German Nougatstangerl Cookies

Total Time: 40 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 36
• 225 g sweet unsalted butter
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, to taste (she said 2 dashes)
• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 40 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 125 g finely ground hazelnuts
• 2 cups nutella chocolate hazelnut spread, approximately
• 125 g bittersweet chocolate, more as needed (such as lindt brand) (optional)
• 1 teaspoon shortening (optional)

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350°f.
• 2 line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• 3 have ready a pastry bag with an small round opening tip or ziploc type baggie and some scissors to snip off the end (once filled with dough).
• 4 cream butter until smooth and creamy.
• 5 add powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, egg yolks, and cinnamon and mix until well blended.
• 6 add flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder by spoonfuls (using an ordinary large soup spoon), until just mixed inches.
• 7 stir in the ground hazelnuts.
• 8 fill pastry bag and squeeze about 1 1/2" long sticks onto the lined baking sheets (or you can squirt out round drops).
• 9 bake at 350°f for about 8-10 minutes.
• 10 let cool on wire racks.
• 11 when cool, use an icing spatula to spread some nutella on a cookie (bottoms inward), then stick another cookie to it making a sandwich.
• 12 optional decorative step:melt bittersweet chocolate& shortening together in a double boiler and dip one end of each cookie sandwich into the melted chocolate.
• 13 let cool on wax paper until chocolate is hardened.