Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip CookieS

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My boyfriend's birthday is this Wednesday (12/12/12!) but he's traveling all week for work so I won't get to celebrate with him. I wanted to make him an early birthday treat this weekend combining his two favorite things - chocolate chip cookies and Nutella! I used this recipe and adapted it a bit using what I had in the house. I also didn't add the sea salt because Christian didn't want it, but I am sure they're just as delicious with the salty twist! I actually don't like Nutella so I didn't even try one (I'm crazy, I know), but Christian said they were absolutely delicious, so I trust his judgement! :)

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Ambitious Kitchen
makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients...

• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• about 24 teaspoons of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator (just stick a small jar in there and save the rest for another recipe!)

Instructions...

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
2. Brown the butter: melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure to keep whisking during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately pour it into a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
3. In the bowl of your standing mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.
4. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. (I accidentally dropped the entire second egg in instead of just the yolk and my cookies came out great, so don't worry if this happens to you.
5. Reduce the speed to slow and add the dry ingredients slowly until just combined. 
6. Reduce speed to stir and gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.
7. Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes, which is what I did because I didn't have 2 hours to spare!
8. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough has chilled, measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand.
9. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled Nutella in the middle and fold dough around it, gently rolling until you've formed a ball and no Nutella is peeking out. If you can see Nutella, add a little bit of dough to patch up the holes until it's totally covered.
10. Place dough balls on cookie sheet 2 inches apart and flatten the top of each gently with your hand.
11. Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown.
12. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.