Sweet Things
The world could use a little bit of cookie love right about now. Just in time for Valentine's Day, these butter rich, honey sweetened, raspberry jam linzer sandwich cookies cut into X's and O's and hearts will most definitely bring a bit of nostalgic sentimentality and perhaps even spark some romance this freezing cold Sunday. These cookies are most definitely about the butter and jam! Kerrygold Irish butter and a high quality small batch jam with a bit of honey added to it are the secret weapon in these melt-in-your-mouth cookies (and the batter is delicious too!).
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound Kerrygold Irish Butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup raspberry jam
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until just combined.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and add these dry ingredients to the butter-and-sugar mixture and mix
- Dust a cutting board with flour and turn the mixture onto it and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least an hour and up to a day.
- Dust the countertop with flour and roll the dough ¼-inch thick.
- Use cookie cutters or free form cut with a paring knife, make hearts and squares, and X's and O's with the dough (the ones you will be making sandwiches from should be in pairs of the same size with a "window" for the jam cut out of one side only).
- Place the cookies on baking trys lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes.
- Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges just barely hint at changing color.
- Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature.
- Add the honey to the jam and microwave for 20 seconds.
- Spread the honey raspberry jam on the top of each solid cookie.
- Press the bottom of the cut-out cookies onto their matching bottoms, pressing the two cookies together to make a sandwich.
- Dust some of the cookies with confectioners sugar.
Kitchen Notes
Kerrygold butter is made from grass fed cows and is a lemony color that adds to the overall golden look of these shortbread cookies. Other butters will work but the higher fat content of European butter also adds to the extra melt on your tongue texture of these cookies. Do not substitute table salt (in fact, throw away the table salt and invest in a box of kosher salt--the single best trick to elevate ALL of your cooking) as you risk a metallic taste in the cookies.