This is what I made for Valentine’s Day.  It’s a delicious linzer cookie recipe and a great Valentine’s day present.  I feel like chocolate gets too much love on this day, so why not try something different? These cookies look very fancy and any minor mistakes I made were hidden underneath a cloud of powder sugar.

Linzer Cookies with Raspberry Jam (adopted from Sherry Yard’s Desserts by the Yard)
Sift together 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup cake flour and ¼ tsp. salt in a medium bowl. Stir in 1 cup finely ground walnuts and 1/3 cup finely ground almonds and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream 2 sticks unsalted butter (softened and cut into ½ inch pieces) on medium speed until pale yellow, about 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl than add ½ cup granulated sugar, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder and continue mixing on medium speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add 1 tbsp. honey, 1 egg, and 1 tbsp. grated orange zest and beat until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. On low-speed, slowly add the flour mixture. Beat until it comes together than scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat another 15 seconds. Do not overbeat. Remove the dough from the bowl and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate up to two days or minimum of one hour. To make things go quicker you can put the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out half of the dough (the rest of the dough you can put back into the refrigerator) on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter or a round drinking glass cut out circles in any size you like. Cut out the centers in any shapes you like from half the cookies and transfer to baking sheets. Bake cookies until they turn a light golden color, 10-14 minutes (it will take less time to bake if the cookies are smaller). Cool completely and repeat with the rest of the dough.
Sift the powder sugar over the cookies with the cut out centers. Spread raspberry jam on each whole cookie and press together with the powder sugar cookie. Store the cookies between pieces of wax paper in an airtight container at room temperature.