Nutella cookies: spring jam-eye cookies, delicious crisp cookies made from an excellent butter shortcrust pastry (frolla) in a jam-eye style, filled with Nutella or another filling if you prefer, and decorated with a little flower or butterfly — a joyful ode to spring that makes you want to be outdoors, on a flowery lawn, happily watching butterflies flutter from flower to flower while enjoying a couple of cookies that can easily be carried anywhere to give us that pleasant, indulgent treat that always improves the mood. Let’s see how to prepare them — the recipe is very easy and out-of-this-world good.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking time: 12 Minutes
- Portions: 30
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, All seasons
Ingredients for Nutella spring jam-eye cookies
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (type 00), approximately 500 g
- 14 tbsp unsalted butter (about 200 g / 7 oz)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (about 150 g)
- 3 eggs (about 50 g each)
- 1 tsp baking powder (about 5 g)
- to taste lemon zest
- to taste vanilla (extract)
- to taste Nutella (or another spread)
- to taste powdered sugar
Tools to prepare the Nutella spring cookies
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Knife
- 1 Rolling pin
- 1 Work surface
- 3 Cookie cutters
- 1 Sieve
- 1 Teaspoon
- 2 Parchment paper
Preparation steps for Nutella spring jam-eye cookies
Let’s start preparing the shortcrust pastry. First, cut the cold butter into cubes straight from the fridge. In a bowl, begin working the butter with the sugar by hand, then add the flour, lemon zest, baking powder and vanilla, and work until you obtain a sandy mixture. Only now add the eggs and work quickly to get a homogeneous dough ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Take the pastry back out and roll it thin on a lightly floured surface. At this point you can also preheat the oven to 356°F (conventional), removing the baking tray from the oven. Back to the dough: if it doesn’t roll out easily and tends to break, it’s because it hasn’t been worked enough, so work it a little more and proceed, using flour both on the surface and on the dough so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin. Roll a sheet about 1/16 inch thick, not more than 1/8 inch, otherwise the cookies will be too thick.
To cut the cookies, use a wavy cookie cutter of about 3 1/8 inches, but a plain round cutter is fine too; alternatively you can use a glass. Cut out all the cookies like this, rework the scraps and cut more cookies.
Place half of the cut cookies on the baking tray lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Bake in a preheated conventional oven at 356°F for about 12 minutes; they should be lightly golden. Let cool on the tray.
Now prepare the small top cookies for the jam-eye. With small cutters make a hole in the center — use small cookie cutters or ones used for shaping fondant; alternatively you can make a simple round hole with a piping tip or a small cookie cutter.
Place the cookies with the center cut out on the parchment-lined tray; rework the removed centers to form more cookies. Leave the cookies slightly spaced apart. Be careful when lifting them so you don’t deform them. It’s helpful to work in a not-too-warm environment so the dough doesn’t soften too much.
Bake the second tray of cookies immediately after removing the first from the oven and let them cool.
Fill the uncut cookies with soft Nutella using a simple teaspoon. Dust the cookies with a hole in the center with powdered sugar using a sieve, then close them with these to make the jam-eye cookies. You can enjoy the cookies as soon as they are ready. They keep well in a closed container for a long time, remaining crisp and melting in the mouth like they were just made.
