Easy Fruit-Filled Pastry Heart Cookies

These EASY cookies are flaky, tender, and just delicious, whether glazed or sprinkled with sugar. If you roll it out in half batches and keep the dough cold, you will be rewarded with what has turned out to be one of my family's favorite cookies! Sprinkle with regular or coarse pastry sugar.

• Preparation Time: 30 mins
• Cooking Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 40 mins
• Calories: 118 Calories

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 1 beaten egg
• ½ cup cold butter
• ½ (8 ounce) package cold cream cheese
• 6 tablespoons apricot preserves
• 2 tablespoons white sugar, for sprinkling

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray baking sheets with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper.

Step 2

Place the flour, butter, cream cheese, and salt in a bowl. Cut it together with 2 knives or a pastry cutter until the butter and cream cheese is the size of small peas. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Step 3

Cut the dough in half and place half in the refrigerator to stay cold. Roll the other half between 2 pieces of wax paper or parchment into a sheet about 1/8 inch thick. Lift off the top sheet, and use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut 18 cookies. Before lifting the cutouts from the wax paper, put the dough onto a flat baking sheet and into the freezer for a few minutes to firm up the cookies. Set the 18 cookies aside. Repeat with the other half of the dough, also making 18 heart-shaped cookies.

Step 4

Place 18 cookies onto the prepared baking sheets so they don't touch. Carefully brush a little beaten egg around the top of each cookie, and spoon about 1 teaspoon of preserves into the center of the cookie. Top each with another unfilled cookie, press together around the edges, and crimp the edges with a fork to seal in the filling and make a pretty edge. Brush the tops of the filled cookies with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sugar.

Step 5

Bake in the preheated oven until the cookies are a light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely before placing in containers.