German Nougatstangerl Cookies

• 225 g sweet unsalted butter
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 14 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)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
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 350F 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.

sweet unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, egg yolks, ground cinnamon, flour, cocoa, baking powder, ground hazelnuts, nutella chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, shortening

Taken from www.food.com/recipe/german-nougatstangerl-cookies-81535 (may not work)