The new Nutella cookbook coming out next month from the Ferrero company is, well, not a pastry book you'd confuse with something from Jacques Torres or Pierre Hermé. It looks more like one of those puffy books your kids used to read in the bathtub. Of course, this is not a bad thing. Some of us still read books in the bathtub. Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes by Jacquie Small is shaped exactly like a jar of Nutella, and is only slightly larger than the giant jar in my cabinet.

Nutella, the highly addictive chocolate-hazelnut spread created in Italy by the Ferrero company, apparently translates very well into recipes. The thirty of them in this cookbook include a recipe for Whoopie pies (turn the page for that one), as well as those for Nutella mousse, Nutella milkshakes, Nutella truffles, Nutella rice pudding and Nutella crème brûlée. The recipes are easy to follow, with ingredients in both grams and ounces, and include very pretty photographs of each dish.

Nutella Whoopie pies; Credit: © Larousse

Nutella Whoopie pies; Credit: © Larousse

NUTELLA® and orange whoopie pies

Makes 15 Whoopie pies

For the cream filling:

1 orange

75 g (5 tbsp) unsalted butter

50 g (¼ cup) caster/ superfine sugar

1 egg

75 g (1/3 cup) Philadelphia-style cheese

For the whoopie pies:

125 g (1¼ cups) plain/all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

40 g (3 tbsp.) unsalted butter

40 g (scant ¼ cup) caster/superfine sugar

1 egg

100 g (scant ½ cup) NUTELLA®

20 g (2 tbsp.) cocoa powder

100 ml (scant ½ cup) semi-skimmed milk

a pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).

2. Make the cream filling. Finely grate the orange zest and squeeze the juice.

Melt the butter in a bain-marie or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Add

the sugar, egg and the juice and zest of the orange. Beat continuously until the

mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Beat in the cheese

then chill for 1 hour.

3. Make the whoopie pies. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. In

a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add the egg, NUTELLA®,

cocoa powder and milk. Mix well then add the flour and baking powder mixture.

4. Place 30 small spoonfuls of the mixture on a baking sheet covered with baking

parchment. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven, leave to cool on a

cooling rack, then sandwich together with the cream filling.

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