And now for something completely different in the cookie department … a complete departure from my usual chocolate or caramel or what-have-you (but not a departure from Linzer Cookie style cookies, which I seem to make fairly often), this week we something involving saffron and passion fruit, which go together quite nicely, I found out. Also, the smell of saffron when baking, because it is intensified, is just lovely.
And now, these aren’t Christmas Cookies … the cut out parts are meant to be flowers, even though they turned out more like stars. Although, I would make Christmas Cookies in May.
Ingredients
a large (very large, if possible) pinch of saffron threads
1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup hazelnut meal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon hazelnut extract (substitute vanilla extract)
Passion fruit jam or curd
1/4 cup powdered sugar, for dusting
Directions
In a tiny bowl, pour 2 tablespoons of boiling water over the saffron and let steep for 5-10 minutes.
In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Add in hazelnut extract and saffron (along with the steeping water). Finally, mix in the flour, hazelnut meal, baking powder and salt until smooth and well combined. Chill in refrigerator 2-3 hours or until firm enough to be rolled.
Preheat over to 400F. Prepare cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
Roll out half of the dough on a well floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness (be careful to get the surface even, otherwise you will have oddly-browned cookies. Also, do not roll the dough to thin, otherwise you will have hard cookies when they come out of the oven). Cut out an equal number of circle cookies and circle cookies with a flower cut out of the middle. Repeat this with other half of the dough.
Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown at the edges. Cool on wire rack. Once completely cooled, use the passion fruit jam to sandwich together two cookies to make linzer cookie. Repeat until all cookies are used. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
