Italian Hearts

Ingredients:

* 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 lemon, grated zest of
* 3/4 cup butter, cut up
* 1 large egg
* 2 large egg yolks
* 1/2 cup raspberry preserves
* 1/4 cup Alchermes or cherry liqueur
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and lemon zest. Use a pastry blender to cut in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the egg and egg yolks, beating until just blended. Stir to form a smooth dough.

Press the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter four cookie sheets.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Use a 2-inch heart cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Cut out the centers from half the cookies with an apple corer. Gather the dough scraps, re-roll, and continue cutting out cookies until all the dough is used.

Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the prepared cookie sheets, placing them 1 inch apart. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 8-10 minutes, or until just golden at the edges. Transfer to racks and let cool completely.

Heat the raspberry preserves in a small pan over low heat until liquid. Spread the whole cookies with the preserves. Place the liqueur in a small bowl and the confectioners' sugar in a separate bowl.

Dip the holed cookies first in the liqueur, then in the confectioners' sugar. Place the holed cookies on top of the cookies spread with preserves.