V-day cookies

Know what I hate about baking?  Cleaning up.  I'm so bad when it comes to cleaning up after nomming down on a few fresh-baked cookies.  I take one look at the table covered with flour, saran wrap, bowls, sugar, and anything else I had to use and say, "Ugh..I'll do it in five minutes. I need to rest after spending all day making my cookies."

Even right now, I have a table full of stuff that I'm going to have to clean up before I go to bed! It's such a mess!  Right now, I have a huge tv on the floor in my kitchen because the new HD tv we got from my father is in the old tv's place.  I have nowhere to put this old thing!  I don't want to get rid of it though.  We will probably be moving in a few months and I'm hoping to have a place for it there.  If not, I'll get rid of it then.  But what about now?  Well, right now It's taking up space and making it even more difficult to clean and a whole lot easier to procrastinate. Oh well... it will get done.  I think, though, that after this project, I'm done creating for a few days... I need to focus my attention on cleaning the rest of the house too!

Soooo, what did I make?  I made my own rendition of Linzer cookies!  See, I had this idea to make them heart-shaped.  I was sure it had been done before, but what strikes me now, after doing some searching, is that my 'creative idea' had been done almost exactly like so many others!  This is the picture I took after making my cookies: 

And here's the cookies I found here:Simply Recipes

It's even on a red plate!!  Obviously they read  my future back in 2007, knew I was going to make these in 2011 and decided to beat me to the punch.  Either that or it just goes to show that my mind is in tune with other mighty chefs! Either way works for me. At least my recipe differs a slight bit. 

These cookies aren't all that easy to make, but they're worth it.  When first I took a taste of the dough, I had to go for a second helping!  But later, I found, that that dough tastes even better cooked and then refrigerated!  I made them pretty big  (I don't really have small graduated heart cutters)   so really, they're like a small meal and they're really great as a snack.  So I have them in individual baggies so that I can pull one out and chow down if I'm starving and I've got a few hours before dinner.  These things are packed with nuts and sandwich a spread of jelly soo they can't be too too bad for me?  Right?  Well, ok, they're still cookies.  Lets not forget that.  Alongside the nuts comes a healthy helping of sugar and a big-butt load of butter.

 

Here is my recipe:

What you'll need

• 1 C Hazelnuts (chopped)
• 1/4 C Almonds (chopped)  
• 3 C Flour
• 1 Tsp Baking powder
• 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp Chocolate powder 
• 1 C   Sugar
• 1/4 C Milk
• 1 1/2 C Butter (room temp)
• 2  Large Eggs
• 1/2 Tsp   Vanilla extract
• Jelly/Preserves for filling
• Confectioner's sugar for dusting

What you'll do:

First, make sure the nuts are chopped up very very fine, but not to where it's pasty.  Then, in your mixing bowl, cream together your butter and sugar. Gradually add your nuts, then eggs one at a time. Add your milk and then vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, chocolate, cinnamon, and baking powder.  Carefully add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and finish mixing.  Once completely mixed, the dough will still be hard to manage, so roll it out onto a table and form into 2 or 3 separate disks or loafs.  Wrap them in saran wrap and chill in the fridge until the disks are firm enough to roll out. 

Once they've chilled, remove from fridge and place on a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper.  Roll the loaf out until it's about a 1/4 inch thick, lightly flour the top and set aside.  Take out the next loaf and repeat.  Stack the sheets on top of each other and chill again.  By the time you are done rolling them out, they will have softened enough to be hard to handle again, so wait until the sheets have firmed up again and then set one out on your table.

Preheat your oven to 350f

Cut out your first shape, in my case, the larger heart, and place on your cookie sheet. Once you've filled your sheet, cut out the center shape of half the cookies on the baking sheet, in my case, the smaller heart.  Bake the cookies for about 11-16 minutes.

Once the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and allow to cool.  Then, spread your jelly on the bottom halves of the cookies.  Before putting the cookies together, sprinkle powdered sugar on the top halves of the cookies.  Then assemble.

I prefer to refrigerate the cookies before eating, but you can still eat them once you're done.

Enjoy!

 

By the way, I did clean my kitchen...