Love in a Biscuit

Strictly speaking these are supposed to be made with a round cookie cutter but as it's nearly Valentine's Day (and I don't have a small round cutter to cut the middle circles out) I went with heart shapes. These are yummy but a bit fiddly because of all the butter in the cookie dough. The voice of experience says, "don't try this when you have kids who want to help and a 17month old who has just worked out how to stand on a little chair so she can not only see what is happening on the bench but can grab everything too!" That said, Offspring #1 and a friend had a fabulous time painting the jam filling on with pastry brushes, so they can still be invovled.

Linzer Biscuits
The Margaret Fulton Cookbook (2006)




200g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
½ cup caster sugar
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ cup raspberry jam
½ cup apricot jam (I just used raspberry)
½ icing sugar (optional)

Beat the butter and vanilla until creamy. Add sugar and beat well. Fold in the flour, sifted with the baking powder and spices. Add the beaten egg and mix to combine, Form the dough into a ball, flatten into a disk and chill, wrapped in cling wrap for about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Halve the dough and, one at a time, roll out on a floured board and cut into 4-5cm rounds (I used a heart shape cutter). Re-roll the scraps once. Place on ungreased baking trays, allowing a little room for spreading. Using a small cloverleaf or round shape cutter (I used a small heart shape cutter), cut out a 15mm circle frm the centres of half the rounds.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. Just before serving, spread with slightly warmed jam on the plain rounds and top each with a ring. Sprinkle, if liked, with icing sugar.