Linzer hearts

These cookies are my Valentine's day tradition. They are very delicate, just a tiny bit sweet, and kind of adorable.

The fresher your butter, the better these will taste, so it's worth indulging in a good brand

Linzer Hearts (from The Book of Afternoon Tea, makes 20)

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (I used vanilla)
1 3/4 cups flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Jam of your choice for the filling

Superfine sugar for dusting (optional)

1. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and extract.

2. Sift together dry ingredients and stir into the butter mixture until a soft dough forms. (This will be fairly dry and also not very sweet - don't worry about it!). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate briefly before rolling out.

3. Cut out 20 large hearts (assuming you use a cookie cutter that is approximately 2 inches across) and then cut a smaller heart inside each one. Knead and re-roll the dough and cut out more large hearts, making a total of 20 whole and 20 with the centers cut out.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes until the edges are just barely brown. Dip the hearts with the cut out centers in the superfine sugar. Spread the whole hearts with jam and then top each one with a cut out cookie.

They are much more colorful and cute in real life

*My beloved D40 is in Dubai with D, so I dusted off my first camera infatuation, SX 70. Sadly, the local camera store doubled the price of film when Polaroid announced it would be discontinuing the line. $20 for 10 exposures is a painful shock to someone who is happy to take 10 shots just to get a single usable one, but I'm still having fun with it.