Marmalade Cookies (Spitzbuben)

Ingredients

• 400 g flour
• 200 g finely ground almonds
• 300 g butter
• 150 g fine sugar
• 1 tbsp heavy cream
• 100 g currant jam
• 100 g apricot jam
• 100 g plum preserve
• 30 ml arrack (or rum)
• 125 g powdered sugar (for dusting)

Instructions

1. 1.

   Mix the flour with the almonds. Add the butter in pieces, then add the sugar and cream, and quickly knead everything into a shortcrust dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

2. 2.

   Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 5 mm thickness. Cut stars, flowers, or other shapes as desired; for half of the shapes cut a round (or heart‑shaped) hole in the center. Preheat the oven to 200 °C with top and bottom heat. Place all dough pieces side by side on baking trays lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven for about 8–10 minutes until golden yellow. Let cool on a wire rack. Dust the cookies with powdered sugar. Mix each jam with 1 cl arrack and warm separately in a small saucepan until liquid. Fill the Spitzbuben differently: spread one third of the cookies with currant jam, another third with apricot jam, and the last third with plum preserve, then place the matching cookie lid on top. Let dry well.