Linzerplätzchen

Another amazing recipe from my fiancé's mom. The most delicious and labor intensive cookies you'll ever make.

BEFORE YOU SCROLL: Read all instructions, all the way through, first. And remember, patience is key.

Ingredients Dough: • 250g Butter, cut into cubes

• 125g Sugar

• 205g Flour

• 125g Hazelnuts, finely ground almost to flour consistency

• 1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

• 1 knife point Ground Cloves (~1/8 tsp.) Assembly: • Raspberry Jam (1 jar Bonne Maman)

• Dark Chocolate Chips (1 bag)

• 1/2 cup Ground Hazelnuts

Instructions:

Place flour, sugar, hazelnuts, cinnamon and cloves into food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Add butter and pulse until dough forms. If necessary, dump out into bowl and use your hands to knead a bit to get it to form a ball.
Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 355°F and put rack in middle of oven. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat.
Roll 1/4 of the dough at time between 2 sheets of parchment paper to about a 1/8" thickness. Use a generous amount of flour to prevent sticking – do not be afraid of the flour. The more you use, the easier it is to roll. More important than the thickness is that they are a uniform thickness so they bake evenly.
Cut out circles using a 1" circle cutter (HINT: A shot glass or champagne flute works perfectly. But, the bigger diameter, the thicker you'll want to roll the dough, otherwise, the cookies will break during assembly)
Space the cut circles 1/4" apart or more on the cookie sheet.
Bake 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.
Slide the parchment or silicone mat (with baked cookies) off the cookie sheet and onto a cool surface or rack, immediately, and re-load the cookie sheet with the next batch. (Why? Because they solidify the longer they cool, so you can handle them).

Assembly:

Once all cookie halves are baked and cooled, assembly can begin!
Spread a thin layer of jam on one half and sandwich with another half.
Once, all cookies are sandwiched, melt some of the chocolate. You want a container deeper than it is wide (like a pyrex measuring cup) to make it easier to dip. Place the remaining ground hazelnuts into a bowl.
Dip 1/3 to 1/2 the sandwiched cookie into the chocolate and then into the hazelnuts, and then place on a parchment paper sheet to dry.They will dry faster in the fridge, but don't leave them in too long, because they will absorb moisture and lose their crispiness.

Servings: (60) ~1" sandwiches

Made it? Comment below!

NOTES:

• I used salted butter, but doesn't matter. Butter does not have to be freezing. Take butter out of fridge about 10 minutes before starting dough.

• They have a unit of measure in Germany called "Messerspitze" that means "knife point." You stick a knife in the cloves, and whatever sticks to the tip is how much you put in. I used about 1/8 tsp.

• You need about (2) 6oz. bags of hazelnuts. You'll have some leftover.

• Butter does not have to be freezing. Take butter out of fridge about 10 minutes before starting dough.