These adorable little things are traditional to Austria in the region of Linz. Love that the little circle/shape in the middle are called “eyes.” You can make these with any shape! I was in the holiday mood and had snowflake cut outs, then used a icing tip to cut out the circle in the middle. Tip: Make sure the dough is hard, but not too hard; have lots of flour on hand as the dough is super easy to break! Try them with different kinds of jams for different flavors and colors. I used homemade peach, grape, and orange jams to fill. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas :).

Ingredients (~18-24 cookies)

Recipe from Little Spice Jar.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 egg yolks

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups almond flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

powdered sugar for dusting

1. In a mixer, beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, on medium speed.

2. After the sugar/butter is light and fluffy, dump egg yolks in and continue beating. Should be light and fluffy. Stop, and scrape down the sides.

3. Add the vanilla and almond flour. Stir on low speed until just combined.

4. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and stir on low speed until combined.

5. Divide the dough in 4 pieces and individually wrap.

6. Place in fridge to chill for around 2 hours. The dough should be cold, but not hard as a rock.

7. Generously flour your work surface. Place one piece of dough on there, and lightly roll flat, dusting with flour as you go to make sure it doesn’t stick, and work fast.

8. Use cutter to cut out shapes. I liked to do a tray of 8 of bottom pieces. Then did a tray of 8 of top pieces with the small cutouts.

9. Bake in 350 deg. oven for 10-15 min (depending on size). Just watch it turn light brown on the edges and take it out then.

10. Once cooled, dust the cutout top pieces with powdered sugar.

11. Spread jam on the bottom pieces. Top with the cutout piece.