Nutella Cream Cheese Chocolate Chunk Brownies

Our wedding is nine days away. If you're wondering what my "wedding diet" has consisted of, these brownies are it. My soon-to-be husband is one lucky fella.

We still have some leftover homemade cream cheese in our fridge, so I decided to use up some of it in a revamped version of my Nutella Brownies. The end result was a fudgy, decadent brownie that is dangerous to have in the house nine days before your wedding. Just F.Y.I.

Nutella Cream Cheese Chocolate Chunk Brownies
Yields: 9 servings
Brownies:
-1/2 cup butter (or 1 stick), softened, plus extra for greasing

-1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks, plus extra for sprinkling on top of brownies
-1/4 cup Nutella
-1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
-Pinch of salt
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-2 eggs
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Cream Cheese Topping:

-8 ounces (or 1 cup) cream cheese

-1/3 cup granulated sugar

-1 egg

-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

-Pinch of salt

Directions:

Brownies:

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 baking pan with butter.
2.) Place the butter and chocolate chunks in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water; stir until mostly melted. Add Nutella, and stir until smooth. Remove from heat, and let cool slightly.
3.) In a medium bowl, combine sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Add chocolate and Nutella mixture and stir.

4.) Add the eggs to the bowl, one at a time, stirring well until blended.

5.) Add the flour and cocoa to the brownie batter and beat until smooth.
6.) Pour the batter into the greased cake pan.

Cream Cheese Topping:

1.) Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until it has a whipped consistency.

2.) Add sugar and mix; then, add vanilla, egg, and salt, and mix until well-blended.

3.) Spoon cheese mixture over brownie batter in dollops, leaving some brownie showing in-between. Gently swirl through batter several times with a butter knife to create a marbled effect. Sprinkle several chocolate chunks over the top of the batter.

4.) Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.

[Print this recipe]

I loved how the cream cheese helped to prevent these brownies from becoming too sweet, while adding to their richness and deliciousness.

Oh, and you may have some cream cheese mixture leftover, but that's never an issue, right? Right. 

Nutella and Banana Turnovers with Sea Salt

These turnovers are so easy to make, it's almost silly to blog the recipe. But despite they're simplicity, these turnovers taste bomb dot com - so I just have to share them with you all. That is, if you like Nutella...and bananas...and buttery pastry. But honestly, if you don't like any of those things, I may just have to kindly ask you to leave. Thanks for understanding.

This recipe is literally as "easy as 1, 2, 3." See for yourself:

Nutella and Banana Turnovers with Sea Salt

Yields: 4 turnovers

Inspired by Nutmeg Nanny

Print this recipe!

-1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed

-1/2 cup Nutella

-1 banana, sliced

-1 egg

-2 tablespoons water

-Sea salt (optional)

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

2.) Cut the thawed puff pastry into four equal parts, and place the four sections onto the prepared baking sheet.

3.) Spoon equal amounts of Nutella into the center of each of the puff pastry squares. Then, top with banana slices (about four slices per square). 

4.) In a small bowl, whisk together the egg with the water. Brush a small amount of the egg wash along one side of each puff pastry square. Then, fold one corner of each square to meet the opposite corner (to form a triangle), and seal closed with a fork. Brush the outsides of each turnover with egg wash, and sprinkle with sea salt. Cut a slit into the top of each turnover.

5.) Place in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until turnovers are golden brown.

The flaky, buttery puff pastry paired with the gooey, sweet Nutella and banana is dangerously addictive. And the hint of sea salt? Ungodly good. I literally had to restrain myself from eating two of these in one sitting. 

What's your favorite salty-sweet combination? Besides Nutella and sea salt, I also adore pretzels and chocolate together!

Baking to End Cancer with Nutella Brownies

Remember these puppies?

Well, now you have a chance to get one dozen of these gems, all to yourself (or, to share...but that's up to you). Just head on over to Amanda's (a.k.a. Tales from a Kitchen Misfit's) virtual Bake Sale, and bid on these Nutella Brownies. Oh, and did I mention the bake sale is to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society? Amanda is running the Boston Marathon, and her goal is to raise $4,000 for this great cause.

Let's help Amanda reach her goal, shall we?

Happy bidding!

Nutella Brownies

Oh yes. I went there.

Due to yesterday's blizzard here in Boston, I had the luxury of working from home. Once the afternoon rolled around, I needed a pick-me-up - it gets tiring doing work all day in your pajamas on the couch. I flipped through a few of my cookbooks, and came across a recipe for Double Chocolate Brownies in the Easy Chocolate cookbook. I didn't have any semisweet chocolate or white chocolate chips, as the original recipe asked for - but, I did have Nutella.

Nutella Brownies
Yields: 9 servings

-1/2 cup butter (or 1 stick), softened, plus extra for greasing
-1/2 cup Nutella
-1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
-Pinch of salt
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-2 eggs
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a square cake pan with butter.
2.) Place the butter and Nutella in a saucepan; stir on low heat until smooth.

3.) Let cool slightly. Stir in the sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring well until blended.
4.) Add the flour and cocoa to the brownie batter and beat until smooth.

5.) Pour the batter into the greased cake pan.
6.) Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is evenly colored and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean.
7.) Cut brownies into squares and devour.

Let me just start off by saying if you don't have a sweet tooth, don't make these. These babies were decadent, sweet, and full of Nutella flavor. I also really liked these brownies because they weren't ultra chocolate-y - the hazelnut flavor from the Nutella definitely helped to make these brownies lighter than they otherwise could have been if made with semisweet chocolate.

What went on in your kitchen during the snow storm?

Side note/plea: Would you mind taking a second today to vote for my Coconut Curry Chickpea & Potato Soup in the New England Country Soup's Soup Challenge? Thank you in advance - I really appreciate it!

Nutella and Peanut Butter Cookies

I fell in love with this when we were in Italy - and now my life mission is to incorporate it in every single meal for the rest of my life.

Well, maybe not every single meal - but I am eager to use Nutella in a number of different recipes over the next few months. I know it seems strange that, of all the things I could consume in Italy, Nutella is what I came back with - but it's silky, creamy texture and nutty, chocolate-y flavor just totally won me over. It was inevitable.

So, on Sunday, I wanted to take advantage of the overcast, colder weather - and the Nutella in my cabinet - and made Nutella and Peanut Butter Cookies. I used this recipe, calculated it to make 12 cookies versus 24, and instead of using 1/2 cup peanut butter, I used 1/4 cup of peanut butter and 1/4 cup of Nutella. I also used whole wheat flour since that's what I always have in my pantry.

The end result was a sweeter, silkier peanut butter cookie. The Nutella added a very subtle chocolate and nutty flavor to the mix, although next time I'll probably add more Nutella so more of its spectacular flavor comes through.

The peanuts from the chunky peanut butter also added a great, crunchy texture to these otherwise chewy, soft cookies.

What's your favorite recipe using Nutella?

Side note: For those of you who don't know, I am now also the Boston Budget Wine Examiner for Examiner.com. Feel free to follow my wine-o posts there for affordable wine events in the area, as well as reviews of some of my favorite inexpensive wines.