Parisian Hearts
Submitted by annabelle
Parisian hearts, a French almond cookie sandwich cut in heart shapes, filled with lemon icing and raspberry jam peeking through a cutout center. Elegant, buttery, and bakery-beautiful.
YIELD
14 cookiesPREP
145 minCOOK
10 minREADY
170 minThese are the kind of cookies you see in a Parisian patisserie window: delicate almond butter cookies cut into hearts, half with a small round cutout in the center, sandwiched together with lemon icing and a gem-like dot of raspberry jam visible through the window. They look like they took all day, and honestly, they do require some patience, but the technique is straightforward.
The dough is rich with ground almonds, butter, almond extract, and an egg. It needs a 2-hour chill to firm up enough to roll thin (⅛ inch) without sticking. Half the hearts get a round cutout punched from the center before baking. Ten minutes in the oven and they’re golden and fragrant.
Assembly is where the magic happens. Lemon icing spread on the solid hearts, cutout hearts pressed gently on top, then raspberry jam spooned into each little window. A dusting of powdered sugar finishes them off.
Chef Tips
- Chill the dough for the full 2 hours. Warm dough tears and sticks instead of rolling cleanly
- Keep the unused dough refrigerated while working with each half. It softens fast at room temperature
- Flour the cookie cutters between each cut. The almond dough is sticky
- Use up within 2 days. The lemon icing softens the cookies over time
Variations
- Use apricot or strawberry preserves instead of raspberry
- Cut into stars, circles, or any shape with matching cutout tops
- Add a drop of rose water to the lemon icing for a French floral touch
Ingredients
Directions
Into large bowl, measure flour, ground almonds, butter or margarine, almond extract, salt, egg and ½ cup confectioners’ sugar.
WIth mixer at low speed, beat ingredients until well blended, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.
Shape dough into a ball; wrap with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate dough 2 hours or until easy to handle.
Preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃).
Grease 2 large cookie sheets.
On lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin, roll half of dough ⅛ inch thick, keeping remaining dough refrigerated.
With floured 3½ inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut dough into hearts.
(Or, cut 3½ inch heart-shaped pattern from cardboard; use pattern and knife to cut out cookies).
With floured 1-inch round cookie cutter, cut out center from half of hearts.
With pancake turner, place hearts, ½ inch apart on cookie sheets.
Bake 10 minutes or until golden.
With pancake turner, immediately remove cookies to wire racks to cool.
Repeat with remaining dough and trimmings.
To assemble cookies: In small bowl, stir lemon juice iwth ½ cup confectioners’ sugar until smooth.
Spread a thin layer of lemon icing on hearts without cut-out centers; top each with a heart with cut-out center, gently pressing hearts together.
Fill cut-out centers with a heaping ¼ teaspoonful preserves.
Sprinkle cookies lightly with confectioners’ sugar.
Store cookies in tightly covered containers to use up within 2 days.
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