Last week, I innocently tweeted:

Dear Nutella: I really think you should start selling Nutella baking chips. Seriously. They would rock.

I don’t know what made me say that. Maybe because these Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies have been on my mind, and when I went to my cupboard to check if I had chocolate chips, I saw two jars of Nutella sitting right in front of the peanut butter. Or maybe it was simply because I happened to overhear someone else publicly declare their deep and abiding love for that irresistible hazelnut chocolate spread. (That happens a lot.)

Either way, I thought it would be really cool to bake chocolate chip cookies with Nutella baking chips. Apparently, many others thought it was a great idea as well.

 
Baking is a fairly new experience for me. I’ve always been intimidated by it. I’m more at ease with cooking, since being able to taste as I go means I can nudge and cajole and prod a dish towards the desired finished product. But baking? Even if the batter tastes good, there’s no guarantee that what comes out of the oven is what you envisioned as you carefully sifted and measured and creamed and folded. To be frank, the suspense and uncertainty scared me.