It's World Nutella Day

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Grab a spoon and prepare to celebrate!

Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso solemnly declare Sunday, February 5th “World Nutella Day 2013″ – a day to celebrate, to get creative with, and most importantly, to EAT Nutella!

My submission to this fun event are these cute and delicious Nutella Meringue Cookies. This recipe comes from Cream Puffs in Venice one of the bloggers that first inspired me to join into the food blogging world and start a blog of my own. Thanks Ivonne! That was way back in 2007.  Which is also about the same time that Sara and Michelle started World Nutella Day. A day for flooding the internet with all things Nutella. Thanks ladies for making the internet more delicious! 

Happy World Nutella Day!

Crispy on the outside, chewy chocolaty on the inside, divine!

Nutella Meringues
Source: Cream Puffs in Venice

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup Nutella
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cream of tartar
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon, granulated sugar

METHOD:
Heat oven to 300°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Warm the Nutella in a microwave safe bowl in 15 second intervals until just barely melted.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, place the egg whites. Beat on medium-high speed until they are completely foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and the salt and continue whipping at medium-high speed until when you lift the whisk attachment, soft peaks form. This will take a few minutes.
Once you have reached the soft peak stage, increase the speed to high. At this point, start adding the sugar, slowly,  a few spoonfuls at a time.
Once all the sugar is in, the meringue should be very thick. When you lift  the whisk stiff  peaks should remain.

Drizzle in the Nutella. Gently fold the Nutella into the meringue three or four times. You want the meringue to to be streaky and not to deflate, so don't so over-mix.
You can either pipe the meringues onto the parchment-lined trays using a pastry bag fitted with a large open round tip or using two spoons, drop the meringue onto the baking sheets in large dollops.
Place in the oven for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, immediately lower the heat to 200°F and rotate the trays. Bake for one hour.
After an hour, check the meringues. They should look and feel dry. If you see any shine or moisture on them, continue baking them for another 10 minutes. Shut off the oven and leave the meringues to cool with the oven for a few hours or overnight. When you remove them from the baking sheet, they should release easily from the parchment and sound dry when you tap them.
The meringues will keep in an airtight container for about a week.

Feel free to make these into sandwich cookies with more nutella!

Celebrate World Nutella day with Nutella Truffles

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We all have our favorite days of the year, be it Christmas, Thanksgiving, your birthday, whatever. Well February 5th would have to be would have to high on my list. Want to know why? It just so happens to be World Nutella Day! Yes that's right an entire day set aside to celebrate Nutella and all the wonderful ways you can use it. I usually just stick a spoon in the jar and eat it straight from the spoon, but in honor of World Nutella day, I thought I'd put in a little more effort. Although these are a little more effort that just licking Nutella from a spoon, these truffles are super easy and sooo delicious.

Two of my favorite bloggers Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso came up with the idea for World Nutella Day 5 years ago. Check out their blogs for more mouthwatering Nutella recipes. Happy World Nutella Day!!

Nutella Truffles
Printable recipe


1 (12-oz.) package semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup Nutella
3/4 cup finely chopped, toasted hazelnuts
Wax paper or parchment paper
Method: 
Microwave first 3 ingredients in a medium-size microwave-safe bowl at HIGH 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring at 30-second intervals. Let cool 10 minutes.
Beat chocolate mixture at medium speed with an electric mixer 1 to 2 minutes or until whipped and smooth. Cover and chill 2 hours or until firm.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread chopped hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast in oven for about 5 minutes or until the nuts start to turn a golden brown. Keep a close eye on the nuts because they will burn quickly. Remove from oven and allow them to cool completely.
Shape chocolate mixture into 1-inch balls, using a small ice-cream scoop. Roll in chopped toasted hazelnuts. If chocolate mixture becomes too soft to shape, refrigerate until firm. Place on wax/parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Chill 1 hour before serving. Truffles can be stored up to 5 days in an airtight container.

Who needs dinner when you can eat rugelach?

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I was scrounging around in my freezer today, looking for something for dinner. I didn't find anything I wanted for dinner, but I did find a batch of rugelach dough. Score! I made the dough for Dorie Greenspan's rugelach around Christmas. We had so many other cookies and dessert at Christmas that I never finished the rugelach.  Today was cold, gray, and dreary. The thought of freshly baked rugelach filled with nuts and fruit was just the thing to put a smile on my face!
You can fill you rugelach dough with almost anything you like. I used several different fillings for mine. I filled some of mine with apricot jam, pecans, currants, and chopped chocolate. I filled some with apricot jam, chopped dried apricots, and pecans. Then, in honor of World Nutella Day, I filled a some with Nutella. There's no wrong way to eat Nutella!!!

 Just look at those chocolate chunks!

Rugelach
(From Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)
(Printable Recipe)
Ingredients:
For the dough
4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling
2/3 cup raspberry jam, apricot jam or marmalade
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or almonds)
1/4 cup plump, moist dried currants
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

For the glaze
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water
2 tablespoons sugar, preferably coarse sugar

Method:

For the dough 
Let the cream cheese and butter rest on counter for 10 minutes. It should be slightly softened but cool.
Put the flour and salt in a food processor, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine for 6 to 10 times. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds. Do not work the dough too long that it forms a ball on the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor, divide into half, shape each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to a day. (Wrap airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

To make the filling 
Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or microwave until it liquefies. Mix sugar and cinnamon together.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

To shape the cookies 
 Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it is too firm to roll easily, leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle. Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar.  Scatter over half of the nuts, half of the chopped chocolate and half of the currants. Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and gently press the filling into the dough, then remove the paper and save it for the next batch. Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles.The easiest way to do this is to cut into quarters, then cut each quarters into 4 pieces. Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each triangle becomes a little crescent. 
Arrange the roll-ups on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (The cookies can be refrigerate overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; don't defrost before baking, just add a couple of minutes to the baking time.)
 Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

To glaze 
Stir the egg and water together. Brush a bit of the glaze over each rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar. Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

In case you didn't know today is World Nutella Day! Yes Nutella is so wonderful it deserves it's own day!!
Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso solemnly declare Friday, February 5th “World Nutella Day 2010″ – a day to celebrate, to get creative with, and most importantly, to EAT Nutella. So here is my submission to the cause! Long live Nutella!! (yes I love it!)

Nutella filled rugelach

Banana Macadamia Nut Muffins

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I came across this recipe when I was searching for a recipe to use up my sad old bananas. I always buy bananas with the thought that we need more fresh fruit in our diet. Despite these good intentions, we rarely eat them after I bring them home. For whatever reason we'll eat one or two and the rest just sit there. I hate to waste food so I usually try to use them in baking. So these bananas became banana macadamia nut muffins, which pretty much defeats the purpose of buying bananas so that we eat more fresh fruit. It's the thought that counts right??!!

Banana Macadamia Nut Muffins
Bon Appetit, June 1991

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1 cup unsalted macadamia nuts, toasted, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease twelve muffin cups or line with muffin papers. Sift first 4 ingredients into large bowl. Combine bananas, both sugars, butter, milk and egg in medium bowl. Mix into dry ingredients. Fold in half of nuts. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle tops of muffins with remaining macadamia nuts. Bake until muffins are golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffins to rack and cool.
These muffins are very tasty. I love the crunch of the nuts on top. Next time I make these I think I'll throw in a little coconut as well.
(Print Recipe)

What could make these muffins even better? Nutella!!! Now we're talking... I think I'll buying more bananas soon!