DAY 3: Chocolate Nutella Brownies
Homemade brownies with the extra fudginess of Nutella added to the batter and swirled into the top.
RECIPE: Continue reading
Tag Archives: Nutella
Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (and Treats): Easy Chocolate Nutella Fudge
DAY 7: Chocolate Nutella Fudge
Can you ever go wrong adding Nutella to a dessert?
Here is a perfect example: a rich, creamy fudge made even more delicious by adding Nutella. Plus lots of toasted nuts. And nuts are protein, so that makes this healthy, right?
You can also make this completely smooth and creamy, but I love the addition of chopped toasted nuts. I like lots of nuts per bite, so I use 2 full cups of chopped nuts, but if you just want the nuts sprinkled here and there, use less. My ideal fudge would be a pile of nuts with just enough chocolate to hold the nuts together in one piece!
I used a small cookie scoop to scoop the warm fudge into miniature foil cups. You can also spread it into an 8” square pan and cut it into squares.
Nutella tip: to easily measure Nutella, warm the jar of Nutella in the microwave for 20-30 seconds (be sure that all of the foil seal is removed first!). Spray a measuring cup with oil or cooking spray, then pour warm Nutella into the measuring cup.
RECIPE:
Chocolate Nutella Fudge
1 cup Nutella
8 oz bittersweet chocolate (about 1 heaping cup bittersweet chips)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
3 Tbs salted butter
1/8 tsp salt (omit salt if using salted nuts)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 cups chopped toasted nuts, optional **
If you are making fudge in a pan, lightly grease an 8” square pan with butter. Line the pan with parchment paper, letting it hang over the edge on 2 sides. If you are making individual fudge cups, lay 48-64 miniature foil baking cups on a rimmed baking sheet or tray.
Place Nutella, chopped bittersweet chocolate, sweet milk and butter in the top of a double boiler. Heat water in the bottom of the double boiler to a simmer, reduce heat to low and place the top of the double boiler with the chocolate mixture over the water. Stir until mixture is melted and smooth. Stir in salt, vanilla and chopped toasted nuts.
Spread warm fudge into the prepared pan OR use a small cookie scoop (or spoon) to drop about 1 tablespoon of warm fudge into each foil cup. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until fudge is firm.
If fudge was prepared in a pan: For easier cutting, run the knife under hot water, then pat dry before using to cut the fudge. Run the knife along the edges of the pan and use the parchment paper to lift out the block of fudge. Rinse knife in hot water again, dry. and cut the fudge into 1” squares (cut larger squares, if desired). Rinse and dry knife before each new cut.
Makes 48-64 servings
**To toast nuts: Coarsely chop nuts and spread into an even layer on a baking sheet. Bake at350°F for 5-10 minutes.
Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Nutella Marbled Cheesecake Bars
DAY 8: Nutella Marbled Cheesecake Bars
Cheesecake and Nutella. I don’t think any more enticement is needed.
An easy cheesecake bar recipe that will feed a crowd, and you don’t have to fight with a water bath.
RECIPE:
Nutella Marbled Cheesecake Bars
Crust:
2 cups crushed chocolate graham crackers (about 1 ½ sleeves)
6 Tbs butter, melted
2 Tbs sugar
Filling:
4 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 Tbs flour
2 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup Nutella
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix crushed graham crackers, butter and sugar and press into a 1/2 sheet pan for thin bars or a 9×13” pan for thicker bars (you may want less crust for 9×13” pan).
Filling:
Using a mixer, blend cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla and salt until well blended. Beat in eggs just until mixed through. Pour over crust. Warm Nutella in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Drizzle over cheesecake batter. Use a knife to swirl.
Place a broiler pan (or other large pan) on the bottom rack of the oven. Pour about 1/2” of hot water in the pan. Place cheesecake pan on the middle oven rack. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes for a 1/2 sheet pan, or about 45 minutes for a 9×13” pan, or until set.
Makes about 48 bars (in a ½ sheet pan)
Triple Chocolate Nutella Zucchini Muffins
We are still working on getting through the numerous monster zucchini that came out of our zucchini forest this summer.
