These 3 ingredient Nutella cookies are tender and rich, and couldn’t be easier. Make the quick cookie dough in a food processor, and they’re ready to eat in about 15 minutes, start to finish.
How many ingredients?
Calling this recipe 3 Ingredient Nutella cookies without counting the filling in the number of ingredients is sort of like getting on the 12-items-or-less checkout line at the grocery store with 12 items—but one of them has more than one part.
The cookies have 3 ingredients. I promise! Nutella, an egg and my gum-free flour blend. That’s it. During cookie ? season, when you’re baking a million types of cookies, some fancier than others, sometimes you just need a super quick ace in the hole. And these cookies can just be made without the filling.
When I was putting together the annual 22 boxes of cookies for my husband’s coworkers this year, I needed a last minute addition to fill out the boxes a bit. You can guess what cookie made that happen.
Since then, I’ve also created a super simple recipe for 3 Ingredient Oatmeal Cookies. They’re healthy and hearty, and perfect for an after-school, after-sports snack.
Even easier still
If you’d like to simplify these cookies even further, you have three other options. One, leave out the filling entirely. If you don’t plan to fill the cookies with anything at all, roll the dough into balls and then press each ball into a thick disk. Don’t poke holes, but rather just bake as is.
Two, you can fill the cookies with straight-up Nutella, before baking. Three, place a chocolate disk or chip in the center of each cookie the moment the baking tray comes out of the oven. It will melt into the hole, and then firm up again as the cookie cools.
Push play ▶ to watch this super quick video (less than 1 minute)
It’s almost too fast! See for yourself:
These cookies are so tender and rich, and they basically taste like everything that is lovely about Nutella. Warm, hazelnut goodness with deep chocolate taste, and no one will ever know that they’re this easy. Unless they read this blog. And then you can just tell them: who said something had to be difficult to be delicious? Amiright?
Ingredients and Substitutions
This one’s a hard one for substitutions, my friends! There are only three ingredients in the cookies themselves. But I’ll give it my best shot:
Dairy-Free: For the filling, just replace the heavy cream with coconut cream. But the real problem is that Nutella has dairy, and it’s the most prominent ingredient in these cookies.
I’ve made batch after batch of these cookies, and my oldest who is currently dairy free (to her misery) didn’t have even one. I honestly don’t know if you could substitute another nut butter. Nutella is thinner and really bakes differently than other nut butters.
Maybe try no-stir peanut butter in its place, but you’d probably have to cut back on the flour. Instead, I’d really go for these flourless chocolate peanut butter cookies. They’re naturally dairy free.
Update! At one lovely reader’s recommendation, I’ve tried Nicciolata Dairy Free Organic Hazelnut & Cocoa Spread, and it’s heavenly! I bought it on Vitacost.com, I think? Search around for the best price. I haven’t yet tried it in these cookies, so I don’t know if it would work but it’s definitely thicker than Nutella so most likely the proportions would be a bit different. If I try it in this recipe, I’ll be sure to update again!
Egg-Free: It’s only one egg, so I’m tempted to suggest my favorite egg replacement, the “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel). But again, there are only 3 ingredients. Substitute at your own risk!
Flour Blend: If you’d like to try make this recipe using something other than my gum-free gluten free flour blend (which itself has 3 simple ingredients), like perhaps with Better Batter, the cookies will be dry and much denser. I tried. :)
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!