Chocolate and Vanilla Linzer Hearts

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, filled with my homemade Strawberry Jam.   

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.    

 Check out this set of nesting heart cutters I found.

I rolled my cookie dough between layers of waxed paper.  I chose to use wax paper because flour would discolor the surface of the chocolate dough.  You can see the wax paper left a few wrinkles on the surface of the dough, but they disappeared in the oven. 

To prevent the cookie shapes from distorting when being moved, I slide the wax paper/cookie dough onto a half sheet pan, cut the shapes on the pan, and pop the whole thing into the fridge so the dough can firm up.  Once chilled, I pop the individual shapes out of the sheet of dough and place them on a separate sheet pan to be baked.

Here's one of the baked shapes - 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, but look how the edges are all nice and smooth now.

I'm just saying.

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• heart shaped cutters https://amzn.to/2Ryb0rc

• commercial half sheet pan / silicone liner / cooling rack set https://amzn.to/2Rxdfet

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Chocolate and Vanilla Linzer Heart Cookies

makes approximately 30-40 cookies

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Ganache:

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Cookie Dough:

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 large 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

Directions

To make the ganache:: 

1. Gently heat the cream and chocolate together; stirring until completely smooth and combined. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and chill for 30 minutes (do not cover with plastic wrap, which can allow condensation to drip into the ganache and seize the chocolate). Alternatively, you can 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:

1. 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.

2. Preheat oven to 375F. Roll the vanilla dough to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface (or between two layers 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:

1. 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.

Notes

• 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.

Two-Tone Ganache Sandwich Cookies

This month's Secret Recipe Club assignment was Vivian's blog Let's Try These.  Vivian and I share a love for baking, so it was hard picking just one recipe to feature today, especially since she has so many yummy options to chose from, but I wanted to find a recipe that I could use with my snowflake cookie cutters.  I settled on Vivian's Two-Tone Cookie Crinkles, a Better Homes and Gardens recipe.  I don't know why they're called crinkles - there's nothing crinkled about them, but they sure are tasty, and they're so fun to make.

Two-Tone Ganache-Filled Snowflake Sandwich Cookies

makes approximately 30 cookies

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

For the cookies:

• 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

For the ganache filling:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

• 4 ounces high quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Directions

To make the cookie dough:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the blade attachment, beat the butter on medium high speed for 30 seconds.

2. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt; beat until combined, scraping bowl as needed.

3. Add egg and vanilla; beat to combine.

4. Add flour until incorporated.

5. Divide dough into two portions; adding sifted cocoa powder to one portion.

6. Wrap each portion with plastic wrap and chill for 1-3 hours.

7. Preheat oven to 375F.

8. Roll each dough portion to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.

9. Cut out desired shapes with floured cookie cutters, leaving the bottom halves solid.

10. Place cookies 2-inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet; bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes or until edges are set (tiny cutouts bake for 5-6 minutes).

11. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

To make Ganache:

1. Gently heat cream and chocolate together; stirring until completely smooth and combined (I did this in the microwave).

2. Cover and chill for 30 minutes (or make the ganache several hours in advance and let it sit at room temperature until it reaches the proper spreading consistency).

To assemble cookies:

1. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the ganache in the center bottom of each cookie and make a sandwich by adding a decorative top cookie.

2. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

3. To store, place unfilled cookies in an airtight container, separating layers with waxed paper, at room temperature for 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw and assemble just before service.

Notes

• I'm not a fan of rolling cookie dough on a floured surface - the extra flour makes the cookies look messy, and it has a tendency to dry out the dough, making the cookies cut from the re-rolled scraps a lesser quality.  Instead, I prefer to roll my dough between two layers of waxed paper - completely eliminating the need for extra flour and enabling the scraps to be re-rolled over and over again (chilling when needed). 

• To prevent distortion, I cut my cookie shapes while the dough is still on the waxed paper, then slide the waxed paper onto a cookie sheet and chill for at least 10 minutes before transferring the shapes to a sheet pan. 

adapted from Better Homes and Gardens