After a fall at a church young women camp, I spent most of the summer in this:
I had spent a good portion of spring digging out old dirt and hauling in new topsoil to help rejuvenate our garden. The new soil made a huge difference and we ended up with zucchini plants that were almost as tall as me. I realize that at 5’2”, that is not a huge accomplishment, but for zucchini, I thought that was pretty impressive. Our garden is planted on a tiered hill, which was impossible for me to navigate in my new fashionable summer footwear. The plants were so tall that I had a really hard time getting my kids to wade through the jungle looking for squash. For some reason ratatouille and zucchini fritters (some of my favorites) were not a huge motivation for them to risk life and limb in the outback. However, when I switched to making zucchini brownies, pumpkin zucchini muffins and these chocolate zucchini muffins, I found I had ample volunteers!
And when they came across this little guy hiding out in the cucumber plants, they spent a good portion of the rest of the summer searching for living, crawling things in the garden.
If you still have zucchini that you are working your way through, these muffins, spiked with Nutella and chocolate chips, make for a great breakfast (especially for a couple dozen awesome teenagers at 6am!) or a much appreciated lunchbox addition.
RECIPE:
Triple Chocolate Nutella Zucchini Muffins
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup Nutella
1 ½ cups brown sugar
½ cup buttermilk or kefir (or sour milk**)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
3 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom or nutmeg
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line regular muffin pans with paper or foil cups. Or use large Reynolds Foil 3 ½” baking cups (these are self-standing-just arrange on a baking sheet).
In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, oil, Nutella, brown sugar, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in zucchini.
In a separate bowl, use a whisk to mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and cardamom or nutmeg. Add mixed dry ingredients to wet ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon into muffin cups (fill about 3/4 full).
For regular muffins: Bake 15-18 minutes.
For large muffins: Bake 20-25 minutes.
Yield: About 36 regular muffins or 20 large muffins (made with 3 ½” baking cups)
**To make sour milk: place 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar in a ½ cup measuring cup. Add milk to ½ cup line. Let sit 5 minutes
Filed under Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts
Nutella (or Cinnamon) Swirled Buttermilk Coffee Cake
Nutella Swirled Coffee Cake
Last week we were swimming in coffee cake around here. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of swimming that helps trim inches off of my waistline. Good thing there were lots of hungry skinny children lurking around!
I was bringing breakfast to our seminary class on Friday, and wanted to try a new recipe, so I had to give it a test run at home earlier in the week. I ended up making quite a few changes to the original recipe, including swapping out the traditional cinnamon topping on one batch with one made from ooey, gooey chocolaty Nutella.
The first batches I made for home (shown in the pictures) used pecans, but I used walnuts the second time around for our class. I preferred the walnuts, but I almost always prefer walnuts over pecans, so choose whichever nut you prefer. Both the cinnamon and Nutella topped varieties were really good. The cake part was moist and light, and just slightly tangy from using buttermilk.
Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake
To distribute the chocolaty/cinnamony goodness throughout the cake, I layered half of the batter in the pan, added half of the topping, then repeated the layers. The Nutella topping was very sticky; it was easiest to just use my fingers to drop small amounts onto the batter. It melts nicely into the cake while cooking.
For an extra dose of chocolate, sprinkle some chocolate chips (not shown in this picture) on top of the Nutella layers.
The cinnamon topping is crumbly and can be sprinkled easily.
I split the batter and made one of each variety in two 8×8” square pans, instead of one large 9×13” pan. Just an FYI: the full batch that I made later in a standard 9×13” pan rose right to the top edge of the pan when baked, so be sure to use a pan that doesn’t have low sides!
The only down-side of this recipe is that it uses a lot of mixing bowls (four!), but the end result is definitely worth an extra run of the dishwasher.
