Nutella Shortbread

Yes, you read that right. The topic of today’s blog post includes an ingredient near and dear to my heart. Consumed while living abroad, traveling abroad, and now several times a week at home, Nutella is an anomaly in my pantry, a place filled, for the most part with savory or salty foods. As some of you know, I am not a huge dessert person, and sweets don’t normally excite me too much. All of that changes with Nutella. Nutella is good for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack, depending on the context of the meal.

And when I saw three of my nieces having their once a week Nutella on bagels this Sunday, I got to thinking that I needed a Nutella-related holiday recipe.

Since I have a ton of Kerrygold butter and I have made shortbread in the past, I decided to make Nutella shortbread.

Nutella

As usual, I did a little Google searching for Nutella recipes and found a great one by a fellow Foodbuzz blogger, There’s Always Room for Dessert. For some reason, when I went back to the original recipe, it was scrambled on the screen, so I will do my best to walk you through it with all of the credit for the idea going to the abovementioned blogger!

Nutella

Kerrygold Butter

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup butter

3/4 cup Nutella

a dash of vanilla

a sprinkle of salt

I started by taking the butter out of the refrigerator early in the day so that it would be soft enough to mix in with the other ingredients. Once ready to get baking, I used a bowl scraper and eventually my hands to knead together the butter, sugar, vanilla, and Nutella. I don’t have a fancy mixer, but my hands did the job just fine, and it was kind of fun!

sugar

The result was eventually a buttery, sugary dough-like substance.

shortbread dough

To this, I slowly kneaded in the flour, a little at a time until everything was blended together. To prepare for the final step, I lightly buttered a glass pie plate and pushed the shortbread dough into the plate until it was evenly spread out.

This shortbread bakes for 45 minutes at 300 degrees, and it needs every second, even a bit more. Whatever you do, don’t touch the surface when you take the shortbread out of the oven. The concentration of butter makes it incredibly soft, and the hot sugar will burn you! Let it cool for several hours before going near it, even though the smell in the kitchen will make it almost impossible to wait!

Nutella shortbread

When it was cool enough, I scored the shortbread into small pie pieces and gave it a try.

Nutella shortbread

This shortbread is really good, but it was a little too sweet for me. I think the next time I might cut the sugar by half; the Nutella gives it enough sweetness and flavor without needing that extra hit of sugar.

This would be a great recipe to bring to a cookie swap or as a hostess gift in a decorative box lined with wax paper. You could always also leave the Nutella out and add other mix-ins like chocolate chips instead. The great thing about shortbread is how versatile and delicious it is!

My goal has been to try a new baking adventure each week. I think my next task is going to be an olive oil cake.

Before I head off for the day, I wanted to let you know two bits of good news: I have a brand new niece born yesterday. Her name is Nora Claire, and I can’t wait to meet her over the next couple of days! I also passed my Level 2 wine exam! Everyone thinks, haha, wine exam, must be easy, but this thing was a beast! It showed me how much I have learned and how much more I have to learn. I am happy to be off to a good start. Thanks for all of your well wishes! Smile 

Are you attending any cookie swaps this season or bringing cookies to any parties? What are your favorite cookies or bars to make?

Tags: baking, cookies, dessert, flour, Food, foodbuzz, holidays, Nutella, recipe, shortbread, sugar

  1. A Boston Food Diary’s avatar

    Wow…this looks AMAZING. Nutella really is just a delicious product-what a great way to incorporate it! Im not much of a baker, but I do make a pretty fantastic chocolate chip with heath bar, and I am in love with these raspberry bars that my mom makes…yum!

    Reply

  2. Grace’s avatar

    I LOVE Nutella! It is good on so many things, and yet I have never baked with it!

    Reply

  3. fooddreamer’s avatar

    I love nutella and I love shortbread, but I can see how adding nutella with all the sugar might be too sweet. Will definitely use your suggestion on cutting back on sugar if I make these.

    Reply

  4. Michelle’s avatar

    I definitely feel your love for Nutella! This weekend, I’m planning on making chocolate raspberry and cayenne brownies for a holiday party!

    Reply

  5. Emily’s avatar

    Nutella is my favorite. I made a pumpkin nutella bread this fall – it was yummy but I failed to achieve that nutella swirl effect. What a great recipe!

    Reply

  6. Fresh and Foodie’s avatar

    Delicious! I love Nutella.

    Reply

  7. Bianca @ Confessions of a Chocoholic’s avatar

    Congratulations on your niece AND the wine exam!! When I made shortbread cup a couple of weeks ago, I made an extra batch of plain shortbread cookies for me to dip into Nutella. I wish I thought of mixing in the Nutella too (and then dipping ’em again hehe). I’ve tried other, organic/natural hazelnut chocolate spreads but nothing beats Nutella. Great recipe!

    Reply

  8. Belinda @zomppa’s avatar

    Congratulations on your niece!! And on your exam! You named two of my favorite ingredients in the world. Nutella (which I would be happy to eat straight) and Kerrygold.

    Reply

  9. May Ling Wu’s avatar

    Can’t go wrong with Nutella ! Love shortbread also 🙂

    Reply

  10. Megan’s avatar

    I have all the ingredients and it’s my lunch break and I’m working from home… so I guess I’m making this now! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂 Congrats on the wine exam! I knew you’d pass.

    Reply

  11. Terri’s avatar

    I just bought Nutella for my daughter to try, and she didn’t like it!! I will try it again using your recipe…it looks delicious!

    Reply

  12. Terri’s avatar

    And congrats on the newest addition! You certainly are blessed to have so many neices and nephews!

    Reply

  13. Heather’s avatar

    Congrats on the new niece and the wine exam!

    Shortbread always reminds me of my grandmother. I am allergic to nutella but I do have some chocolate soy nut butter that may be a good replacement.

    Thanks for posting the recipe!

    Reply

  14. Roxan’s avatar

    I remember my first exposure to nutella (and crepes!). My boyfriend-at-the-time had a belgian roommate, and his girlfriend was visiting from Belgium. She made us crepes with nutella for breakfast one morning – I was instantly hooked. Nutella is so good, I can have it on just about anything! This shortbread looks so good. I like the tip you provided about cutting the sugar in half – not that i have anything against sweetness, because i have a huge sweet tooth – but I think that shortbread should be almost savory due to the butter rather than sweet from sugar.

    Reply

  15. Elizabeth’s avatar

    Kerrygold and Nutella!!! Sheesh. What a combination. I could imagine the hazelnut and cocoa flavor coming through nicely against the buttery shortbread.

    Reply

  16. Katie’s avatar

    I love Nutella, I love shortbread. This is awesome.

    Reply

  17. Kimmy’s avatar

    Nutella is an ultimate treat for me. I’ve been known to simply spoon it out of the jar and eat. This gives me a tastier vessel than a spoon 😉

    Reply

  18. alicia’s avatar

    I can’t believe I forgot to congratulate you on your new niece when I saw you today — That is a great idea for a shortbread flavor! I agree that I am not big on sweets, but chocolate can get me every time.

    Reply

  19. Dina’s avatar

    this sounds yummy, thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  20. Camala - CC Recipe’s avatar

    Mmmmm, Nutella shortbread sounds so good, thanks for sharing!

    Reply

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