Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan assisted/gas 4. Spread whole or sliced almonds on a large baking tray then toast until golden and fragrant. About 15 minutes for whole almonds, 10 minutes for sliced. Tip: Move almonds around on tray once or twice while toasting so that they toast evenly. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely. (You can turn the oven off as there will be chilling time for the dough before baking).
2. Place cooled almonds in a food processor with 50g of the sugar. Process until well ground. Set aside.
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together butter, remaining sugar and lemon zest and smooth and pale in colour. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla.
5. Add the ground almonds and mix to incorporate, then finally add the flour mix and beat well until you have a soft dough with no dry ingredients visible.
6. Divide dough in half and spoon onto separate sheets of clingfilm. Flatten into disc shapes then wrap closed. Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes. Tip: You can leave the dough in your fridge for 2 days before shaping and baking.
7. When ready to shape and bake, preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan assisted/gas 4 and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
8. Remove one of the dough discs from the fridge, unwrap and place on a well-floured surface. Flour the top if needed and roll out with a rolling pin to about 5mm thick. Stamp out shapes with your choice of cookie cutter (we used 6cm (2.5 inch) round fluted cutters) and arrange cookies on lined baking sheet. Use a smaller cookie cutter of choice to remove the centre of half of the cookies on the trays.
9. Bake cookies until golden around the edges, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes before removing cookies from tray and leaving to cool completely. Tip: These are quite delicate biscuits so be gentle when handling when warm.
10. While cookies are baking, knead together dough scraps and press into a disc shape, re-wrap and place in the fridge to chill again. Remove the second wrapped dough and repeat rolling, cutting, baking, re-chilling, until all the dough has been used.
11. When ready to sandwich cookies, stir jam well in a small bowl so that it’s smooth and easy to spread.
12. Place the cookies with the centres removed on a piece of parchment paper then dust with icing sugar.
13. Spread about 1 tsp of jam on the flat bottom surface of the whole cookies. Place the dusted cut out cookie on top of the jam and gently twist while pushing lightly so that they’re securely sandwiched. Tip: Don’t spread right to the edges of the cookies as the jam will be pushed out when you sandwich with the top cookie.
14. Enjoy on the day of assembling as the cookies will soften over time. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.
15. If you want crisp cookies, store plain cookies in an airtight container and assemble on the day.