Happy Friday! Sharing one of my daughter’s, favourite Italian cookies today, Farfallette con la Nutella. These Nutella cookies are so simple to make but they taste so good! The pastry is tender, flaky and flavourful.
If you’re a beginner dipping your toes in the sea of making pastry from scratch, or you find pastry dough difficult to work with, this is easily the best type of pastry to experiment with because it’s the most forgiving dough to work with.
You could use this pastry for pies, hand pies or turnovers too. Another option would be to shape into pastry cups, blind bake and fill with crema pasticcera (Italian Pastry Cream) and fresh fruit. The possibilities are endless. I didn’t sweeten the pastry because the Nutella is sweet enough but if I were to use for other sweet treats I would add a tablespoon of sugar.
Growing up Nutella was a staple in our house and I’ve carried on with the tradition. Not having a jar or two in the cupboard is unthinkable. To this day my favourite way to enjoy it is slathered on an end slice of freshly baked, steaming hot homemade, crusty Italian bread (mmm…I’m salivating just thinking about it).
My sister, Anna usually prepares these cookies for our Italian cookie trays when we’re hosting a bridal shower, Liana loves them so much I thought it was about time I made some. The recipe makes quite a few cookies but I won’t be surprised to see them disappear very quickly. These cookies freeze beautifully making them ideal when baking for the holidays. Traditionally they’re filled with Nutella but you could also fill the cookies with jam (fig jam would be amazing).
I can’t believe we’re saying good-bye to summer already and the kids are back to school. I’m looking forward to autumn’s bounty, especially apples and pears. In fact my mom called today and her pears are ready to be picked. I’m excited because I’ve been tossing around a new cake recipe and I’m looking forward to testing it.
If you like pastry as much as I do I think you’ll really enjoy these Nutella cookies, I hope you’ll give them a try.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Nutella Cookies {Farfallette con la Nutella}
Makes about 7½ dozen 8 x 2½ cm (3 x 1-inch) bowtie cookies
If you can locate the Italian “00” flour I recommend using it instead of the all-purpose because I find the pastry dough is tenderer. If you would like to sweeten the pastry, add 1-tablespoon sugar after beating the cream cheese.
- 250 g (1 cup + 2/3 tablespoon) Philadelphia cream cheese, soft but cold
- 226 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, soft but cold
- Seeds from one-half vanilla bean
- 375 g (3 cups) Italian “00” flour or plain (all-purpose) flour
- 340 g (about 1½ cups) Nutella
- 30 ml (1 ounce) Rum or whisky, to seal pastry (water can be used as well)
- Silver dragées, to decorate, optional
- Confectioners’ sugar, to dust
- To prepare pastry dough, in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, scraping down sides, bottom of bowl and paddle attachment a couple of times, until smooth.
- Add butter and vanilla seeds and beat until well blended (smooth) and seeds are evenly disbursed.
- With mixer running, gradually add flour and beat until combined well.
- Remove bowl from mixer. Form pastry dough into a ball (in bowl) and transfer to lightly floured work surface.
- Preheat oven to 180° C (350° F). Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with nonstick baking paper.
- Shape and pat down dough to form a rectangle shape. Cut pastry dough into two pieces and wrap one piece in plastic (to prevent drying out). (Work with one piece of dough at-a-time to prevent it from drying out as you cut, fill and shape.) Lightly dust the surface of the pastry and rolling pin with flour. Roll out dough into a square shape with a thickness of about 3 mm (about 1/8 inch). Trim rolled out pastry into a neat square with fluted pastry wheel.
- Using fluted pastry wheel, cut pastry into 6 x 6 cm (about 2½ x 2½ inch) squares. (If you would prefer smaller cookies, cut smaller squares but I would recommend cutting squares no smaller than 5 x 5 cm or 2 x 2 inches. If you make smaller cookies, use a little less filling.)
- Spoon ¾ teaspoon Nutella in the centre of each pastry square.
- To shape cookies, work with one pastry square at-a-time, fold one pastry square corner over the filling. Moisten the corner with rum (whiskey or water). Bring the opposite pastry square corner over the first corner so that the corners overlap and press to seal. Dab the surface of the overlapping corners with rum, place a dragée in the centre and press down gently to seal.
- Transfer shaped cookies to prepared baking sheet with offset spatula. (Gather up scraps and wrap in plastic. Repeat rolling, cutting, filling and shaping with other piece of pastry dough. Gather all the scraps, shape into rectangle and again, repeat the process of rolling, cutting, filling and shaping.)
- Bake one tray of cookies at-a-time, rotating sheet halfway through baking time, until golden, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and transfer cookies to wire rack with offset spatula. Let stand until warm, dust with confectioners’ sugar and then let stand until cooled completely.
- Store in airtight container with sheets of baking paper in between layers of cookies.
- Buon Appetito!
