The end of the holiday break can make for a lot of leftover chocolate from Lindt to Godiva to Ferrero Rocher – the last one being one of my favourites. It’s fitting, then, to incorporate the ultimate holiday chocolate into a scrumptious cookie recipe.

Ferrero Rocher chocolates epitomize the best of holiday sweets with a delicate thin crispy wafer shell filled with creamy hazel cream and a whole roasted hazelnut. The sweet milk chocolate coating and bits of crunchy hazelnut create the perfect balance of textures.

Serving: 48 cookies (approximately)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter, softened
• 2/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa
• 2 ¼ cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ½ cup of mini milk chocolate chips
• 18 Ferrero Rocher chocolates

Note: Freeze Ferrero Rocher chocolate for at least one hour prior to baking. Transfer chocolate to a Ziploc bag and smash into small pieces.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Celsius. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
   
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar using a hand mixer. Once you’ve reached a creamy consistency, add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, until well-combined.
   
4. Gently fold in chocolate chips and Ferrero Rocher bits.
   
5. Create 1½ inch (or small to medium sized) balls of dough and place on parchment paper. Note: If dough is sticky, place in fridge for 15 minutes.
   
6. Place baking trays into oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cookies cool on sheet then rack.
   

These cookies are a great indulgence to relieve those back to school blues. Half the fun of baking is improvising with what’s on hand. If you don’t have Ferrero Rocher chocolates on hand, any other chocolate would work just as well to enhance a regular chocolate cookie recipe. Next time, I think I’ll try chocolate Turtle cookies when I’m in need of a caramel pick-me-up.

Keep these chocolate hazelnut treats sealed in an airtight container for up to five days. This recipe yields quite a bit of cookies so I would recommend either sharing with your housemates or freezing the rest. If there was one way to bring back a little holiday bliss, it’d definitely be these cookies.

Recipe adapted from sweettwistofblogging.com