Several years ago, my mom gave me a set of Linzer cookie cutters. They seemed really neat, but got put in a drawer and forgotten about - until now! I decided to haul them out to make sandwiched Sugar Cookies for our valentine playdate, and they were delish!

I made Williams-Sonomas Kids' Sugar Cookies. If I had written this post last night, I would have told you to run in the opposite direction from this recipe. They were starchy, crunchy, and blah. After all the time it took to make the dough, chill the dough, roll the dough, cut the dough, I felt like I was in to deep to just throw them out. I added my filling and put them in tins overnight, thinking up jokes I'd make about them to our guests. I woke up to delicious wonderfully soft cookies! It was probably a combination of the filling and storing that softened the cookies, but it made me feel completely differently about them.

For the filling, I boiled some thin raspberry jam with a little icing sugar (approx 4 Tbsp) and a little constarch (approx 1 Tbsp), stirring constantly, until thickened. Once it cooled, I spread it between two cookies and left to set.

• Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add egg and vanilla, and beat until blended.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat on low speed until just blended. The dough will be lumpy.  Divide the dough in half, placing each half on plastic wrap. Form into a disk with your hands, and wrap.
• Once dough is chilled, prepare to roll. Sprinkle work surface with flour, and top with one disk of dough. Sprinkle the top of the dough with additional flour. Roll to approximately 1/4-inch thick. Add more flour if necessary to avoid sticking. Using a cookie cutter, cut shapes as desired. Bake on a Silpat or parchment-lined baing sheet at 350` for about 12 minutes, until the cookies just begin to brown at the edges. Allow cookies to rest on pan for several minutes before  transferring  to wire racks to cool completely. 

And don't those cutters make these look so cute?!