So I went to the store and ended up with a couple packages of cookie mix (sugar cookies and chocolate cookies), some Nutella, and a bag of mini Oreos. [Note: It is important to hide the Oreos if you're not making the cookies right away or someone, like, I dunno, your boyfriend, may try to eat them.]
I mixed up the sugar cookie batter, and then, putting some flour down first, I rolled the dough out flat (as you might do for cookie cutter cookies) and made it into the shape of a square. Next I spread a thin layer of Nutella over the top. Then, starting at one end of the square, I rolled the dough, ending up with a cylinder shape of cookie dough (with the Nutella forming a darker spiral in the middle - this represents the tree rings that tell you how old a tree is). Then I put it in the freezer.
Next I made the chocolate batter. Once the sugar cookie batter was solid enough, I brought it back out of the freezer and cut it like a log. I then put them on the cookie sheet. Around the outside edges of these I put little chunks of the dark batter, so that they would form an abnormal kind of edge, much like tree bark.
Once the cookies were done baking, I put a thin layer of Nutella on the edges, and then rolled them in mashed-up Oreo crumbs as a final touch to represent the bark of the tree. I think they turned out pretty alright! If I do it again I would like to experiment with getting skinnier tree rings in the middle somehow.
