What You Need:
- 2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 lemon, grated zest of
- ¾ cup butter, cut up
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
- ½ cup raspberry preserves
- ¼ cup Alchermes or cherry liqueur
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
How to Make It:
- Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and lemon zest. Use a pastry blender to cut in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the egg and egg yolks, beating until just blended. Stir to form a smooth dough.
- Press the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter four cookie sheets.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of ¼ inch. Use a 2-inch heart cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Cut out the centers from half the cookies with an apple corer. Gather the dough scraps, re-roll, and continue cutting out cookies until all the dough is used.
- Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the prepared cookie sheets, placing them 1 inch apart. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 8-10 minutes, or until just golden at the edges. Transfer to racks and let cool completely.
- Heat the raspberry preserves in a small pan over low heat until liquid. Spread the whole cookies with the preserves. Place the liqueur in a small bowl and the confectioners' sugar in a separate bowl.
- Dip the holed cookies first in the liqueur, then in the confectioners' sugar. Place the holed cookies on top of the cookies spread with preserves.