Nutella, I Love You.

Can any cookies with Nutella, chocolate chips, and sea salt be wrong?  Um, no. 

We needed to head out the door at 10:45 Saturday morning, and I wanted to bring along some cookies.  Of course, I decided to bring cookies at about 11pm the night before.  The goal: make cookies that were quick and that used ingredients I already had in the house.  Oh yeah, and I wanted them to be delicious.

Enter Nutella, chocolate chips, espresso powder, and a little sprinkling of sea salt.  *sigh*

Mr. E said these are the best cookies he's had all year.  Pretty good for cookies thrown together on a Saturday morning, don't ya think?

The Nutella and brown sugar combine to make a chewy, almost brownie-like cookie.  And they're petite, so don't feel guilty about eating several at one time.  Please, PLEASE don't skip the sea salt here.  That little sprinkle of salt makes these cookies sing!

Fleur de sel is always a good choice for sea salt.  I happened to have some Falksalt on hand...it comes in rather large flakes, so I just crushed them with my fingertips before sprinkling onto the cookies.  Just don't use table salt. ;)  Or Lawry's Seasoned Salt for that matter.

Nutella Chocolate Chip Sea Salt-Sprinkled Cookies
{makes about 2 dozen}

1 cup Nutella
2 TBSP light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP flour
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
sea salt

[note: espresso powder can be found in the grocery store near the Sanka, or online.]

Preheat oven to 350.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the Nutella and the brown sugar.  Stir in the egg until well mixed.  Add in the espresso powder, then the flour, stirring until combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Refrigerate for 15 minutes or more.

Use a 2-teaspoon cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto the prepared sheets.  Sprinkle each cookie dough mound with a bit of sea salt.

{Alternately, after scooping the dough, press down slightly with the bottom of a drinking glass.  Both methods turn out just fine.  The flattened ones are just, well, more flat.}

Bake for 10 minutes or until done.  Let sit on the cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Nutella, it's official.  I love you.

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