Hazelnut Truffle Cookies

ATTENTION: FOOD PORN AHEAD!

Please divert the eyes of all small children, old swooning ladies and anyone with acid reflux!

As an attempt to start becoming more of a culinary creator and not just a recipe baker, I got on a cookie creating roll this weekend. If you've spent any amount of time baking, then you've probably learned that baking and cooking are not the same. Baking is precise. Whereas with cooking, you can just make up your own measurements, throw it in a pan, and 9 times out of 10 it will turn out to resemble what you're looking for. Not so with baking. There is much more of a science. If you use too much flour, your cake will be too dense. Too little sugar, your cake will not be tender and moist. And as most of us know from experience, if you forget your eggs...well that's just a tragedy called a flat baked good. So I was very excited that my attempt this weekend was successful. The cookies seemed to have the right amount of ingredients. But don't let me fool you, I've made so many food flops its not even a joking matter at my house anymore!

I should be a bit ashamed of the recipe I am posting today. It just pure gluttony. But, I suppose out of all the deadly sins...gluttony would have to be the best. Right?

This cookie starts with a very nice chocolate cookie with an underlying base of coffee. The coffee just intensifies the chocolate flavor. It doesn't really stand out all that much. So the cookie in itself was a nice treat. Yet, I couldn't leave it alone. I have an obsession lately with stuffing sinful things inside of cookie dough. So after getting my dough together I wrapped it around a Ferrero Rocher hazelnut truffle. Have you ever had one of these blissful little truffles? If not, let me lay it out for you. These little truffles have a hazelnut hiding right in the middle that is surrounded by flowing chocolate. The chocolate in enveloped in a crispy wafer (think kit kats) and then that is coated with rich milk chocolate that is sprinkled with a few tiny hazelnut chips. See...the truffle in itself was also to die for. But, you combine the cookie and the truffle. Well....I'm certain my hips will never recover from the weekend. Enjoy!!

Hazelnut Truffle Cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (plus extra for rolling)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
1 large egg
4 TBSP oil
1 tsp instant coffee granules
16-20 Ferrero Rocher Hazelnut Truffles (depending on how much dough you use on each one)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Set aside
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, egg, oil and coffee. Mix in the dry ingredients.
Roll dough into 2 inch balls (about the size of a walnut). Now flatten the dough in the palm of your hand so that you can wrap the dough around a truffle. Roll in hands until smooth. Roll in sugar. Continue until all cookies are rolled. Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

If you'd like a smaller cookie with a caramel center, you can roll the dough around a Rolo candy. This is what you'll end up with:

I wonder what would happen if I tried to wrap up both, a truffle and a rolo, inside one ball of dough?

Mmmm, I think that could be dangerous.