Directions

• Cherry Jam
• Mix the cherries with the sugar, star anise, and juice of one lemon. Add the rind of the whole lemon to the mix.
• Let this sit overnight.
• Cook the jam over medium-low heat until it begins to thicken. (this will take about 15-20 minutes).
• Mash the cherries until there are broken down into small chunks.
• Remove the lemon rind and 3 star anise.
  
• Cool the jam completely.
• Green Icing
• Mix together all ingredients – you want this icing to be fairly thick.
• Place the icing in a pastry bag or plastic bag and set aside.
• Linzer Cookies
• Preheat an oven to 350°F.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the dry ingredients.
• Cut the cold butter into 1/4″ chunks.
• To the dry ingredients, add the cold butter chunks and mix until all of the butter is dispersed into a sandy texture. This will take about 1-3 minutes.
• Add in the remaining ingredients and mix until a dough forms. You can add an extra Tablespoon of milk if your dough is too crumbly.
• Between two pieces of parchment, roll the dough out to 1/8″-1/4″ thick.
• Transfer the parchment and dough to a sheet tray and place the dough into the freezer until firm. This will take about 20 minutes.
• Cut the dough out into 2-3 inch circles. I use these ring cutters.
• Using a small circle cutter, cut out two circles from half of the cookies to look like cherries. I use the smallest circle from this set.
• Bake for 7-9 minutes and cool completely.
• Once the cookies are cooled, match up the bottoms and tops and sandwich about 1-2 teaspoons of jam between each set of cookies.
• Using the green icing, draw stems on top of the cherry cut-outs. Enjoy!