Jeweled Heart Cookies

About 1 1/2 dozen

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks) softened

1 cup seedless raspberry preserves

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar

1. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla

extract and salt. With pastry blender or two knives used

scissor-fashion cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse

crumbs. Sprinkle 4 to 5 tablespoons cold water, 1 tablespoon at

time, into flour mixture, mixing lightly with a fork after each addition

until dough is just moist enough to hold together. Shape dough into

a ball; wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm

enough to roll. (Or, place dough in freezer 30 minutes.)

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On lightly floured surface, with

floured rolling pin, roll one-third of dough at a time 1/8 inch thick,

keeping remaining dough refrigerated. With floured 3 or 4 inch

heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut dough into as many hearts as

possible. Place hearts, 1/2 inch apart, on ungreased large cookie

sheet. Reserve trimmings. With floured 1 1/2-inch heart-shaped

cookie cutter cut out centers from half of the hearts. Remove cutout

centers, and bake along with larger cookies, checking after 7 minutes

for doneness.

3. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes until lightly browned. With

spatula, remove cookies to wire racks to cool. Roll

remaining dough and trimmings together to make more cookies; bake.

4. When cookies are cool, sprinkle cookies with cutout centers with

confectioners' sugar. Spread each cookie without cutout

center with 1 rounded teaspoon raspberry preserves; top each with

a cookie with a cutout center, gently pressing cookies together to

form a sandwich. Store in tightly covered container.

To make open face jam covered cookies, place one teaspoon raspberry jam on solid heart cookie and with a small paint brush or spatula pull jam out to cover entire top. Outline with purchased cookie decorations, or top with small cutout heart and decorate with sugar sprinkles or more jam.