Here’s something to cheer up a Monday afternoon, first Monday of Spring (one where Boston saw “a plowable snow event”, as they so eloquently say these days). Millefleur of Blueberry Almond Linzer Cookies. OK, I didn’t actually make a thousand of them, but they are cute and small and a batch of cookie dough did make a whole bunch. Similar to may of the linzer cookies I make, these have a double dose of almond (almond extract and almond meal) as well as double blueberry (blueberry sugar and blueberry jam).
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup honey
blueberry sugar*, colored sugars or small sprinkles
1/2 cup blueberry jam
You will need a mini-flower shaped cookie cutter and a mini-circular cookie cutter to cut out the centers.
Directions
In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and almond extract. Add in the flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt, and mix until combined. Roll into a ball, flatten to a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill dough for at least one hour (up to overnight).
Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
Roll dough to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a mini flower shaped cutter (mine is about 1 1/2 inches). Cut centers out of half of cookies with a round cutter (mine is about 1/2 inch). Make sure that you have an even number of solid and cut out cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes; cool completely on wire racks.
Using a food-safe paint brush, brush the cookies with the hole in the middle with a tiny bit of honey and then sprinkle with the colored sugars. Let set for a little while. Spread solid cookies with jam and then sandwich with the ones with the hole and colored sugar cookie.
*blueberry sugar is pretty hard to find. There are a couple of places online that you can find it (like here: http://www.flavorstorm.com/bulk-wild-blueberry-sugar/) or specialty stores (like on the Maine Coast!). I was lucky enough to be given some as a Christmas present. If you can’t find blueberry sugar, use coarse sugar like raw sugar, or colored sprinkles or sugar that can be found with other baking supplies.
