Karlsbad Cookies (recipe)

The other day I managed to bake 30 cookies for a cookie swap... and not the easy kind of baking... the kind where you create dough, cook it in the fridge, roll it out, cut out the cookies, cool them in the fridge, bake, frost, and assemble. Seriously... they weren't supposed to take me too long, and according to the recipe book, they are only level 2... but they felt like they were level 5 (even though I have no idea what a cookie on that level would feel like). So, I tell myself that I mastered a level 5 cookie... and you can too, because here's the recipe:

Karlsbad Cookie (named after the town in Germany where this traditional recipe came from!)

Ingredients:

1 c. all purpose flour

2/3 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 c. finely ground almonds

1 tsp. finely gratedlemon zest

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Glaze Ingredients:

2/3 c. confectioner's sugar

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice, or more as needed

2 tablespoons seedless red currant or raspberry preserves

Directions:

Refrigerate two cookie sheets. Sift the flour into a medium bowl. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until creamy. Mix in the flour, almonds, and lemon zest and juice toform a soft dough. Divide the dough in half. Press into disks, wrap in a plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out half the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Use a 1 1/2 inch cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to one of the prepared cookie sheets, placing them 1 inch apart. Use a 3/4 inch fluted cutter to cut the centers out of half the cookies. Re-roll the centers with the remaining dough and repeat the cutting out procedure. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until just golden and the edges are firm, rotating the sheets halfway through for even baking. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool. Mix the glaze, until it's a thick paste. Spread the tops of the cookies with the glaze, and

and then package up all sweet and cute... (helps when you have this place nearby)