With a hand-held mixer or in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix room temperature butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. About 2 minutes on medium. Then add sifted confectioners’ sugar and mix until incorporated.

Next, sift in flour, almond flour, cocoa powder and salt. On the lowest setting, mix until just combined.

Divide the dough into 2 and transfer to cling wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. I like to shape the dough into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch (1.27 cm) thickness to make it easier to roll out later.

Sprinkle cocoa powder onto your work surface and roll your dough out to about a little over 1/8 inch (3.1 mm) thickness. Lightly dip your cookie cutter into cocoa powder and cut out your cookies. With a metal spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to a parchment lined baking tray, placing them 1 inch apart. Gather the scraps, reroll and cut out more cookies. I used a 2.5 inch (6.3 cm) cookie cutter and got 40 cookies. It may vary for you depending on how thick or thin you roll out your dough and the size of your cutter. If at any point the dough gets too warm from handling, don’t fret, pop it back in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to firm up!

With a 1-inch (2.5 cm) heart cutter, punch a hole in the center of 20 cookies, while leaving the other 20 whole. Place the trays of cookies in the freezer for 20 minutes before baking. This is a very important step and cannot be skipped.

Bake at 350ºF (176ºC) for 10 to 14 minutes (depending on thickness). Allow to sit on the tray for several minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

This next step is optional. Make your royal icing by whisking together, sifted confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and warm water. If the icing that drips off your whisk disappears into the bowl of icing within 5-10 seconds, then it's the right consistency. If it’s too thick, whisk in more water 1 tablespoon at a time. Add your food coloring of your choice and whisk until combined. For gel food coloring, you don't need much. Alternatively, you can leave them plain, dip in chocolate glaze or dust with powdered sugar.

Dip your top cookies (with the heart cutout) into the glaze and set on a rack to completely dry. About 1 hour.

Flip the bottom cookies over and spread about 1 1/2 teaspoons of the Nutella, stopping 1/8 inch from the edge. Place the cookie (with the heart cutout) on top of the Nutella and press down lightly. Serve and Enjoy!!