Salted Peanut Butter & Nutella Sandwich Cookies

I love Peanut Butter. It’s true. I really love it. I mean I love it in baked goods, I love it on bread and I even love to just stand there with a spoon eating it straight from the jar. I love creamy peanut butter. I love crunchy peanut butter. I think the only one I know who might just love peanut butter more than I do is my dog.

He also loves to roll in the sand at the beach!

Yup I love peanut butter, but it is not the only thing that I have been known to eat straight from the jar….Nutella springs to mind. And I’m talking about big honking tablespoonfuls, not little proper teaspoons! I do love me some Nutella. I can’t believe I didn’t discover it until I was in college!

And you know what else… I love it when peanut butter and chocolate come together. And if you throw in some flaky salt so that you get that great salty/sweet taste sensation….well, I’m just in heaven! So you can just imagine how I feel about these Salted Peanut Butter & Nutella Sandwich Cookies.

These little devils have got it all going on! Listen up, what you’ve got is two salted chewy peanut butter cookies with a gooey, chocolate-y ribbon of Nutella nestled between them. The perfect cookie for me!

Now, you might be thinking that what with all this talk of “love” in the air and Valentine’s Day being right around the corner, that I made these cookies for my sweetie. You would be wrong. These cookies would be a dreadful Valentine’s gift for him. If I were to make him these particular cookies as a prezzie, it would be a sign that our relationship was in peril. I know that he couldn’t care less about peanut butter, doesn’t pay much attention to cookies at all, and is lukewarm about chocolate desserts all together. Nope. These are decidedly not for him. (Don’t worry over him…I’ve got his Valentine’s Day treat all picked out. Just you wait and see…) These cookies are all about ME. The only thing that might tempt me more is a cupcake. Hmmm…note to self….try to make a cupcake version of these cookies.

Another thing these incredibly tasty Salted Peanut Butter & Nutella Cookies are about is World Nutella Day. That’s right, today February 5th is World Nutella Day.

This celebration of all things Nutella was started in 2007 by Sara at Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle at Bleeding Espresso as a day to celebrate, get creative with and most importantly, to EAT Nutella. I love Nutella so I usually try to participate with a Nutella laden recipe every year. Last year I made cookies as well, Salted & Malted Nutella Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies. These cookies feature silky, decadent Nutella, creamy caramel, nostalgic malted goodness and rich chocolate chips, all rolled up together in a crunchy chewy salted cookie. 

A couple of years ago, I made a Nutella, Double Chocolate & Banana Tart which was quite stunning if I do say so myself.

And I have also shared the recipe for Nutella & Banana Filled Peanut Butter Ebelskivers.

Just can’t get enough of that Peanut Butter & Nutella combo! I will admit, this year’s Salted Peanut Butter & Nutella Sandwich Cookies are a bit on the large side. They are more the size of whoopie pies than regular cookies. But you see, I had gotten these wonderful cookie stamps and was just dying to try them out,

so I definitely increased their size. However, I did not ever hear anyone say “Oh no! That cookie is just too big. I couldn’t possibly eat it all.” Well, now that I think about it, I did hear that once or twice. But when I looked back over, there was nothing left but crumbs…Heck a couple of times, even the crumbs were gone! As if they had been magically hoovered up. So I’ll leave the size of the cookie up to you. Make whatever size cookie suits your needs, but believe me you need to make a batch and soon! Folks, with the exception of my husband that is, will go wild!

• Servings: 8 - 10 large sandwich cookies or 16 smaller ones
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

recipe from: Sweet Peas and Saffron (I did not change a thing about the ingredients, but made the cookies larger so that I could use my new cookie stamps!)

Ingredients:

For the Cookies:

• ½ cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup peanut butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• ½ cup (110 grams) packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1½ cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• granulated sugar (for rolling)
• coarse sea salt (for sprinkling)

Nutella for the ooey-gooey ever so chocolatey middle part

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat butter and peanut butter until well combined. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla.

In a separate small bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder and baking soda. Mix into wet ingredients.

Scrape down from sides of bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Do not skip this part or your cookies will spread!

Pre-heat oven to 375° F. Line cookie sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

Roll dough into 1 tbsp sized balls, roll in the granulated sugar to coat. Place on baking mat and press down slightly with a fork. Sprinkle with sea salt. If you would like to use a cookie stamp like I did you will need to use about 2 tablespoons of dough. Lightly grease your cookie stamp and push straight down on dough. Gently pull stamp away from cookie and then sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 7-9 minutes until bottoms are golden brown. Cookies will look under-baked when removed from the oven but will set up on baking sheet. Cool for 5 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now for the assembly: Place Nutella in a pastry bag and pipe it out onto the bottom of one cookie. Top with another cookie and gently press down. These sandwich cookies are best when assembled just prior to eating. If you wish to assemble them in advance, they can be kept in the refrigerator, just remember to let them come to room temperature before serving.

Enjoy!

Salted Peanut Butter & Nutella Sandwich Cookies brought to you by: Runcible Eats (www.leaandjay.com)