The other day I had been looking through my pantry to see what more seasonal ingredients I had left. I had almond meal and raspberry jelly. Of course this means Linzer torte cookies. So I plan my dough, accounting for the use of almond meal as my family recipe uses hazelnut meal. I planned to let them refrigerate overnight and roll and bake them in the morning.

Well, sometimes despite your best plan… you fail in execution. I rolled my dough this morning and it kept cracking. It was too cold. OK, so I let it sit out for a short while… and roll it again. This time, it is still too fragile and the cookies break apart when lifted off of the counter. So by now I’m starting to get concerned about the gluten forming in my cookies, so I need a new plan. Being of the waste not, want not mentality I don’t want to waste my dough. This is what I came up with.

Linzer Cookies (about 2 dozen)

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup almond meal
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• raspberry jelly

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg yolks, lemon zest, and vanilla extract and beat well to combine. Add the dry ingredients and stir until a cohesive dough comes together.

Separate the dough into two sections. Form them into balls and wrap tightly in saran wrap and refrigerate the sections until firm. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Form into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Smash cookies with the bottom of a glass (cover the glass in wax paper so the cookie dough won’t stick). Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on a rack. Glaze top with raspberry.