Cute Valentine’s Day CookiesUse this recipe to make these Cute Valentine’s Day Cookies for your Valentine. These cookies are sweet and fresh so you can skip the chocolate this year and dig into these instead!

When I was in culinary school this was one of my favorite cookies that we learned how to make. Officially they are called Linzer Cookies and can really be in any shape you desire but for Valentine’s, I decided to give them this cute makeover.

PRO-TIPS:

Using a fluted cookie cutter is very helpful because if the cookie shrinks a little and the tops and bottoms don’t match perfectly the flutes will hide some of those imperfections.
It’s not required, but a mini offset spatula is super helpful when setting the tops on the bottoms. If you don’t have one use a butter knife.
When you are rolling out the dough use a good amount of flour on the counter, dough, as well as the rolling pin. This goes a long way to help avoid sticking and tearing. Also, roll from the outside edges into the middle. I know that sounds counterproductive but you will get a smoother result with less cracking.

Cute Valentine’s Day Cookies

Name: Cute Valentine’s Day Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 42 min
Ingredients: ⅔ cup Granulated Sugar; 2 sticks Salted Butter; 2 whole Egg Yolks; 2 ½ tsp Lemon Zest; 1 ½ cup Bread Flour; 1 ½ tsp Cinnamon; 2 cup Ground Hazelnuts; ½ cup Powdered Sugar; 1 jar Strawberry Jam (or whatever flavor jam you prefer)

Yield:

1 dozen

Ingredients:

⅔ cup Granulated Sugar
2 sticks Salted Butter
1 ½ cup Bread Flour (You can use All-Purpose flour if you don’t have Bread flour.)
2 whole Egg Yolks
1 ½ tsp Cinnamon
2 ½ tsp Lemon Zest
2 cup Ground Hazelnuts – Here is a link to the ground hazelnuts I used.
½ cup Powdered Sugar
1 jar Strawberry Jam (or whatever flavor jam you prefer)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375°

Cream the granulated sugar and salted butter together until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and lemon zest to the sugar and butter mixture. Whip for 1-2 mins on medium speed.

Sift the bread flour and cinnamon together then add the ground hazelnuts to the bread flour and whisk gently to incorporate.

Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and mix until incorporated.

Press the dough together in the mixing bowl then put it on the dusted countertop.

With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a ¼ inch thick. Roll from the outside edges into the middle. I know that sounds counterproductive but you will get a smoother result with less cracking.

Use the circle cookie cutter to cut out as many as the dough will allow (about: 24). Then use the heart cookie cutter to cut the centers out of half of the circles.

Here is a link to the round fluted cutter I used.

Here is a link to the heart-shaped cookie cutter I used.

Transfer the cookies with a spatula to separate parchment-lined cookie sheets. Take your time, you don’t want to distort the circle or the heart. The heart clout cookies will take less time to bake.

Bake for heart cutouts for 5 minutes. Bake the circle cookies for 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5-10 mins on the cookie sheet. After the cookies have cooled slightly, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Once the cookies are completely cool, spread a small amount of jam on the whole circles and set aside.

Dust the tops of the cutout cookies with powdered sugar. Try not to touch the sugar.

With an offset spatula or butter knife lift the dusted cutout cookie and place it on top of the cookie with jam.

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