Crumbl Copycat: Stuffed Hazelnut Churro Cookies from Lifestyle of a Foodie

Crumbl Copycat: Stuffed Hazelnut Churro Cookies - made dough July 1, 2022 from Lifestyle of a Foodie

1 stick butter (1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons), softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cinnamon-sugar mixture

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup Nutella for the filling

1. Filling: using a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop out 7 equally-sized rounded tablespoons of Nutella onto a plastic-wrapped plate or baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes or until solid.
2. Cooking dough: cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until light and creamy. Add in the egg and vanilla extract; mix until smooth.
3. Gently mix in the flour, cornstarch, cream of tartar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until just combined.
4. Scoop out equal-sized dough balls, gently flatten them between the palms of your hands and place the frozen Nutella in the center of each disc. Pull up the edges of the cookie disc to completely enclose the frozen Nutella and roll into a round ball to smooth out the seams. Chill or freeze for at least 30 minutes.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
6. In a small bowl, stir together the 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Roll dough balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture and evenly space on baking sheet.
7.  Bake cookie for 10-12 minutes then let sit on baking sheet until completely cool.

I'm so happy to be able to bake again. For so long, I was packing up my old house then moving and unpacking the new house so there was little time or inclination to bake. Truthfully, I'm still half-living in half-unpacked boxes because I ran out of room to put things in my now-much-smaller kitchen. I'm having my lower kitchen cabinets extended but it hasn't happened yet so in the meantime, a lot of my baking stuff is scattered about. I did find 3 of my 4 cookie dough scoops though. No idea where the 4th one is but at least I have 3 of the 4.

Anyway, I have had the original Crumbl Hazelnut Churro so I was interested in trying the copycat recipe from Lifestyle of a Foodie. She's had the most reliably good recipes for Crumbl copycats. Even the ones that aren't super exact to Crumbl's have been amazingly good in their own right so her blog is always a good one to seek out first for any Crumbl copycat. 

The dough comes together beautifully. Save yourself a mess and follow the directions to freeze the dollops of Nutella first; you'll be glad you did. Flatten the dough into thick discs, place a frozen Nutella dollop in the middle of each disc then wrap the dough around the Nutella. I froze the dough balls first, partly because I always prefer to bake from frozen dough for less spread and partly because I like to time when I turn the oven on during summer when it's so hot. In this case, I've been making up batches of cookie dough and only baking in the wee hours of the morning.

Most of this batch went for care packages for Soldiers Angels and I was glad I found my "thank you" packaging in the midst of half-unpacked boxes and things stuffed haphazardly into any viable kitchen space I could find. The batch only makes 7 good-sized cookies though so it didn't go very far. If you want more cookies, of course, make them smaller. I decided to follow the original recipe as it was meant to be so I could recreate the "true" copycat.

Which it seems like I did. Unfortunately, what I forgot about the original is I didn't really like the cinnamon and Nutella combination that much. This would've been better (to me) without the teaspoon of cinnamon in the cookie dough to cut back on the cinnamon flavor. The cinnamon-sugar coating was fine but I'd cut back on the cinnamon so as not to conflict with the Nutella.

Careful not to overbake either. It's a little difficult to tell when the cookies are done because the Nutella filling doesn't let the middle appear cooked but it will be once the outer edges have tiny fissures to indicate doneness. Don't overbake as not even Nutella lava in the middle will save a dry, overbaked cookie.