leaving about 1/2 an inch space around the Nutella. Brush the egg wash around the edges of the pocket, and lay the other piece of dough on top, making sure to press down on the edges to seal in the Nutella.
- Take a pair of clean and sharp kitchen scissors, and snip the top layer of dough three times for ventilation.
- Egg wash the tops of the pockets, and set in the fridge for about 30 min. After chilling, add another layer of egg wash, and a light sprinkle of sugar.
- Preheat the oven to 400F/205C and bake the pockets for about 16-18 min or until the pockets are golden brown and flaky.
- Let it cool completely and enjoy!
ally bakes 