Snowballs and Sweethearts

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I really wanted to post these Christmas cookie recipes earlier, but with the mayhem of the holidays, these festive treats will have to serve as belated gifts :)

Snowball Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons almond extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped pecans

powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Cream soften butter and granulated sugar. Add in almond extract.

2. In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt. Slowly mix into butter mixture.

3. Add in pecans and mix well.

4. Roll into 1" balls and bake at 350* for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly golden.

5. When cool, roll in powdered sugar.

Sweetheart Cookies:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup strawberry jam

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add in vanilla. Slowly add the flour and mix until well blended.

2. Roll out dough 1/8" thick on a well floured surface. Cut out heart shapes with cookie cutter.

3. With a smaller heart cutter, cut out smaller hearts on half of the cookies.

4. Bake on parchment paper at 300 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are very lightly golden.

5. When cool, spread jam on the whole cookies. Place cut out cookies on top to form a sandwich.