Tyrolian cookies with jam

This was Hania's idea. She wanted cookies with little heart shaped windows. We bought special cookie cutters on Friday and made the little goodies Sunday evening. We also decorated the tree and played Christmas music.

There is something sweet about making cookies in the evening, especially in the winter when the evening starts at 4 pm. You make the dough, you roll the dough, you cut the cookies, you bake them, decorate them. And then you watch a movie and eat them up. All good vibrations. And if your cookies are heart-shaped...it's too sweet.

The recipe is basic. You need room temperature butter. Italians cut the butter up and leave it in a bowl to soften up more quickly. All the ingredients go to the mixing bowl all together at once. Then the dough rests in the fridge for 30 minutes. It's easy to roll it, just don't allow it to stick to the board. If you do, the cookies will be out of shape.

If you happen to have the special cookie cutter, OK. If not, it's the easiest to make round cookies by using different diameters. There is plenty of different round shapes around the house.

You apply the jam after the cookies are baked. I can't put them in the cookie jar because they will get messy. I should have made the cookies thicker, about 5 mm (.2 inch). They would have hold the jam better.

The cookies are fine. There is not much sugar, but they are sweetened by the jam. They are also moist from the jam especially the day after. That was one of the concerns in the reviews but the cookies stay good, less crunchy, more moist but still a pleasure.

Hania enjoyed making and eating and said I can put it on the kid's favorite list.

Recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano

ingredients
125 g (1/2 cup) butter
250 g (1 2/3 cups) flour
1 teaspoon (4 g) baking powder
100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
jam, for the filling

directions

Take the butter out of the fridge, cut it in small pieces and let it warm up to the room temperature, about 1/2 hour.

In a mixing bowl, sift flour with baking powder together. Add butter, egg, vanilla extract, sugar, salt.

Mix it all till a solid mass of dough forms, about 3 minutes. Form a disc, wrap in a plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 C/355 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll the dough about 5 mm/.2 inch thick. Cut out the shapes. Transfer the shape onto the baking sheets. I had 24 cookies on each sheet, all together about a 100. 50, after I made sandwiches. 

Place one baking sheet in the top third, the other the bottom third of the oven. Bake for about 16 minutes. Watch the oven, mine were too thin, so they baked fast. The recipe said 20 minutes. Rotate and switch baking sheets half way through baking. The cookies should be only lightly brown when ready.

Let the cookies cool on a cooling rack. Spread the jam on the solid cookie, place the cookie with the window on top.