Heart Shaped Linzer Tarts

Posted: February 10th, 2010 | Joanna | | Tags: cut out cookies, eat your heart out, linzer cookies, valentine's day | 1 Comment »

My cousin Heather was over this past weekend while her bathroom was under renovation, so we decided to do something fun and delicious.  Since Valentines day is just around the corner it seemed like the perfect time to pull out this great Heart Cookie Cutter Set that I’d gotten from a from a friend back in college, but had only used once before now (my set was actually from Williams-Sonoma but they do not seem to sell it anymore, these look quite similar.)

As with any cut-out cookie these cookies take a lot of patience, but unlike the usual sugar cookie dough it does not require any refrigeration.  This makes it an ideal cookie recipe to work with when you have a last minute need for sugar cookies (or late night craving) because you don’t have to wait hours for the dough to chill in the refrigerator. (I did stick the second circle of dough in the fridge while working with first other one though.)

*Note about cooking times, when I made my first batch I cooked the top cut out cookies for the same amount of time as the bottoms and they burned.. So next time I adjusted the time reflected below.

You may notice I don’t use salt in any of my baking. I was raised in a home where high blood pressure ran my the family so I grew up without using salt and I have never had any complaints.. Also I made this in my new Food Processor

Recipe from Rosie’s Bakery Chocolate-Packed Jam-Filled Butter-Rich No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book

The Cookie

1 whole large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 cups sugar
2 cups coarsely ground almonds (If you cannot find these, I hear Trader Joe’s sells almond meal. I used my food processor)
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
2.5 Tbsp grated lemon zest (zesting is the best way to amp up your baking. Just grate the lemon peel)
12 Tbsp (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 10 pieces

Filling

Any jar raspberry preserves will do. I used My favorite Bonne Maman four fruit preserves (buy two jars. I needed extra)

The Coating

1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or grease lightly with oil

Beat whole egg with fork in small cup. Combine with egg yolk and vanilla, set aside.

Place the flour, sugar, ground almonds, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, cocoa powder, and lemon zest in a food processor and process to blend.

Distribute cut up butter in the food processor and then process until the mixture resembles course meal, 20-30 sec. ( I had to stop it and mix with my rubber spatula and reblend)

With the machine running add the egg mixture through the feed tube and process for 3 sec. scrape bowl and process again til combined evenly.

Remove dough from machine and shape into two discs. Place each piece of dough between two pieces of plastic wrap or wax paper, and roll out to a 1/8 inch thickness.

Remove top layer of plastic and using cookie cutter (I used a heart shaped cookie cutter, I have a set of 5 of varying sizes) cut out cookies. In half of your cut outs, use a smaller cutter to cut another heart (this will be the top of the cookie) out of the bigger one.

Bake the bottom cookies and the top cookies (cut outs) on separate trays. I found the top cookies cooked faster. Bottoms 14 min. Top cut outs 9-11 min. Remove from oven and let cool.

When the cookies are completely cool, turn the cookies with no holes upside down. Spread each one with a level 1/2 tsp of preserves ( I found my cookies were larger and needed more than this so use your judgment). Place another 1/2 tsp of the preserves in a mound in the center of each cookie. Sprinkle confectioners’ sugar over top cookies with holes, and place them on top of the cookie bottoms so that the jam forms a perfect mound in the middle heart.

Tada you are finished!

Makes 20-25 cookies depending on how big your cutters are

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