Lemony Butter Cookies and Jam Recipe

The hint of lemon in the soft, butter cookies enhances the raspberry filling.

Buy the most luxurious brand of raspberry jam you can. Or when you are France, buy some artisanal jams.

Last year, at a small market in Coustellet, I bought a home-made jam, Cassis à l’Ancienne, that was fabulous with this recipe.

Ingredient for the Butter Cookies

•    1-1/4 cups cake flour
•    1/4 cup cornstarch
•    2 teaspoons baking powder
•    1/3 cup sugar
•    1 Tablespoon vanilla sugar
•    zest of 1 lemon
•    6 oz. butter
•    1 small egg (or beat one large egg in a small cup and use 2 tablespoons of the beaten egg)

For the filling: raspberry jam

Icing:
•    juice of one lemon
•    powdered sugar  

To finish: dust with confectioner’s sugar

Preparation of the Butter Cookies

Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Mix the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest together in a large bowl.

2. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter.

3. Add the egg and quickly knead together to combine.

4. Roll the dough into a cylinder and fit into a cookie press.

5. Press out the cookies onto a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. The cookies should still be pale. If you want the jam to show, you can make holes in the cookie that is to be used for the upper part.

6. Remove the cookies onto a rack and allow to cool.

7. (If you want to add a some icing, mix together the lemon juice and the confectioner’s sugar to make a the icing).

8. When the cookies are cool, spread some raspberry jam on the bottom of one cookie and place another cookie on top (the one with the hole).

9. Brush with the icing or just spray with some confectioner’s sugar, or decorate as you want!

Note from Camille – Olivier, Leyla and I did some Christmas cookies last year and used this recipe for one type of cookie. They were a little extra work, but definitely worth it! Everybody loved them !!!