Raspberry Lemon Linzer Cookies

Lemon and raspberry cookies cut in heart shapes, perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day is now less then a week away! Have you bought your sweetie a gift? If you haven’t check out my Valentine’s Day gift guides. Have you made your reservations? Planned a special date? Or are you a last minute planner? We booked our dinner reservation and I got my husband a gift a few weeks ago. This year we are going to our favourite restaurant. It’s walking distance from our house so we can enjoy a long dinner, share a few too many drinks before safely walking home.

For our first Valentine’s Day we dressed up and went out to a fine dining restaurant, ate a very expensive preset menu and ordered oysters. We thought it would be the perfect dinner. But of course Calvin hated his duck and we discovered that neither of us like oysters. The dinner was so expensive my husband still won’t tell me how much the dinner costs. We were collage kids with no money so this dinner was a really big deal. Although it wasn’t perfect we still look back at it as a great memory of our early days.

The year after that we got teen burgers from A&W, I made some treats and we had a picnic in the living room. Over the last six years we’ve done everything from fancy dinners to fast food. Last year we made homemade heart shaped pizza (my pizza dough recipe) and chocolate lava cakes (YUM!). Regardless of how we’ve celebrated we’ve spent quality time together showing our love for the other and reminding ourselves how important our relationship is.

I love to celebrate everything, big and small. I like to show people that I care about them. I love to give gifts, but giving people something you made is so special. These cookies are perfect to give to family and friends or serve to your sweetheart. They are also just really cute and festive!

Linzer cookies are super simple to make kind of like a sugar cookie but way better! But they have almond flour and are made without leavener. They are delicate, flavourful and rich. The addition on lemon zest adds a fresh light citrus flavour to the cookie. Raspberry jam is sandwiched between two cookies to add a delicious berry flavour.

These cookies are so so so good. They are also really fun to make. They look really impressive too so they are perfect to giveaway. I love when a simple baked good makes someones day! These are totally worth it!

Lemon Raspberry Linzer Cookies

Yields: 12 cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 cup White Sugar
• Zest of One Lemon
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 cup Almond Flour
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt
• Seedless Raspberry Jam
• Confectioner’s Sugar

Directions:

In a medium bowl whisk together all purpose flour, almond flour and salt together. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer beat butter, sugar until pale until fluffy. About 2 minutes. Add lemon zest, egg yolk and vanilla extract, beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients to the bowl and mix on low until just combined. Divide dough into two disks, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Roll dough a quarter inch thick. Using a medium sized heart shaped cookie cutter cut out 24 hearts. Using a smaller heart shaped cookie cutter cut the centre out of 12 of the cookies. Place the cookies on the baking sheets. Place the cookie sheets in the fridge for an hour to chill.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes until the edges are just beginning to turn brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Once completely cool dust cookie tops with confectioner sugar. Spread 1/2 teaspoon of jam on each of the cookie bottoms. Leave a boarder around the jam to ensure the jam doesn’t spill out the sides of the cookies. Place the tops pf the cookies on the bottom.

Chill the cookies in the fridge or 30 minutes before serving to set the jam. Store in the fridge for up to one week.

Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour.