Spitzbuben (Linzer Cookies)

Ingredients:

200g butter

100g powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

100 g ground almonds

200g all purpose flour

Raspberry or strawberry jam for filling

Powdered sugar for garnish

Powdered sugar icing, colored as desired

Decorating icing pen

• Whisk butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract until light and creamy. Fold in the almonds, all purpose flour and knead the cookie dough until well combined, you can use either spatula or your hand. Divide the dough into half, cover each half with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
•  Preheat oven to 175 ˚C, line your baking sheets with parchment papers. 
• Remove one of the dough from refrigerator, On a lightly floured surface roll the dough evenly for about 0,5 cm thick, using any cookie cutter as desired cut out the cookies and place them onto prepared baking sheet about 2 cm apart. If you want a cutout in the center of the cookies, use smaller round cookie cutter to cut out half of the centers of the cookies on the baking sheet. Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes or until they are lightly brown around the edges.
• Let them cool completely and dust them with powdered sugar. To sandwich the cookies together, spread a thin layer of jam on one side of the cookie ( full side of cookie, not the cutout side). Gently sandwich them together, repeat process for all the cookies. If you want, you can fill the cutout with a little bit more jam. You can decorate them with colored decorating pen however you like. Store them in airtight container.