Nutella Chocolate Wafers

Time for a sweet treat!

Since I've been experimenting with savory dough, I decided it was time to try a dessert. I love chocolate cookies and Smitten Kitchen has this recipe for chocolate wafers. So far, so good.

There is, however, one problem.

I hate Oreos.

I know, I know. It's positively un-American. That white stuff in the middle? What is that stuff? The cookies are too sweet and too thick. Nothing about them appeals to me, which means the idea of making my own Oreos at home really doesn't appeal to me.

Enter Nutella.

Chocolate, hazelnut heaven

Notes:
I would use wax paper to help me roll the cookies into a better log. The parchment paper was a little too willing to pick up pieces of dough. I also wish I had something log-shaped to sit the dough in while it's chilling. The cookies came out more oblong than round. It didn't really bother me that much.

The original recipe was done in a food processor. I don't have one, so I just used my handy pastry blender. It worked just fine. I might chill it a little longer next time. Other than that, these are delicious.

Ingredients (wafers adapted only slightly from this recipe):
1 jar Nutella (you won't use it all)
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons of unsalted butter (a little soft)
3 tablespoons of milk (I used 2% and it worked fine. I just wouldn't use skim)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Start by cutting your butter into small cubes

Next, mix your dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Time for the handy-dandy pastry blender! Sprinkle your butter on top of your dry ingredients and start blending everything together.

Part way

Keep blending until the butter is really tiny and the dry mixture now looks moist and darker. It will take on the consistency of damp sand.

Delicious chocolate sand

Mix your milk and vanilla into a measuring cup.

Add the milk/vanilla to the butter/dry mix a little at a time and use a rubber spatula to pull everything together. Once the dough comes together in a mass, use your hands to form it into a ball.

You want to form the dough into a 14-inch log. Use some wax paper to help you roll it out. The dough will be sticky, so you might want to run your hands under some cold water to help keep it off.

Uh...not done

There we go

Chill it in the fridge for a few hours (I did two, it could have been more). Once it's chilled, take out your cookie log and cut slices off of it that are 1/4 of an inch thick. You'll end up with somewhere between 45 and 50 cookies.

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Put your oven racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 -- 6 minutes on the bottom rack and 6 minutes on the top rack. The cookies will bubble while they are baking and they'll stop when they start getting done. Keep an eye on them. They crisp up as they cool.

Cool the cookies thoroughly on a rack.

They'll spread, so give them room

Once the cookies are cool, take two cookies and flip them over. Spread Nutella on one cookie, leaving a little space around the edge. Put the second cookie on top and make a tiny chocolate sandwich.

Repeat until all the cookies are used up. Pour yourself some ice cold milk and enjoy!