Swirled White Chocolate + Nutella Brownies

Remember the White Chocolate Nutella that I totally fangirled over last week? Well, I hope so, because it was quite the moment. At first taste (smell & sight too), I knew that my spreadable concoction would become the base for many many delicious desserts. Immediately after making my homemade Nutella, I went to work with my stand mixer. I'm certain that there will be plenty of white chocolate hazelnut recipes in the future, but let's start with this one. If you're more of a regular Nutella fan, no fear! This recipe is the best of both world. Because there's nothing better than coupling white chocolate Nutella with straight up, regular Nutella. 

The swirled brownies came from one of my favorite recipes for fudgy and super moist Nutella brownies. This go around, I cut the recipe in half and mixed one bowl with regular Nutella and the other with my white chocolate version. Um, best decision ever? I think yes. 

These brownies are legit.  Like crazy delicious eat-the-whole-pan legit. For real —  these are a gift sent straight from the Nutella gods. I'm just imagining a group of Roman gods slowly churning away at a giant batch of Nutella. They'd be proud. For sure. 

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Nutella Batter

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar 
• 1/4 cup Nutella
• 2 eggs 
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup flour

White Chocolate Batter

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar 
• 1/4 cup White Chocolate Nutella
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9x13 baking dish. 

1. In a saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Once melted, stir in sugar. Cooking the mixture for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. 
2. Remove from heat and stir in Nutella until smooth.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder, cocoa powder, and flour. 
4. Pour in the butter mixture and mix until smooth. 
5. Set aside.

Repeat steps 1-5 with the white chocolate batter. 

Dollop spoonfuls of each batter into the prepared pan. Swirl them together gently. Add any extra Nutella/White Chocolate Nutella and swirl into top. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool and serve. 

White Chocolate Nutella

Yeah, you read that right.

After countless failed attempts to persuade the Ferrero brand to mass produce a white chocolate Nutella, I decided to take matters into my own hands. 

Making homemade Nutella is so stupidly simple that you'll question why you ever bought the real stuff. In addition to its simplicity, making the stuff at home gives you full control of each and every ingredient going into the jar, eliminating some of the guilt you'd normally experience after eating one too many spoonfuls. 

For this recipe, you'll need just five ingredients: hazelnuts, good-quality white chocolate, any mild/flavorless oil, vanilla, and salt. How those few ingredients come together and create something so much greater than the sum of all its parts is beyond me.

I can't even begin to explain how truly delicious this stuff is — no really, this is important. If you're any bit as big of a fan of white chocolate and Nutella as I am, you will find yourself repeatedly sneaking away into the pantry to grab a spoonful every 30 minutes. If jars of this aren't readily available on supermarket shelves in the next few months, I have no qualms with mass producing it myself. 

At first taste, I couldn't help but imagine the countless amazing flavor combinations that could come out of this. Banana and white chocolate crepes? Yes please. White chocolate hazelnut cake? Sign me up immediately. Don't even get me started on the dozens of cookies I could work this into. 

Seriously, make this immediately. You'll thank me later. 

White Chocolate Nutella 

• 6 oz. hazelnuts
• 10.6 oz. white chocolate
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt

In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, melt the white chocolate until smooth. Set aside. 

Preheat oven to 350F. Roast hazelnuts in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Once cool, peel hazelnuts.

Grind hazelnuts in your food processor until small particles form. Continue pulsing and add the oil, vanilla extract, and salt. Grind until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently. Add the melted white chocolate and process until smooth.

Immediately pour the spread into jars. The mixture will be warm and liquidy, but will set up over time.  

Hazelnut Crunch Cookies

Nutella. 

Some call it chocolate hazelnut spread, but for me, it's a way of life.

For real though, Nutella is a gift from God via the great nation of Italy. (The same place that brought us the greatest food known to man, one worthy of it's own food group — pizza.) Seriously, if you can name a better condiment, please let me know. 

Though eating Nutella straight out of the jar is delicious enough on its own, it's even better when it's incorporated into even more sugar! These Hazelnut Crunch cookies utilize one of my favorite cream cheese-based cookie dough recipes and fill it with all kinds of chocolate and hazelnut goodness.

After adding nutella and cocoa powder to the dough, in goes a mound of milk chocolate chips, chopped kit kat bars, and crushed chocolate hazelnut wafers rolls. The end result is an amazing chocolate cookie with so much texture — the cookie itself is soft and gooey, yet the crushed wafer rolls add an amazing crunch to each and every bite.   

hazelnut crunch cookies

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup (4 oz) cream cheese, softened

• 1/2 cup nutella 

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

• 1 kit kat bar, chopped into chunks

• 8 chocolate hazelnut wafer rolls, chopped into chunks

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in the nutella. Add the brown sugar and egg, mixing for 3 minutes more. Mix in the vanilla. Add all of the dry ingredients and combine. Fold in the chocolate chips, crushed kit kats, and wafer rolls. 

Roll the cookie dough into balls, then roll them in sugar, and place them on your prepared baking sheets. Top with extra crushed wafer rolls. Bake for 10 minutes, do not overbake.