T RECIPES
With Valentine’s Day Cookies
BY MICHAEL VYSKOCIL
here’s a certain amount of sweetness
that comes during February. Cookies,
it seems, are a way to reach anyone’s
heart—a task easily achieved with Valentine
Heart Sandwich Cookies. These cookies are
inspired by the famous Linzer torte named
after the Austrian town of Linz where the
torte originated. Sandwiched together by
flavorful jams and dusted with a sprinkling
of confectioners’ sugar, these cookies
contain a special ingredient found only in
the heart—love.

2 In the bowl of an electric mixer
fitted with the paddle attachment,
beat butter and sugar on medium-high
speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 4
minutes. Add egg, vanilla and lemon zest;
beat to combine, scraping down sides of
bowl. With mixer on low, add almond-
flour mixture; beat just until flour has
been incorporated.

3 Turn out dough onto a work surface;
divide dough in half and shape each
half into flat rounds. Wrap each round in
plastic wrap; chill in refrigerator for at
least 1 hour.

Valentine Heart
4 Sandwich
Cookies Ingredients
1 3 / 4 cups all-purpose flour,
plus more for rolling out dough
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 / 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 / 2 cup blanched almonds
1 / 2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter,
room temperature
1 / 2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 / 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 / 2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons seedless black
raspberry jam
3 tablespoons seedless strawberry jam
3 tablespoons apricot jam
1 / 4 cup confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Directions 1
In a large mixing bowl, sift together
flour, cornstarch and cinnamon.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse
almonds until finely ground. Whisk
almonds into flour mixture; set aside.

5 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line
two baking sheets with parchment
paper. Remove one sheet of dough and
parchment from refrigerator; working
quickly, cut into heart shapes with a
3-inch heart cookie cutter. Cut out center
from half the shapes with a 2-inch heart
cookie cutter. Transfer hearts to prepared
baking sheets spacing them about 1 inch
apart; refrigerate until firm, about 15
minutes. (Either bake the cutout centers
of the hearts or reroll them to make the
larger hearts.)
EVGENIIA KHMELNITSKAIA / ISTOCK / GETTYIMAGES; MICHAEL VYSKOCIL
Makes approximately 12 filled
sandwich cookies
Remove one round of dough
from refrigerator and let stand
until slightly soft. On a large piece of
parchment paper dusted with flour, roll
dough out to 1/8- inch thickness. Transfer
parchment paper and dough to a baking
sheet; refrigerate until firm, about 20
minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.

6 Bake, rotating pans halfway through,
until cookies are crisp and lightly
golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies
to a wire rack to cool completely. Spread a
third of the uncut cookies with one flavor
of each of the jams. Sift confectioners’
sugar over cutout hearts. Just before
serving, place cookies with cutout middles
on top of uncut cookies, so that jam shows
through the cutout. T
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