Today's installment of the 12 Days of Cookies look impressive (how did you get that chocolate layer in the middle?!), but are quite easy to make... and pretty hard to mess up even though I tried my hardest.  :)


Nutella Sugar Cookie Bars

• 3/4 cup salted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Heaping 1 tsp Kosher salt

• 3/4 - 1 cup Nutella
• Coarse white decorating sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

While the butter and sugars are mixing, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a separate mixing bowl.  Set aside.

Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture.  Mix until completely combined.  Slowly mix in the flour mixture.

Divide dough in half and wrap tightly with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until dough is firm enough to handle.  (I actually ended up putting mine in the freezer for about 20 minutes and that worked perfectly.)  

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish. (You could also line it with parchment paper, for super easy removal, but I was too lazy in a hurry and didn't.)  Gently press half of the cookie dough onto the bottom of the baking dish, spreading it into all the corners.  Bake for 8 minutes.

Measure the Nutella into a microwave safe bowl, and heat for just a few seconds at a time, until nice and runny.  (Trust me - you want this to pour easily!)  Pour the Nutella evenly over the bottom crust.  Spread it out carefully so you don't tear up the bottom layer of par-baked dough.

Use your fingers to flatten out small pieces of dough at a time and lay them over the Nutella.  It will be a bit lumpy, but should mostly cover everything.  Sprinkle the top of the dough with the decorating sugar.  (Ok, I'll admit, I completely forgot to add the sugar when I made this for pictures, and of course, it turned out just fine.  However, the sugar makes it pretty, and adds a nice little crunch, so I would definitely recommend it. I won't be skipping out next time!)  

Bake an additional 20 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown.  Cool completely before slicing.  Seriously!  Let it cool.  Just walk away and pretend to think about something else.