Linzer Sandwich Cookies Stars

Ingredients:

• 280-300 g butter, plus extra for greasing the baking sheet
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 and 1/3 cups cake flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
• 0.5 cups chopped blanched almonds
• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup seedless raspberry jam
• Powdered sugar for dusting, optional
• Special equipment: two cookie cutters in the shape of a star or circle, one 4 cm in size, the other 2 cm.

Preparation:

1. For the test: In a bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the granulated sugar and continue beating until the mixture is fluffy (5-8 minutes).
2. In another bowl, combine flour, almonds, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Knead and roll out the cookie dough: Since it contains a fair amount of butter, it needs to rest for a while before rolling it out. Lay out three large sheets of waxed paper in a single layer on a flat surface. Dust each with flour. Using a rubber spatula, fold the flour into the butter mixture. Once all the ingredients are combined, place one-third of the dough on each sheet of waxed paper. Dust each piece with flour and top with a piece of waxed paper of the same size to create three dough sandwiches. Press each layer with your hands until they are thin. This will save you a lot of time when rolling out the dough later. Place two of them in the refrigerator and work with each piece separately. Roll out the first piece of dough as carefully as possible. The main thing is to avoid creating folds or cracks. The dough should be no more than 3-5 mm thick. Once the first piece of dough is rolled out, refrigerate it for 10 minutes and repeat with the other piece of dough.
4. Preheat oven to 180C.
5. Make the base of the future sandwich cookie: Take the first piece of rolled dough from the refrigerator and cut out as many stars or 4 cm circles as possible. Return the scraps to the refrigerator. Carefully arrange the resulting shapes in a single layer on a greased baking sheet. Repeat with the other two pieces of dough, remembering to return the scraps to the refrigerator.
6. Make the top sandwich cookies: Using a 2 cm cookie cutter, cut out smaller stars from the center of half of the resulting stars. Place the remaining dough between layers of waxed paper. Cut out additional stars if needed.
7. Bake the cookies until light brown (12 to 15 minutes). Remove the pans from the oven and let them cool slightly.
8. Bring the raspberry jam to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Brush each star with raspberry jam (0.5 teaspoon per star) and glue them together. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.