Coincidentally (or perhaps it was fate?) Nutella is also among my top ten favorite foods. I first experienced the heavenly chocolate-hazelnut confection in 1996 when I was on a student exchange in Germany. My host mother made me an afternoon snack of toasted brown bread slathered in Nutella and I nearly hugged her to death after my first bite. She was confused at my elation, considering that a jar of Nutella was about as common there as peanut butter is in the states. When I got home it was all I could talk about to my parents, to the point that I suspect they started to doubt the educational value of my trip. Unfortunately, the only store in Baltimore at the time that carried Nutella was the seasonal Christmas shop's international section. I would stock up every year around Christmas, but it would never be enough to last the year.
As a testament to progress, I can now find Nutella in the grocery store right next to the peanut butter (as it should be in any civilized country). Purchasing a jar with intent to actually cook with it seems to justify all the time I will inevitably spend eating it straight from the jar with a large spoon. I subbed out half the sugar in this recipe for Splenda, which made me feel slightly better about stuffing two of them into my mouth almost immediately after removing them from the oven. Yum!
The biggest victory for me is that my cupcakes (see above photos) look just like the example cupcakes in her blog post. That almost never happens for me! Check out the recipe at feistycook.com!
FEISTYCOOK [ ..simply delicious home-cooked meals, etc.. ]
I love Nutella!! I will have to add this to my long "to bake" list and try it out soon. Those beautiful pictures are really tempting!! ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely worth giving a try. After experimenting a little more, I would suggest slightly reducing the baking time listed in the recipe (by about 3 minutes or so). This keeps the Nutella still slightly gooey when they're finished.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy them!