Date with the Cookie Dough Scoop

I got a cookie dough scoop last week  as a present. It was one of those things I had always put off buying, you know because I thought "I could get by without it" or "it took too much room in my limited spaced kitchen drawer"  or "do I reeeeeealllly need another gadget?". Needless to say I ended up with cookies of various sizes and dimensions, not to mention messy hands.

Obviously I had to give it a test run, so I made Nutella Walnut cookies earlier today.

Update: I have modified the original recipe (from the link above) several times and finally got the right combination of ingredients.

Nutella Walnut Cookies

Ingredients:
(Makes about 20 cookies)

• 1c All Purpose flour
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup)- 70% browned, 30% regular
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 c white sugar (1/2 if you want sweet cookies)
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 4 Tbsp Nutella
• 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 c chopped toasted walnuts

Directions:

< Preheat oven to 375F >

1.  Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl (flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa

2.  Melt 3/4 of the stick of butter until you get browned butter. This is a good tutorial on how to make browned butter.

3.  Add the remaining 1/4 of the stick to the browned butter. Let cool for 10 minutes.

4.  In another mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, white sugar, butter and egg until it's light yellow. Then add vanilla and nutella and mix for a few more seconds.

5.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in thirds mixing with a wooden spoon until just combined.

6.  Add walnuts.

7.  Using a cookie dough scoop or icecream scoop, place the dough balls  on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Press down to create a flat thin disc. The cookies will spread a little bit.

8. Bake for 8-9 minutes in 375F oven. Place on a cooling rack.

So the bottom line really is if you like pretty, uniform cookies- GET THE SCOOP!! The bonus is you will have clean hands too.