Linzer Cookies

Steps

1. Whisk the flour, almond flour, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla.
3. On low speed, add the flour mixture and mix just until a soft dough forms.
4. Divide the dough in half. Roll each half between two sheets of parchment paper to about 1/8 inch thick, stack the slabs on a baking sheet, and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.
5. Heat the oven to 350°F and line large baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Take one chilled slab, peel off the top paper, and cut out 2 1/2-inch rounds or fluted shapes. Set them 1 inch apart on the lined pans. With a 1-inch cutter, cut a small window from the center of half of them.
7. Press the scraps together, reroll them between parchment, and chill for 15 minutes before cutting more. If cut cookies turn soft, chill them on the pan for 10 minutes before baking.
8. Bake one pan at a time for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges are just turning golden.
9. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then finish cooling them on a wire rack.
10. Dust the window cookies with powdered sugar through a small sieve. Spread about 1 teaspoon of jam on the flat side of each solid cookie, then set a window cookie on top, sugar side up.

Good to know

• Make ahead: the rolled slabs of dough keep, well wrapped, in the fridge for up to 3 days or the freezer for up to 2 months.
• Unfilled cookies keep in an airtight tin for up to 1 week. Fill them on the day you serve them, or a day ahead at most, since the jam slowly softens the cookies.
• Freeze baked, unfilled cookies for up to 3 months, then thaw, dust and fill.
• Swap the raspberry for apricot jam or lemon curd, or the cinnamon for the grated zest of 1 lemon. Keep curd-filled cookies in the fridge.