It’s getting to be Valentine’s Day and every year about this time, I go off on a little rant on how much I hate Valentine’s Day while at the same time making treat in the shapes of hearts and made with chocolate. It is also the anniversary of this here blog — Cup of Sugar :: Pinch of Salt turns 9 years old on Sunday. This is usually my excuse for making treat like these linzer cookies. This time with Passion Fruit and Red Wine Jelly filling. Different (especially the red wine) but delicious.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup each passion fruit jam and red wine jelly
Powdered sugar
You will also need: a linzer cookie cutter, or two cutters of the same size, one with a shaped hole
Directions
In mixing bowl, cream together unsalted butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Beat in flour, baking powder, orange juice and vanilla until smooth and well combined. Chill in refrigerator 2-3 hours or until firm enough to be rolled.
Preheat over to 400F. 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). Separate the eggs into a little bowl, discarding the whites or save for another purpose. Gently mix the yolks with the milk.
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 too thin, otherwise you will have hard cookies when they come out of the oven). Cut out an equal number of full cookies and cookies with holes in 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 on some and red wine jelly (not on the same cookie) to sandwich together two cookies to make a linzer cookie. Repeat until all cookies are used. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
