Heart-Shaped Strawberry Hazelnut Linzer Cookies

The Viennese Linzertorte is such a beautiful dessert it's almost a shame to eat it. Basically, this torte is a jam filled pastry shell topped with a latticework design and decorated with nuts. This heart cookie rendition is perfect for a Valentine's Day treat.

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 Teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Cup unsalted butter, chilled
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 Cup strawberry preserves
• 1 egg white, beaten
• 1/2 Cup hazelnuts, unsalted, skinned, finely ground

Directions

• Add sugar, flour, and baking powder to a food processor and process until combined. Cut butter into small pieces. Add butter, sour cream, egg yolks and vanilla and process into coarse crumbs. Gather dough in ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly spray a baking sheet with a non-stick cooking spray. Roll out dough on a heavily floured surface to a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out cookies with a 2 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Cut out a smaller heart from center of half of the cookies. Use you knife to make the small heart or purchase mini cookie or canape cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet.
• Brush beaten egg white over cookies with cut-out hearts. Sprinkle hazelnuts on top and brush egg white over nuts. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool thoroughly.
• Heat strawberry preserves in microwave; stir until smooth. Remove from heat and cool thoroughly.
• Place cookies without cut out centers bottom side up on a sheet of wax paper. Spread strawberry jam on cookie bottoms. Place cookies with cut out heart centers and nuts on top of jam and sandwich the two cookies together. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

  Makes 24 sandwich cookies