Yummy Valentine's Hearts

This is a 'reshaped' and simple version of popular Linzer cookies. Almond enriched dough, good quality strawberry jam (because of the colour) and icing sugar make a perfect combination for a nice Valentine's day treat. But you are going to need special cutters, if you want to go big. With this de Buyer heart shaped cutters you can make really big hearts. Almost as big as the heart of your Valentine. :)

Ingredients:

150 g all-purpose flour
100 g butter, room temperature
vanilla pod
zest of one small lemon
pinch of salt
50 g ground almonds
50 g icing sugar and some more for dusting
1 egg yolk
strawberry jam

Instructions:

1. In a bowl or on your work surface roughly mix together flour and butter.
2. Add all the other ingredients except the jam and work the dough until incorporated.
3. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 200 C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Flour yor work surface and roll the dough 1/2 cm thick. Cut out cookies with a selected heart shaped cutter and transfer to baking sheets.
6. Cut out smaller heart shaped hole in the center of half of those cookies. Repeat with the dough scraps.
7. Bake whole and cut out cookies separate for 8 to 9 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
8. When cookies are cooled spread a thin layer of jam on whole cookies, gently top with cutout cookies, fill the holes with some more jam and dust with icing sugar.

NOTE: I used cake spatula so I could carefully transfer cookies to baking sheets. You can simply roll the dough on a baking paper and transfer to a baking sheet all together.