The kiddos and I made these last night, these cookies were fun, easy, beautiful, and delicious! Even super picky husband loved them :) I used blackberry jam that we bought at an orchard this past fall and it went perfectly with the almonds. Thank you, Noskos, of Living the Life -- who picked Dorie's Linzer Sables as out first recipe of December!
I think I didn't get my almonds ground quite as finely as they should have been, but that turned out to be fine in the end and gave a nice nutty texture.
These were easy to roll and cut, and transferred nicely to the baking pans. Seems like that is usually the trickiest part of cut out cookies. I kept the baking temperature at 350, I rarely go any higher than that with cookies and was glad I didn't go up to 375. They were perfectly baked, just slightly browned around the edges at about 10 minutes.
I did not heat the jam at all, I just stirred in a touch of water, and that seemed to work well for me.
These cookies were such a special treat, I love how delicate they look, how easily they went together, and how after baking they were sturdy enough to spread on some jam and not break. I would love to try these again with pecans in the dough and peach preserves. There are so many possible variations and these could be easily personalized with your favorite nuts and fruit spread. For the recipe, please visit Noskos of Living the Life -- or find it in Dorie's Baking From My Home To Yours. Happy holiday baking :)
