Recipe: Chocolate Nutella Cookies

I'm nuts for Nutella. Here’s what I love about it:

Just two tablespoons per serving size is four grams of saturated fat and 12 grams of fat total. Plus pretty simple ingredients as long as you or your little CFer doesn't have a nut allergy.

110% of credit for this recipe has to go to my friend Sarah over at Simply Social. She is a million times more creative than this mom.

Chocolate Nutella Cookies

1 1/4 cup flour (can sub in half whole-wheat flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup Nutella
1/3 cup skim millk (could sub in whole milk for CFers)

Preheat oven to 325F. In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder together.

Beat together the butter (room temp), sugar, and brown sugar with mixer. Add vanilla and Nutella and mix until at medium speed until smooth.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add milk. Then add remaining flour mixture and mix completely. Wrap dough in clear wrap refrigerate the dough for an hour.

When you are ready to bake, line pan with non-stick baking mat or parchment, scoop and roll dough into 1 inch balls and press down with the bottom of a glass to make cookies.

Bake for 10-12 minutes depending on your oven. Cookies are done when they start to crack on top. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

Sarah actually used this recipe to make football whoopie pies in honor of the 2013 Super Bowl. If you’re ambitious enough, follow this link to her recipe for the marshmallow creme filling.  

Recipe: Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

These muffins are a staple in our house, I can't keep them in stock. They don't make exceptionally large sized muffins - they are more the size of a cupcake. Perfect for toddlers. Easy to add calories by using full fat sour cream and whole milk.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes about 16 muffins - sometimes I can squeeze in 17 if I'm lucky!

1 and 3/4 cup flour (I use half white, half wheat)
3/4 cup sugar (I used half white half brown)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup whole milk
3 large overripe bananas (you want about one cup mushed bananas in the end)
1/2 to 3/4 semisweet chocolate chips - when I use the mini chocolate chips I use about a 1/2 cup but if I only have the regular size, I increase to 3/4 cup.

Instructions:
Combine dry ingredients in one bowl.
Combine wet ingredients (except the bananas) in another bowl.
Fold wet into dry ingredients until just folded.
Then fold in the bananas, then fold in the chocolate chips
Fill muffin pan with paper holders, then fill each holder two-thirds of the way full with batter.

For regular sized muffins, bake 22-25 minutes at 350 degrees Farenheit until brown on top. Cool 5 minutes on rack. Makes about 16 muffins.

For mini muffins, bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees Farenheit until just brown on top. Cool on rack. Makes about 55-60 mini muffins.

For banana bread, just use a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for a little more than 1 hour or until fork comes out clean in center.

Notes:
I will often toss our uneaten overripe bananas in the freezer whole, then thaw them out in the microwave for a few minutes (or on the counter for an hour) and use them in this recipe. These muffins freeze nicely in a ziploc freezer bag. When I make the mini sized ones, I pop frozen ones in the kids' lunch bag in the morning and they are thawed out by snack time. I use half white flour/half whole wheat flour to include some fiber. This dries out the muffins a little bit and makes them tastes a little like bran muffins. But the kids still eat them!