My Heart Goes Nuts 4 You

I am feeling the love!

This page is taken over by red and white.

Do you know what that means?

Yes! Valentine’s Day is fast approaching.

I am featuring a Valentine treat that you don’t want to miss.

This treat is called “My Heart Goes Nuts 4U”.

It has a bit of nut.

It’s in the shape of a heart.

It’s pretty in reddish pink.

Make these for your kids to share with classmates.

Wrap these in goodie bags to give to your friends.

Tell your better half “My Heart Goes Nuts 4U” with these.

Lastly, with the continuing support from you, I want to say,

“My Heart Goes Nuts 4U” Cookies

adopted from Baking with Martha Stewart recipe book

Serving: a dozen
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (4.5oz) blanched hazelnuts
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 cup raspberry jam, for filling
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preparation:
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a food processor, pulse hazelnuts until finely ground. Whisk the ground hazelnuts into the flour mixture. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed (6 or 8 on KitchenAid) until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add thee egg yolks, vanilla, and lemon zest. Beat to combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

With mixer on low speed, add hazelnut-flour mixture, and beat until just combined, 45 – 50 seconds.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, as well as hands, divide in half, and shape into a flattened disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least an hour or overnight. If time is a concern, place in freezer for 30 minutes to harden the dough.

Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator, and let stand until softened slightly. This will help keep the dough from cracking when rolled. On a large piece of parchment paper lightly dusted with flour, roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness. To prevent sticking while rolling, add more flour to the top and bottom of dough, and make sure it doesn’t get too soft. Transfer parchment paper with rolled out dough to a baking sheet; freeze until firm, about 10 – 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. You can stack the parchment paper and dough.

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line two large backings sheets with parchment paper or baking mat. Remove one sheet of dough with parchment paper from freezer. Working quickly, cut into heart shapes with a 3″ cookie cutter. Cut out center from half the shapes with a 2″ cutter. If the dough begins to soften too much, return to the freezer for a few minutes. Transfer open hearts to prepared baking sheets, about 1 – 1 1/2-inch apart. Freeze until firm, about 10 minutes. You can either bake the cutout centers for bite-size cookies, or reroll to make the larger hearts.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are crisp and lightly golden all over, about 12 minutes. Allow cookies to cook in the baking sheets, about 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cooled cookies can be stored overnight in an airtight container at room temperature before filling. Pipe raspberry jam on the flat sides of the whole hearts. Sift confectioners’ sugar over the open hearts. Cover the whole hearts with the open hearts. Top open hearts with jam. Cookies should be eaten the day they’re filled or fridge them.

You may also like some Champagne Strawberry Jello.