I cannot be stopped. I almost sat through season one of The Walking Dead from start to finish in one sitting. Four episodes last night. Final two episodes tonight. This is what happens when I don’t have class anymore [finished this morning!]. I still don’t know what to think.

Another thing I cannot stop is the La Cucina Italiana recipes. They have yet to let me down. This one is pretty intense. It’s not a recipe for us chewy cookie lovers. It’s definitely crunchy and biscotti like. I made a few in sandwich form, but I honestly preferred them by themselves. As much as I’d love to eat Nutella by the spoonful, it’s probably not the best idea. The original recipe said you’d be using 2 3/4 cups of nutella. I barely went through a whole jar [which means I have a whole jar in the pantry still]. I’m clearly a lot more light on the spreading.

Nutella is baked right into these cookies, so it’s a total Nutella overload [of awesome]. It has a lot of salt in it, too, so you get a delicious mixture of sweet and salty with the crunch of the cookie. The “tablespoon” recommendation in the recipe for cookie size yielded me way too big of cookies.They baked together in most cases. I certainly didn’t get the 2 1/2 dozen sandwiches this way. It meant that eating them was super, super crumby. I think I ate most of them over the sink [not that Roma would mind cookie crumbs…]. Next time, 1/2 tablespoon for me. I like the idea of smaller cookies for these.

Inspiration: La Cucina Italiana

Ingredients

1/2 stick [4 tablespoons] of cold butter

1 1/2 sticks [12 tablespoons] of softened butter

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup Nutella + more for the sandwich filling

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg, room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup Demerara sugar for sprinkling

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare as many baking sheets as you can with parchment or silpats [I went through five baking batches, I think]. In a skillet, melt the 1/2 stick of cold butter over medium heat. Once melted, add in the oats. Continue to stir occasionally until the butter browns the oats to a nice golden color. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the softened butter, both sugars, and Nutella until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour to the butter/sugar/Nutella mixture in two batches, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Mix in the oats until incorporated. Using a 1/2 tablespoon, scoop the dough out and roll it into balls. Floured hands may help. Place them on the baking sheets about 1″ apart and flatten. They will continue to spread as they bake [thank the butter]. Bake them for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Allow them to cool fully. Only use the Nutella as filling as you eat them. Don’t store them that way or they will get soggy. The cookies have kept in a plastic bag for almost a week now.