Aphrodisiacs aren’t the only way to bring the romance into the kitchen. Create a symbol of your sugary affection in the form of a cookie with a heart-shaped treat. Pastry Chef Brian Grabowski of Explorateur puts a lovey-dovey spin on the traditional Linzer dessert by cutting the dough into adorable cordiform cut-outs and swapping in Nutella instead of jam. It’s the cutest way to finish off your meal (editor’s note: if you need a main entree, check out last week’s recipe) — plus, they’re really fun (and easy!) to make.
Nutella Linzer Heart Cookies
Details
Ingredients
- 5 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 6 ounces toasted and ground almonds (almond flour works also)
- 2 eggs
- Nutella
- Confectioners sugar
Directions
- In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the ground almonds and eggs, one at a time, and cream together, scraping the bowl as needed to incorporate completely. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients slowly and mix until just combined.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- On a well floured surface, roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Using a heart shaped cookie cutter (I use a 2”), cut as many hearts out as you can.
- Now, using a smaller heart cutter (I use a 1”), cut out the center of half of the hearts.
- Bake the cookies in a 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until slightly golden.
- Once cooled, spread Nutella on the face of the cookies without the center cut out. Dust the cut out cookies with confectioners sugar if desired.
- Place the cut out cookies on top of the Nutella coated cookies, creating a sandwich.