Oooooh man! The universe is testing my dedication to this cookie challenge. First it was the peanut butter cups yesterday that turned out not to be vegan and now it’s the disappearance of my memory card reader. Well you know what Universe? Challenge accepted!

This whole post will be done on my phone. So take that!

Today’s recipe is my vegan take on a Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookie. I thought peanut butter cookies were good but ‘Nutella’ cookies may have trumped them.

Chocolate Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
veganized from American Heritage Cooking;
makes approximately 20 cookies; 2 hour chilling required

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• ½ cup vegan butter such as Earth Balance, softened
• heaping 1/3 cup Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut spread
• ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 Ener-G egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life morsels)

*For those of you new to vegan baking, you can find Ener-G egg here or I have found it at Whole Foods and Stop and Shop. It’s becoming pretty common. Don’t be put off by the price. It will last you forever! I bake a lot and have had mine for over a year. Earth Balance butter can also be found at most grocery store chains now.

** For non-vegans, you can substitute real butter, eggs and chocolate chips in place  vegan version at a 1:1 ratio across the board.

Instructions

1. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Beat together butter, Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut spread, sugars, egg, and vanilla on medium-high speed in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until well combined, about 4 minutes, scrapping down the sides of necessary.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until well combined, scraping down the sides if necessary.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Cover well with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
6. Preheat oven to 350° . Roll into 1 inch balls and place dough 1 inch apart on a parchment line baking sheet. Bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges are set and the tops have just started to brown.
7. Let cool 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool.

I was a little worried about this recipe and that the Justin’s would produce a drier cookie then those made with Nutella. I did not have any problem at all, though. These cookies are moist and fluffy with just a hint of hazelnut. Definitely a nice change from a traditional chocolate cookies.

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