Strawberry Lemonade Valentine Linzer Cookies

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Place the whole almonds in a food processor and pulse until they’re reduced to very fine crumbs. Add the brown sugar and pulse again until well combined. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together flour, xanthan gum (if needed), baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add the ground nut and brown sugar mixture and stir to combine. Add the butter, egg, and extracts, beating on medium low speed to combine. The mixture should form a smooth, soft and thick dough.

Divide the dough into two pieces. Wrap half the dough in plastic wrap and set aside. Place the other half of the dough in between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll the dough out into a thin rectangle (1/8-1/4 inch thick). Place the dough on a baking sheet or other flat surface and freeze for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove the dough from the freezer and remove the paper. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough into your desired shapes. Remember, for each cookie you’ll need two large cookie cut outs. The first will be left whole, and the second will have a smaller cookie cut out of the center. You can either bake the smaller cookies as a special baker’s treat (my preferred method), or combine them into a ball, re-roll them with the rest of the dough scraps and use them to make more big cookies.

Place the cut out cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies are just barely golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool until firm enough to be transferred to a wire rack to cool completely.

Repeat the process with the remaining dough. We were able to get two trays of cookies going at once so we would roll out two rectangles from the first section of dough, then freeze, then cut out, then bake. While that batch was baking, we would roll out two more rectangles from the second section of dough and get them in the freezer for the next round.

Once the cookies are cooled place the tops (the ones with the smaller cookie cut out of the middle) on a piece of parchment paper or newspaper. Use a sifter to dust the tops with powdered sugar. Spread a semi-thick layer of raspberry jam on the bottom halves of the cookies, leaving about ½ inch around the edges. Place the powdered sugar halves on top of the jam and press gently to seal. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to a week. Cookies will soften as they set.

Note: If you’d like to do this ahead of time, you can make the dough and freeze or refrigerate until ready to use. Or, you can cut out and bake the cookies then store them for several days before filling.

Recipe adapted from Gluten Free On A Shoestring.