Recipe:
Buttermilk Coffee Cake
3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 egg whites, beaten until stiff
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter (1-½ sticks), softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
Nutella Swirl or Cinnamon Streusel Topping
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare topping in a small bowl; set aside.(Choose your topping below for a 9×13” cake, or make one of each in two 8×8” pans, halving topping amounts)
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Beat egg whites until stiff; set aside. Stir vanilla into buttermilk. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar with a mixer. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately until barely combined. Beat just until flour is incorporated; do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula, fold in beaten egg whites.
Spread half of the batter in a well-greased 9 x 13” baking pan (I used baking spray with flour). Sprinkle with half of the topping. Spread remaining batter into pan; sprinkle with remaining topping.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until center is set.
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NUTELLA SWIRL TOPPING:
3/4 cup butter (1-½ sticks), softened
3/4 cup Nutella
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 scant tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Mix together all ingredients, except chocolate chips. Mixture will be sticky. Using your fingers, drop small amounts of Nutella filling onto first layer of batter. Sprinkle with half of the chocolate chips. Repeat layers.
CINNAMON STREUSEL TOPPING:
1/2 cup cold butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbs cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Mix together all ingredients, except nuts, using a pastry cutter or two knifes until crumbly. Stir in nuts. Sprinkle half of topping onto first layer of batter. Repeat layers.
Recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman
Filed under Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts
Strawberry Nutella Muffins
After bringing these muffins to our early morning seminary class, I have had several requests for the recipe. So I am going to take a break from days full of never-ending weeding in my yard and nights full of endless softball games to share them with you. Strawberries are just beginning to arrive at the farmers markets and pick-your-own farms here in western PA, so it is a perfect time to make these muffins. And everything tastes better with a little Nutella swirled in!
I found this recipe on Two Peas & Their Pod, and just couldn’t resist making them. The only changes that I made to the recipe were to add more strawberries than called for, and probably more Nutella. I didn’t actually measure the Nutella; I just scooped it out of the jar to put in the center of the muffins.
As with most muffin batters, to keep them from being dry and dense, you do not want to overstir the batter. There should still be some streaks of flour in the batter.
Fill the muffin cups halfway with batter. Place a dollop (about a tablespoon: I just used a soup spoon straight from the jar) of Nutella on the batter. You do not need to spread it around. Nutella can be kind of thick at room temperature. I warmed the Nutella first in the microwave for about 30 seconds. This made it really easy to drizzle the Nutella from a spoon onto the batter. My jar was almost empty, so I just heated the Nutella in the jar. If you are only using part of your jar, you might want to spoon some into a small bowl before heating it.
Top with another scoop of batter, until the muffin cups are about 3/4 full. Sprinkle with Turbinado sugar. This is a coarse raw sugar. You could use regular sugar if you don’t have it, but turbinado sugar does make a nice crystally (I’m sure that’s not a real word, but it should be) crust.
These are best served warm while the Nutella is soft and gooey.
Here is the original recipe from Maria, with my notes at the end on the slight changes that I made.
RECIPE:
Strawberry Nutella Muffins
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup sugar
¼ cup canola oil
1 large egg
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
1/3 cup Nutella
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on top of muffins
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease well. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.
3. In a small bowl, combine canola oil, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. Use a fork or whisk and mix until well combined.
5. Incorporate the wet ingredients into flour mixture. Add slowly and gently stir, you don’t want to over mix. The batter will be thick. Carefully fold in the strawberries.
6. Fill each muffin cup half way with batter. Next, add a small spoonful of Nutella to each muffin cup. Cover the Nutella filling with the remaining batter. Sprinkle each muffin with turbinado sugar.
7. Bake muffins for 17-20 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.
Makes 9 muffins
Kelly’s notes: I used coconut oil instead of canola oil. I didn’t measure the Nutella, I just used a spoon and scooped straight from the jar, but I probably used a little more than 1/3 cup. I heated the Nutella for about 30 seconds in the microwave before using (to make for easier drizzling). I also used more strawberries than called for (about 1 ¼ – 1 ½ cups). I ended up with 12 muffins, and I needed to bake mine for 23 minutes before they were cooked through.
Recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod
Filed under Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts
