These cookies are so good! I make them every year for Christmas. I did change the recipe slightly for my own tastes. I do not do a drizzle frosting. Instead, as soon as the cookies come out of the oven, I dust them with powdered sugar. But, because raspberry and almond flavors do mesh well together, I do add a tsp. of almond extract to the cookie batter. These are also cute using a snowflake shaped cutter.
I love this recipe. I made similar cookies a few years ago but I like this recipe better where you make the sandwiches before you bake them. It gives the jam a slightly chewy consistency like cookies I get at the italian bakery. I like to make a couple of variations. I usually put a little of the almond extract in the cookies instead of in a glaze. Also for a more decadent cookie I also like to melt some semi-sweet chocolate and drizzle that on the cookies after they have cooled. The chocolate-raspberry flavor combination is delicious!
I made these by cutting the dough into circles using a clean cap from a can of spray starch - frugal and ingenious huh? LOL Then I cut a small star shape using a very small star-shaped metal cookie cutter into the middles of the top circles. This made assembling the cookies easier while still making them pretty. I also skipped the icing and added 1 tsp of almond extract to the dough. I dusted the finished cookies with powdered sugar as did another reader making them look rather like old-fashioned Lindzer (sp?) cookies.
These cookies are delicious and beautiful! I gave it 4 stars because the cookies are pretty time-consuming and the recipe doesn't make nearly as many cookies as it claims I've found. The cookies and icing are both fantastic. I make these for Christmas every year and use a variety of preserves (my dad loves apricot!). I make stars snowflakes bells gingerbread men and whatever other shapes I have lying around. I get lots of compliments on these every year!
All around it was good my only complaint was with the dough. I tried chilling it and that didn't work well. I tried just rolling it out and it took a great deal of flour to keep it from sticking. You can taste all of that flour in the cookie but they are still good. Chilling it made it too tough. Hmm..
Made these last Christmas and they were everyone's favorite out of all the cookies that were there! A lot of work but the combination of raspberry and almond flavor is SO delicious!
Wonderful! I made the suggested change and added 1 tsp. of almond extract to the dough. I also used the dough from the small cut-out and topped it with a dollop of raspberry jam and a slivered almond baked and then sifted confectioners sugar on top.
These turned out great. Don't worry about getting the jelly exactly even because it bubbles and melts into a nice even puddle. My only adjustment was the bake time. My broken oven only bakes at 350 degrees and it took over 20 minutes. I took them out when they started to brown.
I've been on AR for years & I think this is the 1st review I've written! I bought raspberry preserves and then searched for a recipe to use it in when I came across this. I've been looking for a good cut-out recipe for years and I think I've finally found it! I loved that I didn't have to refrigerate the dough and wait hours I could just mix it and roll it right away! Based on the other reviews I added the almond extract and it was perfect. I made the first batch into stars with the raspberry preserves but I am also going to make another batch and just decorate as a plain cut-out cookie. This is definitely a keeper!
