Baked | Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ask any one of my friends what my go-to hostess gift is and they will tell you, homemade chocolate chip cookies.  It sounds boring but my friends and their boyfriends love them.  I've been using the same recipe for about eight years now (yikes) but last weekend I had some friends over and decided to switch things up a bit by making these nutella stuffed brown butter and sea salt chocolate chip cookies.  Holy motherload. These might as well be called The World's Best Cookies. Warm, gooey, chocolatey, sweet and salty....what more could you want in a dessert?   My life has been changed and yours will be too!  Enjoy!

Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
2¼ cup all-purpose flour
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon of salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup dark chocolate chips
½ milk chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS:
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. To brown the butter, melt it in a saucepan over medium heat. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Let cool for a few minutes before using.

With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined.  Fold in all of the chocolate chips. Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld together.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll 1½ tablespoons of dough and flatten the dough to make a flat circle. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled Nutella in the middle then place another flat circle of cookie dough on top. Crimp edges to seal.

Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

recipe found on ambitious kitchen / photography by kristin kerr luber