valentine cookies

These are, hands-down, favorites in my house (and now Deb Perelman has me thinking I should try filling them with Nutella...)

 Whisk together:

3 ¼ cups all-purpose unbleached, white flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

In a separate bowl, beat together until fluffy & well blended:

20 TBLSP. (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

Add to butter and beat until well combined:

1 large egg

2 ½ tsp. vanilla

¼ tsp. finely grated lemon zest (optional)

Gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended and smooth. Divide the dough in half, place each half between 2 large sheets of wax paper and press into ½ inch thick discs.  Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough ¼ inch thick and refrigerate for at least 25 minutes.

Cut out cookies leaving half of them plain. In the other half, cut out "windows" in the centers and transfer the cut-out cookies onto prepared cookie sheets.

There are those of us who prefer sprinkles on our cookies. If this is the same at your house, you can add sprinkles, too... Then bake the cookies at 375 degrees for 9 minutes and cool on racks.

Next, gently heat, until smooth, half a jar of red current jelly (seedless raspberry jam also works well, as does lemon curd, quince jam or... Nutella.)  Spoon a scant tsp. onto the bottoms of the "plain" cookies...

And make pretty sandwiches...

RECIPE

Whisk together:

3 ¼ cups all-purpose unbleached, white flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

In a separate bowl, beat together until fluffy & well blended:

20 TBLSP. (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

Add and beat until well combined:

1 large egg

2 ½ tsp. vanilla

¼ tsp. finely grated lemon zest (optional)

Gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended and smooth. Divide dough in half. Place each half between 2 large sheets of wax paper. Press each half into ½ inch thick discs. With rolling pin, roll out dough ¼ inch thick. Refrigerate until cold and slightly firm, approx. 20-30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets or cover with parchment paper. Working with 1 portion at a time (leave the other portion in the refrigerator) peel away and replace top sheet of the wax paper (this will make it easier to lift cookies from the paper after they’ve been cut out.) Carefully flip over the rolled out dough and peel off (& discard) the second sheet of wax paper. Cut out cookies with 2-or 3-inch cutters. For jam sandwich cookies, leave half your cookies plain and, in half of them, cut out "windows" in the centers. Transfer cut-out cookies onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Roll dough scraps, refrigerate and continue cutting out cookies until all dough is used.

Bake approx. 9 minutes, one pan at a time, until edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool completely on racks.

In a double boiler, gently heat until all lumps are dissolved, half a jar of seedless raspberry or red current jelly, lemon curd, quince jam or Nutella. Spoon a scant tsp. onto the underside of a "plain" cookie and then place a cookie with a "window" on top of the jam.