Description
Vegan Nutella Cookies (Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies) are naturally vegan, gluten free and grain free! They are super fudgey, decadent, soft + chewy and are simply divine warm out of the oven, dipped into a glass of almond milk! The chill time is not optional in these cookies. It helps to bind them and puff them up in the oven!
Ingredients
Scale
Wet Ingredients
- 1 tbsp ground flax seed (for flax “egg”)
- 1/4 cup cocoa butter, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tbsp unsulfured molasses
Dry Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup hazelnut meal*
- 1/4 cup cacao power or high quality cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar or cane sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Topping)
- 3 tbsp dark chocolate chunks (cut up into small chunks)
Instructions
- In a large bowl (this will be the bowl where you add the rest of your wet ingredients later), add ground flax seed with 3 tbsp of water. Stir and set aside while you prepare your dry ingredients.
- Add all your dry ingredients to a medium size bowl (hazelnut meal, cacao powder, coconut sugar, baking soda and sea salt).
- Give the flax egg a quick stir. It should be thickened by now into an “egg-like” consistency, if it’s not, leave it to thicken for a couple more minutes. Add the remaining wet ingredients to the large bowl (melted cocoa butter, vanilla extract, maple syrup and unsulfured molasses). Whisk together for a couple minutes until a thick, “caramel-like” mixture forms. (Note: If your cocoa butter is not already melted, place a bit of hard cocoa butter in a bowl for 15 second increments in the microwave).
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir until the cookie dough comes together. At first the dough will seem a bit dry but the natural oil from the hazelnuts will start to release as you stir everything together. I like to mix the dough together with clean hands to make sure all the ingredients are well combined.
- Cover the bowl with the cookie dough and place in the fridge for 1 – 2 hours. This helps the dough bind together and makes the cookies puff up in the oven.
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C. On a lined cookie sheet, scoop 10 cookies (I like to pack the cookie dough into an ice cream scoop) onto the cookie sheet. Roll them into balls and flatten them out slightly with the palm of your hand. Press chocolate chunks onto the top of the cookies. Bake for 9 – 11 minutes. It is very important to let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them to a plate. This allows the cookies to harden and bind together. Enjoy!
Notes
1) You can make hazelnut meal at home by grinding up whole hazelnuts in the blender until a fine meal/flour forms.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Italian