Raspberry-Lemon Linzer Cookies, Vegan

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream together butter and Tofutti until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add sugar, vanilla and lemon zest and blend until combined. Sift in flour and salt and blend everything together. Be careful not to over mix.

Transfer dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and form into disc. Wrap it with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Remove dough from the fridge, unwrap it and cut dough in half. Place half of it on a lightly floured surface. Wrap the other half and place it back in the fridge. Roll out the dough until it’s about ¼ inch thick. Cut out circles with a 2.5 or 3 inch cookie or biscuit cutter. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing them about an inch apart. Continue with other half of dough.

With a decorative 1 inch cookie cutter cut out centers of half of the cookies. Place centers on prepared cookie sheet for bite size cookies. Combine all of the dough scraps and chill before rolling out again.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cooked through and golden. Remove pan from oven. Carefully transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before filling with jam mixture.

To make the filling:
In a medium bowl stir together the raspberry jam, lemon zest and lemon juice; set aside.

To assemble the cookies:
Spread filling on one side of all of the solid cookie rounds. Top with cut out cookie rounds. Dust with powdered sugar. Store in airtight container.

Makes sixteen 3-inch sandwich cookies.