Linzer Cookies

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix butter, sugar, almond meal and almond extract by hand our using a stand mixer until combined.
3. Mix in the egg yolk.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together both types of flour, salt and cinnamon.
5. Gradually mix the flour mixture into the wet mixture until combined (it will be a slightly dry dough similar to pie crust dough). Form dough into a disk and stick in the freezer until cooled (about 10-15 minutes).
6. On a well floured surface, roll out the dough until it is between 1/4" and 1/8" inch thick. Cut cookies with a small cookie cutter, and make a hole in half of the cookies you cut (You can leave them without the hole, but they look really cute with the Jam peeking out of the center and you get more yield from your dough). Ball up the remaining dough and roll out to make more cookies, and continue this process until no dough remains.
7. Place cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. Once they start to get slightly golden, they're done!
8. Allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet at least 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack (They are very delicate when they just come out of the oven and shatter if you try to move them while they're still hot, but are fine once they cool a bit).
9. Once cookies have cooled completely, place a small amount of fruit preserves on the hole-less cookie and spread it so that it covers an area slightly larger than the hole on the cookies with holes in the middle. Place a cookie with the hole in the middle over the jam.