Kay's Hazelnut Chewies ... Sugar Bliss!

Remember that 'must-try' list of recipes you've had going for a while?  The one from food bloggers who you admire? Whose food looks and sounds soooo good? Here is one of MY list items ... Hazelnut Chewies, as Kay over at  The Church Cook calls them. I was doing a whole lotta baking over the weekend for my church friends and since it was World Nutella Day, and since I'd been drooling over Kay's cookie recipe for a few days, and since I knew many of these cookies would be eaten with happy hearts, I put a huge platter of them together and got them ready to pack off to church.

Fast forward to Sunday morning ... a gloriously beautiful and ICY morning. Church was cancelled and I was left with that platter of cookies and three other plates and platters of various and sundry. Noooo problem! It was Super Bowl Sunday and we had a party to go to later in the day! A potluck party! Oh, joy! Rapture! I still had a way to enjoy all my efforts and still  'spread the wealth' ... on others' hips as well as our own!  And enjoy them, we did!

Hazelnut Chewies

courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen Holiday Cookies 2010 and Kay @ The Church Cook

Ingredients:

3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 ¼ c. Nutella
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 c. sugar
2 eggs, room temp.
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. instant coffee
1/3 c. milk
2 c. hazelnuts, roasted, skins removed, chopped fine, divided
1 c. 10X sugar

Making the Cookies:

1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt together in a bowl.

2. In another deep bowl, whip together: butter, sugar, and Nutella until fluffy.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, whipping well. Whip in the vanilla.

4. Dissolve the coffee in the milk.

5. Alternate adding the milk mixture and flour mixture and combine to make a dough.

6. Fold in ½ c. of the chopped hazelnuts.

7. Place the remaining hazelnuts in a shallow pan. Do the same for the 10X sugar.

8. Chill the cookie dough for at least 2 hours.

9. Roll the dough into golf ball sized cookies, roll in the nuts and then the 10X sugar.

10. Place on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets – 2 inches apart.

11. Bake in a 375° F oven for 8-12 minutes. Don’t overbake … these are chewy cookies!

12. Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheets and then remove to a cool surface.

Thank you, Kay! These cookies were everything that a group of hungry football fans could ask for! And folks? I'm betting that you, too, could get your sugar high off of these little darlin's! Put them on your 'must try' list. Long live Nutella!

And ... thanks to Kristin over at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker who hosts a blog share called 'Your Recipe, My Kitchen' ... where this post will be plugged into her Monday share! Pop over and check out all the other 'must-try' recipes!