Cookies with a glass of milk, cookies with a cup of tea or coffee, cookies for dessert. These sweet babies go well with about anything and can be enjoyed anytime of the day. Who doesn't love a cookie btw? The variety of flavors that can be imbibed in a cookie is endless and besides the flavors, we bakers are spoilt for choice by the different types of cookies that can be baked.
If you want to get your family involved in the kitchen (besides the eating part I mean), making cookies is one of the best options to do so. They are simple, easy and most importantly, super duper fun to make, especially for children.
Just the sight of these jewel like shining and vibrant colored jam centered cookies makes me happy. It would make anybody happy. They look so pretty! Linzer cookies have been lingering on my To Bake list for a long time now. I don't know why but I was adamant about using a heart shape cutter for the inner shape; and I was just not getting the right size one. So finally when I could lay my hands on a small heart cutter, Linzer cookies jumped to the top of my list.
If you've noticed, some of the cookies underneath haven't browned, and that's because as soon I placed the last batch of my cookies in the oven, the power went off. The residual heat cooked the cookies but wasn't enough to brown them up :(
The dough for these cookies includes ground almonds and the ones that I've used are not blanched. I prefer to use unblanched almonds for my baking, just an extra dose of Vitamin E and anyway, the skin of the almonds hardly ever make a difference to the taste and texture. Though I've used home made Strawberry Jam to fill the centers, you can use any flavor like apricot, raspberry or even blueberry and blackberry, whatever you or your children wanna have.
A small amount of ground cinnamon has been used to flavor the dough and it is this cinnamon that will fill your kitchen with a wonderful and warm aroma when you bake these cookies. So inviting!
Makes about 20 - 25 cookies
Recipe Source: The Hummingbird Bakery Home Sweet Home
PS: For my Indian readers: if you're planning to use Indian brand butter, pls use 240 grams instead of 280 since the water content in Indian butter brands is more than international ones, making the dough difficult to handle.
Ingredients
380 grams / 13 ounces plain or all purpose flour plus extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
60 grams / 2 ounces ground almonds
280 grams / 10 ounces unsalted butter at room temperature
150 grams / 5.5 ounces caster or superfine sugar
6 to 7 tablespoons jam of your choice
Note: The heart shape cutters that I've used for these cookies are 3 inches and 1.5 inches. Depending on the size and shape of the cutters that you use, you will make more or lesser cookies.
Method
Sift the flour and cinnamon together in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with a hand held whisk to distribute the ingredients. Add the ground almonds and mix.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and on medium-high speed, or using an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light, pale and fluffy.
Add the flour mixture to the butter sugar mixture and mix on medium speed until a dough forms. Divide the dough into two balls and wrap each ball in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Line two to three baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll each part of dough between two parchment sheets that have been lightly dusted with flour. The thickness of the rolled dough should be about 4mm (1/8 inch). Keep this dough still between the two baking parchment in the fridge for about 15 to 20 mins.
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C / 325 degrees F. Remove top parchment sheet from the rolled dough, dip the cookie cutters in flour, shaking off the excess and cut out the cookies. Place the cut out cookies on the lined baking sheet (if the weather is warm and you're having difficulty in handling the shaped cookies, place them still on the baking tray in the fridge for about 10 mins).
Use the smaller cookie cutter to cut out shapes from half of the cookies. You can use the left over dough to make more cookies.
Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until they are a light golden color. Keep the baking sheet on a wire rack for 10 mins. Remove the cookies from the sheet and place on the cooling rack to cool completely.
In a small saucepan, stirring constantly, heat up the jam until it starts simmering. Let cool slightly. Spoon about a teaspoon of jam onto each cookie bottom and then place a cookie top on it, pressing lightly.
Enjoy your home made fresh cookies.
Storage Suggestions: Cookies can be stored at room temperature for about 2 days in an air tight container.
Happy Baking!!!
No comments