The EASIEST Nutella Cookies – Only 3 Ingredients!

This is the absolute easiest Nutella cookie recipe ever – only three ingredients! No stand mixer or electric mixer needed, just stir by hand. Even beginner bakers can make these!

I recently updated my easy black sesame cookie recipe to be only three ingredients, based on a simple peanut butter cookie recipe. And then I thought – why not apply the same principle to other nut butter cookies? Welcome to the beginning of my three (or four) ingredient cookie series! For today’s recipe, I went straight to my second favorite nut butter – Nutella. This recipe is SO EASY even my kids can make it, so go on ahead and jump down to the recipe. Or if you’re curious about ways to modify or just want to learn more about these cookies before committing, read through the post below. 

A Healthier Nutella?

Is Nutella really a nut butter? I don’t know if it should count with all the extra added stuff in there. My friend Kerri recently told me she is using the Bonne Maman chocolate hazelnut spread because it does not use palm oil. I switched to using that too, and I do think it’s better than actual brand name Nutella.

To be the MOST health conscious, you could grind your own hazelnuts and add melted chocolate chips (or cocoa powder if you’re making cookies instead of a spread), which I have done before. That way you can also control the sweetness by only adding as much extra sugar as you want. But hazelnuts are pretty expensive, and doing that extra work would kind of defeat the purpose of having an “easy” cookie recipe.

Difference Between Nut Butter Cookies and Traditional Cookies

There are some minor differences between my easy 3 ingredient cookie recipes and a more traditional cookie recipe, specifically in flavor and texture.

Both cookies can get a very strong Nutella flavor. In fact, I would say the easy version has an even stronger Nutella taste because it makes up the bulk of the recipe. However, my recipe here does not use any butter, so I would say you get a little less of the creamy dairy flavor. I do not call for any salt or vanilla extract for the sake of keeping it 3 ingredients, but if you’d like to have a little more complex flavor, feel free to add a dash of each.

In terms of texture, nut butter cookies tend to be thicker and chewier. A cookie made the more traditional way (creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs, then adding flour) tends to be more tender, in my opinion.

But the great thing about these simple nut cookies is that they don’t spread in the oven! You don’t need to worry about chilling the cookie dough in the fridge or that the cookies will spread into each other on the baking sheet. I like to pat down the dough balls on the cookie sheet to be a flat little puck since they don’t flatten out as much as a normal cookie.

How Do I Know When the Cookies are Done?

Since you can eat Nutella straight from the jar, you’re really only waiting for the egg and flour to cook hot enough that you won’t get salmonella. You can tell when the cookies are done because steam will create cracks along the cookies as it escapes from inside the dough and the cookies will look ever so slightly puffed. The cookies should also be easy to lift off the tray.

You do have a bit of leeway when it comes to bake time. The longer you bake the cookies, the more crisp they will be. Have you ever had a very crunchy peanut butter cookie? It’ll be sort of like that. If you want more chewy nutella cookies, I recommend actually taking the tray out of the oven while it still looks slightly soft and underbaked. They’ll solidify more as they cool.

More Cookie Recipes

I may be the Mochi Mommy, but my cookie recipes are PRETTY dang popular. Check these out:

• 4 Ingredient Matcha Pistachio Cookies
• 3 Ingredient Black Sesame Cookies
• Matcha Crinkle Cookies
• Ube Crinkle Cookies
• Yuzu Thumbprint Cookies