Irresistible Chocolate Filled Cookies: The Ultimate Gooey Dessert Recipe
Prepare to fall in love with these chocolate filled cookies: incredibly soft and delightfully chewy chocolate chip cookies that hold a delightful secret – a generous core of creamy, melted chocolate hazelnut spread. This isn’t just any cookie; it’s a dessert experience that elevates the classic to new heights. Crafted with simple ingredients and requiring no mixer, these decadent stuffed cookies are surprisingly easy to make and are sure to become an instant favorite for everyone who tries them!
Stuffed cookies represent the pinnacle of dessert innovation, offering a delightful surprise with every bite. Following the immense popularity of our cheesecake-stuffed cookies and Oreo-stuffed cookies, we knew we had to create another masterpiece. These chocolate filled cookies stand out as the ultimate treat because they’re not just packed with chocolate chips, but also have a generous, gooey core of rich chocolate hazelnut spread. They are, quite simply, the perfect indulgence for any true chocolate aficionado in your life!
Why We Love These Chocolate Filled Cookies
These aren’t just ordinary cookies; they are an extraordinary delight that brings together the best of textures and flavors. Here’s why these chocolate filled cookies will quickly become your new favorite:
- Perfect Texture Harmony: Soft, Chewy, and Crispy
Every bite delivers a perfect contrast of textures. The cookies boast an incredibly soft and wonderfully chewy interior, providing that satisfying sink-your-teeth-in feeling. This is beautifully complemented by delicately crispy edges, offering a delightful crunch before you reach the tender center. It’s a textural masterpiece that keeps you coming back for more. - Irresistibly Gooey Chocolate Centers
The true magic of these cookies lies in their surprise core. Each cookie is generously stuffed with a rich chocolate hazelnut spread, creating a luxurious, warm, and gooey chocolate middle. This molten center oozes out with every break, much like the decadent filling in our beloved Nutella bars, transforming a simple cookie into a truly gourmet experience. - A Burst of Rich Chocolate Flavor
Beyond the gooey center, the cookie dough itself is studded with plenty of chocolate chips, ensuring a deep and satisfying chocolate flavor throughout. While intensely chocolatey, the taste is perfectly balanced, making it rich without being overwhelmingly sweet. It offers a more nuanced chocolate profile compared to, say, our chocolate thumbprint cookies, designed for a full chocolate indulgence. - Effortless Baking: No Stand Mixer Required!
Inspired by the simplicity of recipes like our miso chocolate chip cookies, this recipe is incredibly beginner-friendly and requires absolutely no stand mixer. You can achieve perfect results with just a bowl and a whisk, making these chocolate filled cookies an easy and accessible treat to whip up for any occasion, from casual cravings to last-minute gatherings.
Ingredient Notes and Smart Substitutions
Crafting the perfect chocolate filled cookie starts with understanding the role of each ingredient. Here’s a closer look at what you’ll need and how to make smart substitutions:
Nutella: Our recipe specifically calls for the classic Nutella spread as the star of these chocolate filled cookies, providing its signature creamy, chocolate-hazelnut flavor. However, feel free to use any preferred brand of chocolate hazelnut spread. The key is to ensure it freezes solid enough to be easily encased within the cookie dough. Don’t let any leftover spread go to waste; it’s perfect for making other delicious treats like chocolate-stuffed muffins!
Chocolate Chips: For an unparalleled chocolate experience, delivering the best chocolate flavor and creating those coveted gooey chocolate pools within the cookies, we highly recommend using a finely chopped high-quality chocolate bar. Chopped chocolate melts more evenly and beautifully than standard chips, which often contain stabilizers. Nevertheless, feel free to substitute with bittersweet, dark, or even regular semi-sweet chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips for convenience. The choice of chocolate type will subtly alter the overall sweetness and intensity of your final cookie.
Brown Sugar: This ingredient is crucial for achieving the perfect balance of flavor and texture. Brown sugar not only imparts a subtle molasses flavor, adding depth to the cookie, but also contributes significantly to a super chewy texture. Its higher moisture content helps keep the cookies soft and moist. If you only have dark brown sugar on hand, it makes an excellent substitute for light brown sugar, intensifying the molasses notes slightly.
Melted Unsalted Butter, Cooled: Using melted butter over softened butter produces a chewier cookie with a slightly crispier edge, as it prevents too much air from being incorporated into the dough. It’s vital that the butter is melted and then cooled to room temperature before use; hot butter can cook the egg and cause the cookies to spread excessively in the oven, leading to flat, greasy results.
Large Egg, Room Temperature: A room temperature egg emulsifies more easily with the butter and sugars, creating a smooth, homogenous dough. This leads to a more uniform texture in your baked cookies. If you forget to take your egg out in advance, you can quickly bring it to room temperature by placing it in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes.
All-Purpose Flour: The foundation of our cookie dough. Proper measurement is key here. Please refer to our “Tips for the Best Stuffed Cookies” section for detailed instructions on how to accurately measure flour, ideally using a kitchen scale, to avoid dense or dry cookies.
