The Farmer's Daughter: Linzer Heart Cookies

Listening to "The Best of Etta James"- per Mama's request

Valentine’s Day, when half the populations' hearts melt and the other halves’ eyes roll…

Sorry, but I’m all for an excuse to surround myself in red, white, hearts, flowers, cookies and chocolate, and telling those I love that I love them extra. Is that so bad?

I consider my mom to be a sort of earth mama/ wonder woman/ role model/ best friend, which I feel so lucky for. I could count on one hand how many times I’ve used the word “bored” to describe my current state, IF that. I'd venture to say, never have I ever found the word appropriate, and I mostly attribute that to the way I was raised. I never had cable, never had a microwave, have no idea how to play a video game, and am not quite sure what a lean cuisine or frozen meal tastes like. During middle-school days, this meant my brother and I riding our bikes to Bard College and gluing ourselves to MTV, while eating as many mozzarella sticks, chicken tenders, and waffle fries as our stomachs could hold, and then guzzling that down with that foreign thing called soda. But that was just a phase…whew.

While my parents did field work, Adam and I would play in an apple bin beside them or ride around in a backpack while they pruned fruit trees. Once we were old enough to hold a shovel, we were “working” right beside them. I made people out of crayons or sticks and dressed them in toilet paper dresses, and built fairy houses out of tree bark with moss carpets and full table settings of acorn top dishes and clothes lines strung with flower petals as dresses. “Bored” is a word I've never experienced.

There were many traditions in this house for the holidays. While bobby pins, long underwear, felco pruners, and smartwool socks have sufficed as presents since I can remember; the decorating, cooking, and baking, were what has always mattered and what I will carry on to my children one day.

When I was little, I would get up super early with my Mom before I had to leave for school. My favorite mornings were French mornings; when the question of whether to slather my toast in jam or syrup qualified as a hard decision for the day. I’d sit in a chair eating my French toast, while she would put my hair in French braids, and that day would be the best day because I’d just feel like the cat’s meow.

I would wake up Valentine’s Day morning to a trail of Hershey’s kisses leading me from my bed, downstairs to more kisses and a steaming bowl of cream of wheat with rivers of melted brown sugar and butter. It was tradition to make these Linzer heart cookies for the holiday, and fill little red heart-shaped tins with them for our friends. While I apparently wasn’t very interested in the baking process, I would jump up on a chair without hesitation to dust the cookies in confectionary sugar.

Well yesterday my Mom and I made these cookies together for old time's sake, and I realized we could never be a business team. Although that’s more or less what we are at the farm market, baking is another story. While I’m still picking out music and making myself coffee, she’s 10 steps ahead of me, rolling out the dough like her life depended on it. That woman doesn’t mess around… “Read twice, mix once”, she warns me as I’m belting out Etta James, turning the kitchen into a white powder-dusted winter wonderland. We had a good time anyway, and it definitely put me in the spirit...of loooove.

Whether you’re one of those whose heart melts or whose eyes roll over the idea of Valentine’s Day, suck it up and make some heart-shaped cookies with your Mama, child, or friend and feel the love, k? K.

Recipe from Silver Palette Cookbook

INGREDIENTS:

3 sticks sweet butter, room temp.

1 ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cornstarch

2 cup shelled walnuts, finely grated

½ cup raspberry jam (I suggest Montgomery Place Orchards’ ::cough cough:: )

Some good music

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cream butter and ½ cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, mixing well.

Sift together flour and cornstarch; add to the creamed mixture and blend well. Stir in walnuts, mixing thoroughly.

Roll dough into a ball, wrap in parchment paper, and chill for 4-6 hours

Roll dough out into ¼ inch thickness. Using small heart-shaped cookie cutters, cut out cookies and place on an UNGREASED cookie sheet. Gather leftover dough, roll out again, and repeat. Use up as much as you can!

Chill cookies for 45 minutes. (Make some valentines cards or dance around to Etta James in the meantime.)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes, or until they’re evenly golden. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

While they’re STILL WARM, spread ½ of the cookies with about ¼ tsp Montgomery Place Orchards red or royalty raspberry jam. Top each cookie with one of the remaining cookies.