Tate's Bake Shop Linzer Heart Cookies and a Giveaway

Today I have a special treat for you.

And a surprise.

Your treat is this recipe direct for Tate's Bake Shop:

TATE'S BAKE SHOP LINZER HEART COOKIES

These decorative cookies make beautiful and tasty gifts. 

An important tip: be sure to chop the nuts and chocolate very fine in a food processor (pulse to chop so the friction doesn’t warm them), or the dough will be too rough-textured to roll out smoothly.

You need a graduated set of heart-shaped cookie cutters to make these.
Yield: 20 sandwich cookies

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 

1 cup cornstarch 

¼ teaspoon salt 

¾ pound (3 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

2 cups toasted, skinned and very finely chopped hazelnuts

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, very finely chopped 

-plus-

½ cup seedless raspberry jam 

½ cup confectioners’ sugar for sifting

1. Sift the flour, cornstarch, and salt into a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar with an electric mixer set on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the flour mixture, just until combined. Mix in the hazelnuts and chocolate.

2. Gather up the dough and shape it into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 1 day. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes to soften slightly before rolling.)

3. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a round about ¼-inch thick. Use a 3 ½-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cookies as close as possible to avoid excess scraps. Arrange the hearts about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Gather up the dough scraps and gently knead together, and cut out more cookies. If the dough becomes too soft to roll out, refrigerate until chilled. You should have 40 cookies. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

4. Position the oven racks in the top third and center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F.

5. Use a 1-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the centers of 20 cookies.

These will be the cookie tops. (You can bake the mini hearts to nibble on later! Don’t throw away or re-roll.) Bake, switching the position of the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking, until the cookies begin to brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Sift some of the ½ cup of confectioners’ sugar over the hot cut-out cookies Let cool completely on the baking sheets.

6. Spread the jam on the cookie bottoms, leaving an 1/8-inch border around the edges. Add the tops, sugared sides up, and press together gently. Just before serving, sift the remaining confectioners’ sugar over the cookies.

Ok...I have a tip for you here. This is the 3rd or 4th time I've made Linzer cookies. Each and every time, I struggle with the dough. It's not just this recipe. I think it's Linzer cookie dough in general. It's very firm and crumbly and then it warms up quickly and becomes sticky. Next thing you know, you're tossing more flour on the counter, on the rolling pin, on the dough. You're grabbing a spatula to help remove the cookies from the floured surface. That spatula gets tossed in the sink and you're digging through your drawer looking for a thinner spatula. Ah...the bench scraper! Ya that works. 

You know what else works...wonderfully? 

Parchment paper. Grease the counter top or other flat surface to keep the parchment paper from moving. Lay the parchment parer on the greased surface. Roll our your dough and cut out your shapes. Lifting the edge of the paper up, carefully peel the cookie off. 

BINGO!! 

Also, use any shaped cookie cutter you want. And use your favorite flavor of jam.

Now...For your surprise. 

Actually, it's two surprises. Or maybe three. Depending on how you break it down.

First....Tate's Bake Shop is having a special sale, 50% off, on their Cookie Cube Tower & Baking for Friends

Second, I have a discount code for you. This code will give you 20% off their other products: BLOG213

Use this code at checkout. 

Third..(and I think this is the best one).....

G I V E A W A Y ! 

Yes...you can own the Cookie Cube Tower and Baking for Friends for free!! 

"A sweet treat at a sweet price for those special Valentines on your list! Designed to delight the cookie lover and baker both, we've paired Baking for Friends, the latest baking book from Tate's Bake Shop's own Kathleen King, with our elegant Valentine's Day Cube Tower with three, 3.5 oz packages of Tate's Bake Shop's crispy chocolate chip cookies all dressed up in red! Each cube contains approximately 6-7 cookies."

All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what flavor of jam you'd use in the middle of your cookies.
(PLEASE give me your email address if you are not a blogger so I have a way of contacting you should you win. Otherwise the prize will go to someone I can contact). 

If you want extra entries,

Share on Facebook, leave a comment stating that you did 

Share on Twitter, leave a comment stating that you did

Pin on Pinterest, leave a comment stating that you did

(each comment will be worth ONE entry).

I will announce the winner on Wednesday, 2/13/2013