Shortbead and Raspberry Linzer Cookies [Valentine's Day 2014]

Nothing says Valentine's Day like sweet treats. Cookies, chocolate, cakes whatever. I decided to go with fairly light tasting cookies because let's be serious, chocolate cake stuck in your teeth is not sexy. But you know what is? Ina Garten. Well, Ina's shortbread cookie recipe, with that much butter 'How bad can that be?' hahaha I'm a loser, but these cookies are not!


Shortbread Linzer Cookies with Raspberry Jam
Makes 20 (at least!)

Ingredients

For shortbread
3/4 lb unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For jam
2 cups fresh raspberries
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

1. Puree raspberries in a blender for about 5 minutes. This will release the natural pectin in the fruit.

2. Transfer the puree to a saucepan, add the sugar and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, and add the lemon juice. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Refrigerate until the jam cools and sets, about 4 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 350° F.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the butter and 1 cup of sugar, vanilla, flour and salt until the dough comes together. Dump onto a floured board, form into a disk and chill for 30 minutes. (Don't chill for too long, you don't want the dough to get too hard.)

5. Roll the dough about 1/4 inch thick and cut out circles using a biscuit cutter or other circle cookie cutter. I used the second largest cutter from this set. After cutting as many circles as I could, I gathered the leftover dough, reformed it into a disk and refrigerated for about 10-15 minutes. You can do this until the end of your days... I did it until I had 40 circles, enough for 20 cookies.

6. Place cookies on a parchment lined ungreased baking sheet. Using a heart cookie cutter, cut out the center of every other cookie. You can trash the left over hearts or you can do what I did and bake them in the little open spaces in between the circle cookies and serve to your little ones! Sprinkles cookies with sugar.

7. Bake cookies 10-12 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Allow the cookies to cool.

8. Once the cookies have cooled, and your jam has been in the refrigerator for 4 hours, carefully spread some of the jam onto the bottoms (no heart cut outs) of what will be each cookie. Place each top (with the heart cut out) carefully on top. enjoy! Refrigerate any leftover cookies in a sealed container! And spread the rest of the jam on a well buttered piece of toast for the next few days! You're welcome.

Photo by me