| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr 18 min |
| Prep: | 35 min |
| Inactive: | 1 hr 20 min |
| Cook: | 23 min |
| Yield: | 40 sandwich cookies |
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole almonds
- 1 cup pecans
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 6 large egg yolks
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup seedless raspberry preserves
Instructions
- Position racks in the lower and upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Place the almonds and pecans on a baking sheet; toast on the upper oven rack until lightly browned and fragrant, about 8 minutes. Let cool, then pulse in a food processor with 1/4 cup granulated sugar until finely ground. (Don’t overprocess or the mixture will turn into a paste.) Turn off the oven.
- Whisk the flour, cinnamon, cardamom and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a mixer, beat the butter and the remaining 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract, egg yolks, and the lemon and orange zest; add the ground nuts. Add the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated (do not over mix). Divide the dough into 2 pieces; place 1 piece between 2 lightly floured sheets of parchment paper and roll into a 14-inch square, about 1/4-inch thick. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both rectangles, covered with the parchment sheets, until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the dough into hearts with a 2 1/4- to 2 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Using a smaller heart-shaped cutter (about 1 1/2 inches), cut out the centers from half of the cookies (you can reroll the centers and scraps). Place the cookies, about 1 inch apart, on baking sheets and bake 2 sheets at a time until the edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. Cool on wire racks.
- Sift confectioners’ sugar over the cookies. Spread 1 teaspoon raspberry preserves evenly over each whole heart cookie, leaving a slight border around the edge; top with the cut-out heart cookies.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 32 servings |
| Calories | 340 |
| Total Fat | 21 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Carbohydrates | 35 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Sugar | 16 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Cholesterol | 73 mg |
| Sodium | 80 mg |
Reviews
These cookies are wonderful!! Thank you LuLu’s for the recipe!! They are a labor of love! I found it easiest to divide the dough into 4 pieces. Make sure you keep the dough chilled. I rolled it in between 2 sheets of plastic wrap, I got more than 40 cookies, but I think it depends on how thick/thin you roll the cookies. I’m so appreciative that LuLu’s posted this recipe!! Just delicious!!
To Brandielou,
It does say that it makes forty sandwich cookies
it’s only $0.50 worth of cardamon. spend the half buck and taste a new flavor.
I loved this recipe! I made them for Christmas Eve to try something new and was so happy I found this recipe. I used all almonds in place of the pecans. The cookies did take a little longer then expected but the end result was a very pretty cookie. Have fun!!!!
You can go to a health food store and buy only the amount of spice you need. My brother gave me this hint. Now I buy all my herbs and spices loose at the local health food store. Its much cheaper and the spices are fresh.
I found these to be a good cookie to make for a special occasion like Valentine’s Day. It makes 20 double heart shape cookies. You can cut your costs by using all almonds and omitting the cardamon.
Making these cookies can be slightly expensive and time-consuming but are well worth the effort. They make approximately 30 3 inch round sandwich cookies. I have made these cookies for years but never used cardamom, only cinnamon. I did use the cardamom this time (very expensive) but found out that I really didn’t need it.
I was going to make this cookies because they looked neat. I got the recipe online but saw them in the Food Network mag. I wrote everything down and headed off to the store and got everything I needed except the ground cardamom.
When I found it, I was shocked. A small bottle of this, even at Walmart, was over $12. Um….no. I put everything back and I’m still a little upset. That isn’t a very economical recipe, it’s a tad bit outrageous. I could buy 2 dozen cookies for the price of the cardamom as well as the other ingredients. I can see why she makes so much money at her bakery. I’d hate to know how much the cookies are, even though they wonderful it isn’t worth the $12 to spend for 1/2 teaspoon! There should have been a substitution as well.
I’m going to “try” and make the Lulu’s cupcakes for my husband for Valentine’s day and even though there are a lot of ingredients, hopefully it will be affordable.
I want to make these, but it doesn’t mention how many cookies this is supposed to make. It only shows 4 servings. So, 4 cookies??! Since I have to provide a rating, I’m giving it only 1 star because of missing/incomplete infomation.