In December, I wrote about the annual Butter Up the Holidays contest held by the Washington State Dairy Products Commission, the Dairy Farmers of Oregon, United Dairymen of Idaho and Fred Meyer. More than 1,500 recipes were submitted for this year’s fifth-annual event, and Vancouver, Wash. resident Sharon Hogan claimed the prize for our state and won a $100 Fred Meyer gift card with her recipe for Bohemian Butter Cookies.
Here is what Sharon had to say about her recipe:
“This is a cookie recipe from the 1950s that my mother Marlene made every Christmas. She didn’t have a Linzer cookie cutter, so she used a wine glass to cut out the cookies. She used a little plastic part from our backyard swing set (which she cleaned first of course!) to cut out the small holes in the middle of the cookies for the top layer!”
Bohemian Butter Cookies
Makes 5 dozen
2 hard-cooked egg yolks
1 cup butter, softened
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 raw egg yolks
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 ½ cups sifted all purpose flour
1 cup confectioners sugar
Raspberry preserves
Rub hard cooked egg yolks through a sieve or strainer with small mesh holes. Add butter and salt, then cream well. Gradually add sugar, creaming well after each addition. Add raw egg yolks, lemon rind and juice. Beat well. Add flour and mix thoroughly. Chill about 1 hour.
Roll to 1/8 inch thickness on a lightly floured wooden cutting board. Cut out cookies with an approximately 2-½ inch floured Linzer cookie cutter (or round cutter). Cut a small circle (or other shape) out of the center of half of the cookies. These will be the top layer. The remaining cookies will be the bottom later. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375 degrees about 10-12 minutes.
After the cookies have cooled, sift confectioners sugar over the tops and bottoms. Take a solid cookie and spread with ¼ teaspoon raspberry preserves. Place a top cookie on the jam. The cut out part of the top cookie will be filled with the preserves. Repeat with all of the cookies.