Baking: Linzer Tarts

Don’t those look Yummy?! Once I saw these cookies in a Christmas Cookbook I got for Christmas I knew right away I wanted to try and make them! I decided to make them for a Christmas Cookie Exchange Party that we went to, our first one ever. Everyone loved them AND they won “best all around cookie” and I received a cute Christmas cookie ornament. Last weekend we had a dinner date with friends and we were to bring dessert so of course I made these again. After posting at Christmas I had a few people ask how to make them so I took some fun pictures and posted the recipe below. I hope you all enjoy making the cookies as much as I did.

Ingredients You Need:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups of confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg
1 cups of sifted flour
1 cup of cornstarch
2 cups of finely chopped walnuts
2/3 cups of jam- I used raspberry

Directions:

In a large bowl cream the butter and 1 cup of the confectioners’ sugar until it’s light and fluffy
Add the egg and mix well
Sift the flour and cornstarch together
Add the flour and cornstarch in with the butter mixture. I added this slowly into my mixing bowl as it starts to get thick and is a little harder for my mixer to mix if not added slowly
Mix in walnuts
Gather dough into a ball and wrap into wax paper or plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 4 hours.

……………….

Preheat oven to 350
on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out 1/4″ thick
Using a 2″ round cookie cutter, cut out cookies and place on an ungreased baking sheet (I didn’t have a cookie cutter so I used the end of a glass jar)
Gather scraps, re-roll and cut more cookies
Chill the cookies for 15 min.
For half the cookies cut out a small pattern from the middle. I didn’t have a cookie cutter (again) so I just hand cut my hearts with a knife. They were….perfectly imperfect :)
Bake cookies for 13-15 min. or until they are evenly brown.
Add confectioners’ sugar to one side of the cookies
Spread jam on non sugared side
Top each cookie with jam with a cookie with the cutout center sugar side out

Side Note: I did not coat the cookies with sugar heavily as showed in the book….and I also added a little more jam to the insides of my hearts to give them more filling :)