Raspberry-Lemon Linzer Tarts

Linzer tarts are as versatile as your imagination– and an assortment of cookie cutters– will allow. I have made them for Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July and Christmas and simply changed the way I presented the design to fit the occasion. (See all the photos examples below.) This recipe comes from the cookbook Alice’s Tea Cup, a tea house located on the Upper West Side in New York. I have yet to visit the location, however, I have revisited the cookbook by the same name many times over! This is one of my favorite cookie recipes from the book.

Ingredients:-

2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs-1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup strawberry jam
Confectioners sugar for sprinkling-(2 teaspoons zest–orange or lemon **optional)

Directions:

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.
Add the eggs, mixing them in one at a time, and then the vanilla, and mix until well incorporated.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. With the mixture on its lowest speed, slowly add the dry mixture. Mix until you have a workable dough.
Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least one hour, until firm.
When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. With your cookie cutter, cut the cookies out and place them 1 inch apart on a non-stick baking sheet.
Gather the remaining dough, roll it out, and cut more cookies using a small heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out the centers of half the cookies.
Bake the cookies for 6-8 minutes or until ever so slightly browned.
Set aside to cool completely on the baking sheets.
Take one of the plain (non-heart-cut) cookies and using a small spoon/spatula spread a 1/8 inch layer of jam neatly and evenly over it covering the top of the cookies.
I left a little edge on my cookies and didn’t spread it all the way to the ends so that when I place the other cookie on top I wouldn’t have extra jam spilling out over the edges.
Lay the heart cut cookies on a clean surface and sprinkle them with confectioner’s sugar.
Holding the sides of the heart-cut cookies, carefully place one on top of each jam-covered cookie, lining them up perfectly.