TWD--Linzer Sables--And More Chocolate Chances at Baking Delights

This week's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe is for Linzer Sables.  A nutty, buttery cookie with a jam filling--or as Dorie also suggests in the book, a chocolate filling.  Ah, that's more like it!  Chocolate!  But I didn't just make my Linzer's with any old chocolate--it became apparent to me when I went and looked in my big freezer full of lots of nuts (they were on sale recently buy-one, get-one free!  So I stocked up)--anyway, the recipe suggests finely ground almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts.  I had forgotten that one of the bags of nuts I'd gotten was hazelnuts.  Ding, ding, ding!  I decided to make these cookies with the hazelnuts. 

Simple cookie to make--grind the nuts until finely ground, make the simple dough with butter, sugar and the usual dry ingredients mixed with the nuts.  Roll out between wax paper and chill the dough.  Then cut into whatever shapes you want.  Making sure you double each cookie to sandwich them and cut a cute hole in the center so you can see the filling oozing out.  Got it.  Did it.  Easy enough.  And I was loving the smell of these cookies baking with the toasty hazelnuts!  Dorie's recipe calls for some cinnamon and cloves and well, I just didn't want to have that spicy flavor mixed up with my chocolate filling.  So I left that out and added a touch of vanilla extract, just for kicks.

Now what's a hazelnut cookie to do for the ultimate filling?  Hmmm,  here's the little bare cookies (I halved the recipe by the way).

Okay, so I really knew the second I found my hazelnuts exactly what would go in the center of these cookies!

The delicious and oh so highly, I'm sure, nutritious Nutella Chocolate Hazelnut spread!

These are some happy little cookies now!

I really like these.  Oh, I also filled one with apricot jam and one with raspberry jam, just to see what I thought.  While both are good, they don't stand a chance with the Nutella.

Enough pictures?  Okay, one or two more, if you insist.

Yep, that oozing jam looks good and all, but the Nutella is the star of the show, only problem was I didn't realize how low I was with the jar of it until I opened it ready to fill the cookies.  I made due and the cookies are great!  Guess I'd better run to the store for more Nutella---soon!  ; )

Perfect little cookies as an addition to your holiday baking!  What, you want the recipe?  Check out noskos'  (from the Netherlands!) blog  Living the Life for the recipe, he picked the recipe this week from Dorie's book, Baking From My Home to Yours.  Get the book!  Check out all the other 300+ baker's Linzer's on the TWD blog list.

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