My mother hates cookies. I feel comfortable using the word “hate” here, because it’s that extreme. She makes a horrible face when I force her to taste things I bake, especially when they have chocolate in them. She fake smiles like she’s enjoying it, she takes tiny bites - sweets just aren’t her thing. That being said, she can’t keep her damn hands off these cookies. I have to hide them until Christmas, otherwise they’ll be gone before anyone else gets to try them.

There are a bunch of different ways to make these, and really you can use any shape you want - I used to use snowflake cookie cutters and they looked amazing, but the dough can be really crumby and difficult to work with, and those fragile ends break right off. Mazeltov if you want to try that. I’ve found that the fluted biscuit cutter and the tiny holiday-themed center cutters are perfect for this recipe.

This year I used hazelnuts instead of almonds, and the flavor is really incredible. A lot of recipes add cinnamon to the dough, but I skip that and use a little nutmeg and lemon zest instead. Since it’s a heavier, almost shortbread-like dough, the zest cuts the richness so you don’t overwhelm your palette. For the jam, instead of the traditional raspberry, I decided to go with sour cherry and lingonberry. I have a personal texture issue with seeds (yeah, weird), and so usually look for seedless jam, but couldn’t find one that wasn’t loaded with sugar. The sour cherry and lingonberry jams aren’t overly sweet, so they really work with the toasted hazelnut/lemon/butter-flavor of the cookies.

The great thing about this recipe is that it’s flexible - you can use almonds if you prefer them over hazelnuts. You can use whatever jam you want. I’ve used apricot, blackberry, apple butter, and marionberry in the past, and they all taste great. It’s up to you.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup hazelnuts
1 lemon, zested
1/2 cup packed brown sugar, split (1/4 and 1/4)
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Kitchen tools to make your life easier:

Microplane
Cookie cutters (one 2-2 1/2" and one 1/2-3/4")
Wax paper
Parchment paper
Food processor
Cooling racks

Directions:

Toast the hazelnuts. Pour the nuts into a small pan and heat them over medium/medium-low heat until they’re fragrant. You’ll notice the skins start to loosen, and some will fall off. Pour them from the pan into a clean kitchen towel, and then rub them in the towel get rid of the loose skins. We're not looking for skinless hazelnuts, but the flaky stuff has to go. Place the hazelnuts and half the brown sugar into a food processor and pulse into a fine powder.

Zest the lemon. If you don’t have a microplane, get yourself to the store and buy one - I use mine ALL the time. Not exaggerating. If you don’t have one, you can use the finer part of a cheese grater, or you can slice the yellow part of the skin off the pith, and then do a very fine dice, but that's really a huge pain in the ass.

Gather dry ingredients. Place the flour, nutmeg, and salt into a bowl. You can sift these ingredients if you want (I didn’t).

In a stand mixer, add the butter and remaining sugar. Whip together until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg, lemon zest, and vanilla and almond extracts, and whip another minute or two. While you’re whipping this into the butter, you might notice it separating; it’s because of the acid in the lemon zest, and totally normal. Add the dry ingredients in three phases. Once the dough is completely mixed, turn the mixer off and scrape the sides of the bowl.

Divide the dough in half, and shape into flat discs. Wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

A note on measuring flour...

Baking is all about accuracy. If you're not using a scale to weigh out your flour, use the dull side of a butter knife to level off the top.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, and have a small bowl of flour ready for rolling the dough. Remove the first disc from the refrigerator and roll out to around 1/8” thick. I found that rolling the dough between two sheets of wax paper works really well here, since the dough can be temperamental. If it's sticking to the wax paper, add a small sprinkling of flour. Dip the larger cookie cutter into a bit of flour so it doesn't stick, and cut out an even number of cookies. Place them about an inch apart on the cookie sheets. It’s ok to re-roll the dough to cut more, but I try to limit it to one time, otherwise the cookie texture can become compromised. (PS - this cookie dough tastes fucking amazing. You're welcome.) Once I have a full tray of cookies, I put the entire tray into the fridge for at least ten minutes before continuing with the next step.

Once both trays are ready and have chilled for ten minutes, use the smaller cookie cutters to cut holes in the middle of half the cookies. Since these are sandwich cookies, you want to make sure you have an even number of tops and bottoms.

Bake the cookies for 10-13 minutes, depending on your oven, until the edges are golden. Remove from the oven and let them hang out on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before transferring them to a cooling rack. Continue rolling and baking until all the dough is used.

Cool the cookies entirely. When ready, place all the tops (the ones with the opening in the middle) on a sheet of parchment or foil on the counter. Sprinkle them with powdered sugar (I have a tiny strainer that I use for this part). Spread about 1 teaspoon of jam on each of the bottoms, and then sandwich the cookies together. The recipe should make about 2 dozen cookies.

You can store these cookies for up to two weeks in an air-tight container on the counter, or even freeze them for a month or two. I also try to avoid stacking them on top of each other for a few days to let the powdered sugar set.

SUCH YUM.

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Inspiration for these cookies comes from this recipe on Epicurious.