Linzer Cookies from Sarah Mitchell

Linzer Cookies Adapted from Alison Roman’s recipe in the New York Times Yield: about 40 cookies. Time: about three and a half hours, including chilling Ingredients: 3 and a quarter cups all-purpose flour 1 cup raw, skin-on almonds 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp kosher salt 3 sticks unsalted room temperature butter (3 sticks) or 2 of butter and 1 stick of margarine 1 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract Raspberry jam or another flavor of choice (not too runny) Powdered sugar for dusting Two or three cookie sheets and parchment paper Step 1: Grind/pulverize almonds until very finely ground. In a large bowl, combine almonds with flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Step 2: In an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until mixture is light, fluffy and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until everything is well combined. Step 3: Add above mixture to dry ingredients and fold together until combined. If mixture is too sticky at to handle at this stage, add more flour. Step 4: Divide dough into 2 equal pieces and pat into a 1” thick disk. Then place each in a plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to five days ahead. Step 5: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Take one disk out of fridge, and roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper or onto a well-floured surface until it’s about one eighth of an inch thick. Step 6: Using a cookie cutter about 2.5” in diameter, cut out as many pieces as possible. Then cut out a 1” hole (any shape!) from the center of half of them. If the dough becomes too sticky to handle, put it on a cookie sheet and freeze or refrigerate for a few minutes. Repeat with the other disk once all the dough from the first bag has been used up. Transfer all cookies onto parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them about 1” apart and bake until edges become golden brown, about 15 minutes. Step 7: To assemble: As these cookies won’t all be the same size, it’s a good idea to pair them up before sticking them together. Once they are cool, spread about a teaspoon of jam onto the cookies that don’t have holes in the middle. Dust powdered sugar onto the ones with holes using a fine sieve, and lower gently onto the jam, making a sandwich. To make these cookies ahead of time, they can be baked two days ahead, unfilled, wrapped tightly and stored at room temperature. Assemble the day of serving.