3 (to 5) Ingredient Cookies

3 ingredient nytella cookies

The biggest problem I have with peanut butter or nutella in baking, is that whatever you mix them with tends to dull their flavors. I don’t know if it’s a “nut butter” thing, but their flavors never end up as intense as I want them to be.

So I decided that I would try to fix this recent problem with Nutella the same way I fixed it with peanut butter cookies – an easy recipe that was originally a “low-carb” recipe, which had just peanut butter, splenda, and egg. It gives that great IN-YO-FACE peanut butter flavor that I was looking for, and accomplishes the same feat just as well with Nutella.

If you don’t want to go the diet route (as I didn’t), just use regular sugar. Although these came out slightly grainy in texture, I never had that problem with the peanut butter ones. To counter this, you may want to try cutting the sugar, or adding a tsp of baking powder (which will make them crispier vs. chewier, which I wasn’t willing to risk).

I also added a dash of vanilla, and chocolate chips, just for extra flavor and texture. Sprinkling a touch of fleur de sel on top really accents the flavors as well. Alternately, you could sprinkle sugar on top, or nothing at all. Any way you wanna do it, these are guaranteed to be darn tasty cookies! Best part? The recipe is so easy you probably don’t even have to write it down…

IN-YO-FACE Nut Butter Cookies

**UPDATE: 11/21/12**

Some bakers encountered issues with the cookies spreading too much.  I recommend with every cookie, especially ones like this that are more prone to spreading, to chill your cookie dough.  

You can either chill it in the bowl for 2 hours before scooping, or scoop it into and chill them on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes or so. I always switch my cookies from the chilled cookie sheet to a room-temperature one to help protect against too much cookie spread. 

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  • 1 C peanut butter or nutella
  • 1 C sugar (or Splenda)
  • 1 egg
  • Dash of vanilla extract (optional)
  • ¼ C mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F

  1. Stir all ingredients together until they form a batter-like consistency. Scoop into teaspoon or tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheet (if you are using sil-pat, they may spread a bit more). **CHILL for at least 30 minutes.**
  2. Cook 10 – 15 minutes (depending on size of your scoop) – the nutella ones bubble noticeably. I waited until they were bubbling throughout to ensure they were cooked through.
  3. Remove from oven and let cool on tray placed onto wire rack.

6 thoughts on “3 (to 5) Ingredient Cookies

  1. I’ve made this (recipe doubled) with peanut butter a million times, yet it never occurred to me to try Nutella. I really miss desserts during Passover, so this is a big help for me. Also, I love throwing in cocoa nibs for intense chocolate flavor.

  2. These sound fantastically easy; thanks for sharing!! For clarification, though, they’re chewy as is, and cutting the sugar and adding baking powder will make them crispier? Or do I have that backwards?

    • You have it right! Adding the baking powder will give them extra lift and crispiness! I would recommend cutting the sugar a bit just to improve the texture in general, since they came out slightly grainy. I’m sure 3/4 C would do just fine!

  3. I’ve made cookies like this a number of times before with peanut butter. They’re the only peanut butter cookie I’ve ever enjoyed. Tried with nutella for the first time earlier today and sad to say it was a complete failure. The cookies spread to nothing. Anyone else have this problem? Or a suggestion. Blergh.

    • Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that! The same thing happened to my sister the first time she made them.

      I am guessing that you just needed to chill your dough a bit. I will have to edit the recipe to include chilling the dough since it appears that it may be a common issue.

      I would recommend scooping your dough, then chilling it. If you have an extra cookie sheet, I always switch my cookies from the cold cookie sheet to the room-temperature one before baking cookies to protect against the dreaded cookie spread.

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