Coconut Nutella Crunchies

I tested out a second recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly 'The Afternoon Tea Collection' yesterday. While my dough for the Melting Moments was chilling in the freezer, I got to work on these Coconut Nutella Crunchies:

These are essentially cookie sandwiches made from coconut honey oatmeal cookies, with a layer of Nutella in between. I substituted some ingredients in the original AWW recipe with what I had lying around. I used honey where the recipe called for treacle or golden syrup (although, I did find a jar of golden syrup in the cupboard right after I added the honey. darn it! :D), and used Nutella in the place of chocolate ganache, because I couldn't be bothered to make the latter.

The cookies were made with self-raising flour. This, combined with the eggs in the dough, makes for a crumbly, pillowy cookie. I'm quite happy with my substituting Nutella for chocolate ganache, since Nutella makes everything taste good and the hazelnut flavour adds yet another dimension to the cookie. However, I do believe that chocolate ganache will set harder, and maintain the structural integrity of the cookie, whereas the Nutella sorta just melted and smeared everywhere. A few hours in the fridge did help to rectify the situation.

As with the Melting Moments, I recommend chilling the dough in the freezer before shaping it. I made pretty criss-crossed indentations on each cookie with a fork before putting them in the oven, and I was saddened to see that the pattern was lost after baking. Oh well. When baking for family (and oneself), it's the taste that counts more than anything else. And these taste good, believe you me :D *wanders off to eat another Coconut Nutella Crunchy*.



Recipe for Coconut Nutella Crunchies

Adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly 'The Afternoon Tea Collection'


Makes 30-40 Crunchies, depending on how big you make them

Ingredients

For the cookies:
125g (4 ounces) butter, softened
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs
2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
1 cup (80g) desiccated coconut
1/2 cup (45g) raw rolled oats

For the filling:
Large jar of Nutella or other hazelnut spread (no, you won't need the whole jar. I simply didn't take note of how much I used, sorry xD)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Place baking rack towards the centre of the oven, closer to the bottom. Line baking tray with baking paper.

2. Beat butter, sugar and honey in a bowl with electric mixer or beater until smooth, light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour, coconut and oats until fully incorporated.

3. Place dough in fridge or freezer and chill until hard enough to roll with hands. Dust your hands with flour, then roll rounded teaspoons of mixture into balls. Placed on lined baking tray, with about 5cm between each cookie. Dust fork with flour, and use it to flatten the dough balls.

4. Bake cookies for about 12 minutes. Cool on trays, then transfer to cooling racks.

5. Once cookies are completely cool, sandwich two cookies with about a rounded teaspoon of Nutella.