Do you remember Tate's Bake Shop? Last year I had the pleasure of giving away some of their cookies and a cookbook to one of my lucky readers. Well, they have contacted me again and asked if I would like to share some Tate's Bake Shop "Love" with my readers
in honor of Valentine's Day.
Kathleen King, owner of Tate's has a new cookbook, Baking for Friends. I love that title, don't you? She is sharing a recipe from the book for Linzer Heart cookies (see above). Aren't they the perfect Valentine treat?
TATE'S BAKE SHOP LINZER HEART COOKIES
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
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.
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.
Giveaway
Tate's Bake Shop has generously offered to send one of my readers
the Valentine's Cookie Cube and Cookbook Combo.
I have tasted these cookies and they are delicious. They are thin, crisp and are made with excellent quality ingredients. You may notice from the picture that they are running a special on this package at 50% off, which means you can order this package for just $21.50. They are also allowing me to offer you 20% off any web store purchase with the code BLOG213 used at checkout.
In order to be registered for this Giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post telling me you are interested. I would love to have you as a follower if you aren't already...but, I won't force you into becoming one by offering free cookies! I will select a winner from all those entered on Sunday, February 3rd. Good Luck! Please check out Tate's Bake Shop website, click here!
I was not compensated for this post (not even a cookie!).
Tate's will send the winner's gift directly to the winner.
