Linzer Heart Cookies

There's a pull toward silence that I've been aware of since I was a kid, long before I understood what it was or where it came from. Dad has the same thing. Gallagher men go quiet. It's not unfriendliness — it's closer to self-sufficiency, the assumption that the interior conversation is private and the external conversation is for logistics. You talk about what needs doing. You talk about the weather and the cattle prices and which trails to take before a storm. You don't talk about what you're feeling unless it's directly relevant to a decision that needs to be made.

Jen called Wednesday night and we talked for an hour, which is long for me on the phone. She's good at conversation — asks the right questions, lets silence breathe instead of rushing to fill it. She asked how I was doing with the writing and I said slow, which is true. The essay I've been working on for six weeks, the one about coming back from Kansas, hasn't resolved yet. It keeps getting longer. Sometimes that means you haven't found the ending. Sometimes it means you're afraid of it.

Haying wrapped up Monday. We got the last of the second cutting baled and stacked before the rain came in Thursday. The timing was good — sometimes it isn't, and losing hay to rain is a particular kind of frustration that stays with you for the whole winter every time you open a bale that got wet. This year the hay is dry and clean and the barn smells right. Small victories.

Made chokecherry jelly this weekend, which is an every-other-year tradition depending on the berry crop. The chokecherries came in heavy this summer. I picked two five-gallon buckets in about an hour and a half, and Mom and I did the jelly Sunday afternoon — processing jars, skimming foam, that specific meditative attention that canning requires. It's work that belongs to a particular season and that fact is part of what I love about it. When the jar rings seal and you hear that little pop, there's a satisfaction that doesn't really translate into words. You just know the summer went into the jar and it'll be there in February.

Once the jelly is sealed and cooling on the counter, you start thinking about February — not with dread, but with something closer to anticipation. Mom mentioned, right there at the stove while we were skimming foam, that she’d been saving last winter’s batch for Linzer cookies. That landed. These Linzer Heart Cookies are exactly the kind of thing that justifies two five-gallon buckets of chokecherries: the jelly disappears into the center of each cookie and the whole thing becomes evidence that the season happened, that you were paying attention, that the summer went somewhere good.

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes (includes chilling) | Servings: 24 sandwich cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely ground almond flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup chokecherry jelly (or other fruit preserves)
1/2 cup powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

Cream butter and sugar. Beat softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand or stand mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and almond extracts.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, almond flour, salt, and cinnamon. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix just until a soft dough comes together. Do not overmix.
Chill the dough. Divide the dough in half, flatten each portion into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes or up to overnight. Cold dough holds its shape during cutting and baking.
Preheat and roll. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with one disk at a time on a lightly floured surface, roll dough to about 1/8-inch thickness.
Cut the cookies. Cut out an even number of shapes using a 2- to 2 1/2-inch heart-shaped cutter. From half the cookies (the tops), cut out a small heart from the center using a smaller cutter. Re-roll scraps as needed. Place cookies 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.
Bake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to turn golden. Do not overbake — these cookies should stay pale and tender. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Dust and fill. Once fully cooled, sift powdered sugar generously over the cut-out top cookies. Spread about 1 teaspoon of chokecherry jelly onto each solid bottom cookie, spreading nearly to the edges. Gently press a dusted top cookie onto each jelly-covered bottom.
Set before serving. Let the assembled cookies rest for 15 to 20 minutes so the jelly firms slightly before serving. Store in a single layer or between sheets of parchment in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Linzer Heart Cookies — Something to Do With All That Jelly