Vanilla Melting Moments Cookies with Nutella-Cream Cheese Filling

Groundhog Day has passed and the groundhog has made his prediction and I do not care about the prediction because the groundhog is a rodent with no meteorological credentials and also because winter on Long Island will end when it ends, and no amount of shadow-based prognostication will change that. February is the cruelest month — not April, despite what Eliot says; Eliot never spent February on Long Island — because February is the month when winter has been going on long enough to be unbearable but not long enough to be over, and the light is thin and the cold is persistent and the kitchen is the only warm room and so I live in the kitchen, which is where I was going to live anyway.

I made hamantaschen this week — early, because Purim isn't until March, but hamantaschen are a project and the project needs time and also because I bring them to school and the school bake sale is next week and Ruth Feldman's hamantaschen are a known quantity at Oceanside High School, a currency more valuable than dollars in the faculty lounge, and I do not take this reputation lightly. The dough is Sylvia's — butter, sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla — rolled thin and cut into circles and filled with poppy seed or apricot or prune (the traditional fillings; I do not recognize chocolate or Nutella as legitimate hamantaschen fillings, and I will not debate this). The cookies are folded into triangles — Haman's hat, or Haman's ears, depending on which tradition you follow — and baked until golden and they are, like everything Sylvia taught me, perfect, because Sylvia did not teach me to make imperfect food. Imperfection was not in her vocabulary.

Marvin tasted the hamantaschen on Wednesday. He bit into a poppy seed one and closed his eyes and chewed and I watched his face and I swear — I swear — something crossed it, a recognition, a memory, the taste connecting to something stored deep in the brain, beneath the disease, in the bedrock. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. He ate the cookie. He reached for another. That was enough.

I will say this once and not again: I do not put Nutella in hamantaschen, and I never will, and Sylvia would have had something to say about it that would have ended the conversation permanently. But I have been in this kitchen for six days and the light outside is still thin and Marvin is still Marvin and I had butter and I had cream cheese and I had a jar of Nutella that my daughter left here at Hanukkah, and so I made these — a different cookie entirely, a cookie with no tradition attached to it, a cookie that answers to no one, which felt right for a February on Long Island when you need something that is just sweet and soft and your own.

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 14 min | Total Time: 1 hr (includes chilling) | Servings: 18 sandwich cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
For the filling:
4 oz full-fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup Nutella
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Make the dough. Beat the softened butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar together with a hand or stand mixer on medium speed until pale and very fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
Add the dry ingredients. Sift the flour, cornstarch, and salt directly into the butter mixture. Mix on low speed just until a soft dough comes together — do not overwork it. The dough will be very soft.
Chill. Divide the dough in half, wrap each portion in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Cold dough holds its shape and gives you that delicate, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Preheat and prepare. Heat your oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Portion the cookies. Roll the chilled dough into 1-inch balls (about 1 heaping teaspoon each) and place them 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Use a fork, the flat bottom of a glass, or your thumb to gently flatten each ball slightly.
Bake. Bake one sheet at a time for 12–14 minutes, until the cookies are set and just barely beginning to turn golden at the edges — they should look underdone. They firm up as they cool. Do not overbake.
Cool completely. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely before filling. Dust lightly with powdered sugar if desired.
Make the filling. Beat the softened cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add the Nutella, powdered sugar, and vanilla, and beat on medium until the filling is creamy, well-combined, and spreadable, about 2 minutes.
Assemble. Pair the cooled cookies by size. Spread or pipe a generous teaspoon of filling onto the flat side of one cookie, then sandwich with its pair and press gently so the filling reaches the edges. Repeat with remaining cookies.
Serve or store. Serve at room temperature. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or refrigerate for up to 5 days. Bring to room temperature before serving for the best texture.

Nutrition (per serving)

Vanilla Melting Moments Cookies with Nutella-Cream Cheese Filling — The One Time I Let Nutella Into the Kitchen