Chocolate and Vanilla Linzer Hearts

Chocolate and Vanilla Linzer Hearts - ButterYum

 
About 6 weeks ago I shared a recipe for Two-Tone Ganache Filled Snowflake Cookies that was so yummy, my family hasn't stopped talking about them.  So I thought I'd expand a bit on the recipe to make Linzer-like heart cookies for Valentine's Day.  I filled these cookies with my homemade Strawberry Jam, but any high quality strawberry or raspberry jam would work well.   

Note - the recipe makes half vanilla and half chocolate cookie dough.  Since the vanilla dough spreads more during baking, I suggest you use it to make the bottom halves of these cookies.    

 I found this set of graduated heart cutters in the Valentine section at Walmart for about $2.

I roll my cookie dough between layers of waxed paper.  Can you see the lines left by the waxed paper?  Don't worry about them - they disappear during baking. 

When I cut my cookies shapes, I pop the dough into the fridge to firm up before I transfer them to a cookie sheet - this prevents the shapes from getting distorted when you move them. 

 Here's one of the cutouts after it's been baked - see all those raggedy edges?  Those little suckers might not bother you, but they sure do bother me...

...so I use a toothpick to file them away - I just run it along the raggedy edges and Voila - all gone!

Yes, I know - Baking OCD.  Crazy maybe, but look how the edges are all nice and smooth now.

I'm just saying.

 

:)

I'm sharing this post with:
Shannon at Cozy Home Scenes

Trish at Sweetology 101
Kim at A Well Seasoned Life

Chocolate and Vanilla Linzer Heart Cookies
makes approximately 30-40 cookies

Cookie Dough:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (added to only one half of the dough - see directions below)

Filling:
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 ounces high quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Garnish:
powdered sugar
strawberry or raspberry jam 

To make the ganache:: 
Gently heat the cream and chocolate together; stirring until completely smooth and combined.  Cover and chill for 30 minutes (or make the ganache several hours in advance and let it sit at room temperature until it thickens to a piping consistency).

To make the cookie dough:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the blade attachment, beat the butter on medium high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar, baking powder, and salt; beat until combined, scraping bowl as needed.  Add egg and vanilla; beat to combine.  Add flour until incorporated.  Divide dough into two portions; adding sifted cocoa powder to one portion.  Wrap each portion with plastic wrap and chill for 1-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F.  Roll the vanilla dough to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface (or between two layers of un-floured waxed paper).  Cut out the bottom cookies out of the vanilla dough using a heart-shaped cutter. Chill dough on waxed paper until firm before transferring cutouts to ungreased cookie sheet; spacing 2-inches apart.  Bake for 8 minutes or until edges are set;  cool completely on a cooling rack.  Repeat the process with the chocolate dough, but this time cut a small shape from the center of each cookie.  Chill and bake as directed above.  When the cookies are completed cool, sprinkle only the chocolate ones with powdered sugar (I left the smaller chocolate shapes unadorned). 

To assemble cookies:
Place the vanilla cookies upside down on your work surface.  Pipe a ganache "dam" on the bottom cookies (place the dam so it will be be hidden when the chocolate cookie tops are added).  The ganache dam will keep the jam from oozing out of the assembled cookies (and it tastes really, really delicious!).  Spoon about a teaspoon of jam inside the ganache dam; top each of the bottom cookies with a powder sugar dusted chocolate cookie.  Cookies may be assembled up to a day ahead.

Note - the dough can be made 2-3 days ahead (be sure to wrap each flavor individually and chill in an airtight container).  Alternately, cookies can be baked ahead of time - place unfilled cookies in an airtight container between layers of waxed paper - store at room temperature for 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.  Thaw before assembling.