Baking Soda: This leavening agent provides the necessary lift, giving the cookies a lovely, slightly puffy texture. It reacts with the acidic brown sugar to create carbon dioxide bubbles, which expand during baking.
Fine Sea Salt: A pinch of salt is essential to balance the sweetness and enhance all the other flavors, especially the chocolate. It elevates the overall taste profile, ensuring your cookies aren’t just sweet but truly delicious.
You’ll find the complete ingredient measurements and step-by-step instructions detailed in the comprehensive recipe card below!
Recipe Instructions: How to Bake Perfect Chocolate Filled Cookies
Creating these delightful chocolate filled cookies is a fun and straightforward process. Follow these detailed steps to ensure perfectly gooey centers and wonderfully chewy cookies every time:
Step 1: Prepare and Freeze the Chocolate Filling. The secret to a perfect gooey center is to start with a frozen core. Using a teaspoon, scoop individual portions of your chocolate hazelnut spread onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Once all portions are scooped, place the tray into the freezer until each scoop feels completely frozen solid. This usually takes about 20-30 minutes, ensuring it’s firm enough to handle without melting as you wrap the cookie dough around it.
Step 2: Cream the Butter and Sugars. In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted butter (ensuring it’s cooled to room temperature), granulated sugar, and light brown sugar. Whisk these ingredients together vigorously for a full minute until they are thoroughly combined and create a smooth, slightly lighter mixture. This step ensures an even distribution of sweetness and contributes to the cookie’s texture.
Step 3: Whisk in the Wet Ingredients. Introduce the room-temperature large egg and vanilla extract into the butter and sugar mixture. Whisk diligently until these wet ingredients are fully incorporated. The mixture should appear smooth and slightly glossy, indicating good emulsification. Ensure there are no streaks of egg visible, as this can affect the final texture of your cookies.
Step 4: Fold in the Dry Ingredients and Chill. Gently fold in the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and fine sea salt into the wet mixture until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, as this can lead to tough cookies. Once the dry ingredients are mostly incorporated, fold in your chosen chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate bar. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the cookie dough in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes. This chilling period is crucial for developing flavor, preventing excessive spread, and making the dough easier to handle.
Step 5: Fill the Cookies with Chocolate. Once your cookie dough is chilled and your chocolate filling is frozen solid, it’s time for the fun part! Take about a 2-tablespoon scoop of cookie dough and flatten it into a disc in your palm. Place one of the frozen chocolate balls directly into the center of the flattened dough. Carefully gather the edges of the cookie dough around the filling, molding it to completely encase the chocolate. Roll the dough gently between your palms to form a smooth, round ball, ensuring the filling is completely sealed inside. Work quickly to prevent the dough or filling from warming up too much.
Step 6: Final Chill and Bake the Cookies. Arrange the chocolate filled cookie dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving ample space between them to allow for spreading. This final chilling step is critical for ensuring the cookies hold their shape and the filling stays intact. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for a minimum of 1-2 hours, or until the cookie dough balls are completely frozen solid. While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). This extended freeze prevents the filling from escaping too quickly and helps create those perfectly chewy results. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are beautifully golden brown, the middle is still slightly puffy, and the very center appears pale and slightly underbaked. This ensures a wonderfully soft interior and a gooey chocolate core. Let the cookies cool on the baking pan for about 15-20 minutes after removing them from the oven. This allows them to set properly before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely, preventing them from falling apart and ensuring that luscious, melted center is ready to be enjoyed.
Expert Tips for Crafting the Best Stuffed Cookies
To ensure your chocolate filled cookies are nothing short of perfection, keep these key tips in mind. They’ll help you achieve that ideal balance of flavor, texture, and a beautifully gooey center:
- Embrace a Kitchen Scale for Precision. This is perhaps the single most important tip for consistent baking success. Baking with a scale is significantly more accurate than relying on cup measurements, which can vary widely depending on how densely ingredients are packed. To convert this recipe to metric, simply click the “metric” button next to the ingredients title on the recipe card below. If you absolutely do not have a scale, remember to use the “spoon and level” method: gently fluff your flour with a spoon, then spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling off the excess with the back of a knife. Never scoop directly into the flour bag.
- Cool Your Melted Butter Completely. While the recipe calls for melted butter, it’s crucial that it comes back to room temperature before you incorporate it into your sugars. Hot butter will negatively impact the cookie dough’s consistency, potentially causing your chocolate filled cookies to spread too much in the oven and become flat and greasy. Patience here is key for perfectly thick and chewy cookies.
- Maintain Cold Temperatures for Dough and Filling. Both your cookie dough and the frozen chocolate filling must remain cold throughout the shaping process. Warm dough or a partially melted filling will be difficult to work with, leading to a messy assembly and a higher risk of the filling oozing out during baking. If at any point either component becomes too warm, don’t hesitate to re-chill them in the fridge or freezer until they are firm enough to handle again.
