“Eye See Your Heart” Almond Cookies (Linzer and Conversation Heart Cookies)

eyedocbakes

“Sometimes me think what is love. And then me think love is what last cookie is for. Me give up the last cookie for you.” – Cookie Monster

What a cutie quote, right?! Ah, the Cookie Monster, with his infinite wisdom. So you may be asking yourself, why glasses linzer cookies? Well, I love to bake…and I also love my job (eye doc) – and sometimes I get to combine the two! Baked this batch for a Valentine’s day event we had at the office. These are pretty quick to make if you’re still looking for that last minute Valentine’s dessert. They look good, and taste great!

Cookies*

1 cup almond flour or 1.5 cup almonds, pulsed in food processor

¼ cup brown sugar – light or dark

2 cups flour

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 cup butter

½ cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

Nutella (!) or Jam (I used raspberry and peach)

Conversation hearts

*(I doubled the recipe, that’s why in the pictures it looks like I have much more)

Combine almond flour or pulsed almonds with brown sugar in food processor. Set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt in a large bowl and mix together.

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine softened butter with powdered sugar until smooth. Add egg, vanilla, and almond extract and mix. Add in almond-brown sugar mixture. Mix well. Add in flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing in between. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Keep in refrigerator at least two hour or overnight.

To make the cookies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (Cookies will be baked 10 minutes). Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.

Linzer: Roll out cookie dough onto lightly floured surface. Cut out double of your hearts, bears, or glasses, about 1/6 inch thick. For the cookie that will be the top, cut out a mini heart (or squares in the case of the glasses). For the bears that will be on top, make little faces with a toothpick. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Once cookies are baked, take the whole cookies (without the cutouts), and spread a thin amount of Nutella or jam (so that it doesn’t squeeze out the sides once you put the top cookie on). Next, take the top cookies and place them on a cookie sheet. Strain powdered sugar over them. Take sugared cookies and attach over Nutella/jam cookies!

Conversation bears: For the bears that will hold conversation hearts instead of being linzer cookies, fold arms inwards before baking (once on prepared baking sheet) to where the heart will go after baking. Bake 10 minutes. After the cookies are baked, use frosting to attach the hearts! (click on “frosting” above to get my recipes for buttercream and cream cheese frostings)