Linzer Valentine Hearts

Total Time: 6 hrs 12 mins Preparation Time: 6 hrs Cook Time: 12 mins

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour, sifted
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 2 cups shelled walnuts, finely grated
• 1/2 cup raspberry preserves

Recipe

• 1 in large mixing bowl, cream together butter and 1 cup sugar until fluffy.
• 2 add egg and beat well.
• 3 sift together flour and cornstarch and add to butter mixture.
• 4 stir in walnuts.
• 5 mix well.
• 6 place dough in a ball in wax paper and chill for roughly 5 hours.
• 7 roll dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4" thickness.
• 8 using cookie cutters, cut out equal numbers of solid hearts and hearts with centre cut out.
• 9 (you can either re-roll the cut out centres to make more of the larger hearts or bake them all for little bite-size cookies.) place on ungreased cookie sheet.
• 10 chill for 30 minutes.
• 11 bake at 325 for 10- 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
• 12 place on rack to cool.
• 13 while still slightly warm, spread the bottom side of the full hearts with jam- about 1/4 tsp each.
• 14 top with heart that has centre cut out.
• 15 bottoms should be together, tops facing out for a smoother look.
• 16 (for mini hearts, spread jam on bottom of one heart and top with a second of same size- bottoms together) sift 1/2 cup of the remaining sugar and press bottoms of cookies in sugar to coat.
• 17 gently sift the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over tops of cookies.