- Resist the Urge to Overstuff. We know how tempting it is to pack as much chocolate as possible into each cookie, but there’s a delicate balance. Too much filling can compromise the structural integrity of the cookie during baking, potentially leading to blowouts where the chocolate escapes the cookie rather than staying contained in a gooey pocket. Stick to the recommended teaspoon size for the filling for the best results.
- Don’t Overmix the Dough. When adding the dry ingredients, fold them in gently until just combined. Overmixing develops the gluten in the flour, which can result in tough, dense cookies instead of the desired soft and chewy texture. A few streaks of flour are acceptable; they will disappear during baking.
- Proper Chilling Time is Non-Negotiable. The final freezing step for the stuffed cookie dough balls is essential. This not only prevents spreading but also ensures that the chocolate filling remains encapsulated and melts slowly, creating that beautiful gooey center without bursting out prematurely. Allow for the full recommended chilling time.
FAQs About Chocolate Filled Cookies
Got questions about baking these incredible chocolate filled cookies? We’ve got answers to some of the most common queries to help you on your baking journey!
While you can certainly use a little less chocolate hazelnut spread if you prefer a lighter chocolate center, we strongly advise against using more than the recommended amount. Overstuffing the cookies can lead to issues during baking, such as the filling bursting out of the cookie or the cookie spreading unevenly. Stick to the suggested quantity for the best results and a perfectly contained gooey core.
Absolutely! You can definitely experiment with different cookie scoop sizes. If you opt for a larger 3-tablespoon cookie scoop, you’ll simply need to adjust the baking time slightly. Give them an additional 1-2 minutes in the oven to ensure they are cooked through and the edges are golden brown, while still retaining a soft, gooey center. Just be mindful not to overbake them.
To keep your freshly baked chocolate filled cookies at their best, store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature. They will remain wonderfully delicious for 2-3 days. For an extra treat, pop them into the microwave for a few seconds before eating; this will re-warm the chocolate center, bringing back that incredibly gooey, just-baked experience!
Yes, these chocolate filled cookies are excellent for freezing! Once you’ve filled and shaped the cookie dough balls, and they are fully frozen solid (as per Step 6 in the instructions), transfer them to a freezer-safe bag or an airtight container. They can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to bake, simply place the frozen cookie dough balls directly onto a prepared baking sheet and bake as directed, potentially adding a minute or two to the baking time.
If your cookies spread excessively or the filling escapes, it’s often due to the butter being too warm, the dough not being chilled enough, or overfilling. Ensure your melted butter is cooled to room temperature, chill your cookie dough and frozen filling adequately, and don’t overstuff. Quick tip: If cookies spread too much in the oven, you can gently push their edges back inwards with a spatula right after they come out of the oven to reshape them while they’re still warm.
Absolutely! While chocolate hazelnut spread is divine, feel free to get creative. Other popular options include caramel, peanut butter, or even a solid piece of your favorite chocolate bar. The key is to ensure the filling you choose can freeze solid enough to be easily wrapped in the dough and won’t completely liquefy too quickly during baking. Test a small amount of your chosen filling to see how it freezes.
If you’ve had the pleasure of trying this chocolate filled cookies recipe, or any other delicious creation on our website, we would absolutely love to hear about your experience! Please share your thoughts and how it went in the comments section below. Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we truly love hearing from you! While you’re there, don’t forget to leave a star rating to let others know what you thought. You can also proudly tag us on Instagram or Facebook so we can admire your beautiful creations!
Chocolate Filled Cookies
Equipment
- standard 2 tablespoon cookie scoop
Ingredients
- 1 cup chocolate hazelnut spread, (Nutella)
- 12 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, *See notes for measuring below*
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 1/8 cup mini chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate bar
Instructions
- Scoop the chocolate filling. Scoop the Nutella by the teaspoon onto a parchment-lined tray. Chill in the freezer until frozen solid, about 20-30 minutes.1 cup (160 g) chocolate hazelnut spread
- Whisk the sugar and butter. Whisk the sugar and brown sugar into the melted butter vigorously for 1 minute until combined.12 tbsp (170 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- Mix in the wet ingredients. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract.1 (55 g) large egg, 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- Mix in the dry ingredients. Fold in the flour, baking soda, and salt until almost combined, then fold in the chopped chocolate. Cover and chill the bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes.1 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp (226 g) all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp fine sea salt, 1 1/8 cup (150 g) mini chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate bar
- Scoop the cookie dough. Scoop dough with a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop, flatten, add frozen chocolate filling, seal, and roll into a round shape.
- Chill the stuffed cookies. Place the cookie dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze until frozen solid, about 1-2 hours minimum. Then preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C.
- Bake! Bake the cookies spaced 2 inches apart for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the middle is puffy but still pale and underbaked. Let the pan cool on a wire rack for about 15-20 minutes, then remove and enjoy!
- Store baked chocolate filled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. The filled cookie dough balls can be frozen and stored in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 3 months.
Notes
The calorie information provided for the recipe is an estimate. The accuracy of the calories listed is not guaranteed.