Chocolate Nutella Cookie Sandwiches for World Nutella Day

Makes 20 sandwich cookies

4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup ground almonds

7 tablespoons cake flour

5 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/3 cup Nutella, for filling

1. Beat the butter in a bowl until creamy and fluffy.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the ground almonds, cake flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder.  Now add this mixture to the butter and use a spatula to combine the ingredients into a thick stiff dough.

2. Turn the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap.  Shape the dough into a rectangle or square about 1/2-inch thick, then wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 320 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator.  Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 40 pieces.  Using your hands, carefully roll each piece of dough into a ball.  The dough may crumble a bit, but just push the cracks and pieces back together until the dough becomes more cohesive and shapes into a ball.  Place the shaped dough on the baking sheets, leaving at least 1/2-inch of space between each cookie.

5. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and transfer the baking sheets to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they reach room temperature.

6. When the cookies have reached room temperature, spread a spoonful of Nutella on the bottom side of a cookie. Place another cookie, bottom side down, on top of the filling.  Repeat with the remaining cookies.