It's World Nutella Day

Tweet

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!

Who needs dinner when you can eat rugelach?

Tweet

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