Valentine Treats

I Love Valentine's Day.. Red Pink and White go so well together! And the shape of a heart is lovely too.
One of my favorite valentine treats are heart shaped linzer cookies.. I adore linzer cookies.. my favorite.. so turn them into a heart and that makes it all the better.

Here's my favorite recipe for
Linzer Cookies
110 grams hazelnuts
260 grams all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

227 grams  butter, room temperature

135 grams granulated white sugar, divided

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large  eggs

Confectioners' (Icing or Powdered) Sugar for dusting

Strawberry Jam, as needed

1. Place hazelnuts, flour, cinnamon, salt and a TBSP of the sugar in a food processor and grind till fine.

2. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy and creamy.

3. Add vanilla and eggs to the sugar-butter mixture.

4. Add the dry ingredients and mix till combined (don't overwork the dough, you want it crumbly)

5. Wrap up the dough in plastic wrap and press it together, shape into a flat rectangle.

6. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350F

7. Roll out dough onto lightly floured surface. Roll till about 1/4 inch thick and use cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes, using a smaller cookie cutter to cut an opening in the centre of the cookies for your 'red window'.

8. Refrigerate cut out dough on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes.

9. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden in color. (Don't over bake, remember cookies harden as the cool so they should come out of the oven soft.)

10. When the cookies have cooled, top one non-centre-cut cookie with jam and press a cut-centre cookie over it.

11. Sprinkle with powdered sugar (don't worry about the sugar on the jammy window, it will be absorbed by the jam within 5 minutes and you'll have a perfect red window)

12. Give to your valentine and wait for the hugs and kisses to come!!

Happy Valentine's Weekend!