This recipe has the dough chilling before baking, so don’t preheat your oven just yet.

In a food processor, combine one cup of the flour (130 grams), confectioners sugar and pecans and pulse until the pecans are finely ground into a flour. Stop before you make pecan butter.  Add this to the remaining flour in a medium mixing bowl. Add in the cinnamon and salt and whisk well, set aside.

In a stand mixer or large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed, 2-3 minutes. Next, add in the egg yolks one at a time, mix until fully combined.  Scrape down sides of the bowl, then add in vanilla and lemon zest. Mix for one more minute. 

With the mixer on low, slowly add in the flour mix and mix until just combined. Check to make sure all the flour is mixed in with a spatula or even your hands. 

Divide dough in half, shape into discs, wrap in plastic wrap then chill 4 hours up to 2 days. Overnight (12 hours) is best. 

When ready to bake heat oven to 350 deg. Set out baking sheets and line with parchment paper. Set out wire cooling racks as well. 

Working with one disc of dough at a time, roll to ¼ inch thick between two pieces of wax paper. Don’t use flour to roll out the cookies - it will add too much excess flour to the dough.

Cut out cookies with cookie cutter, dipping the cutter into a tiny bit of flour if needed. Cut out the center of half the cookies ( whatever shapes you like or use a Linzer specific cutter). Freeze for 10 minutes before baking. 

If the dough is a little sticky you can slide the whole slab of cut out cookies on the wax paper onto a baking sheet then freeze before lifting the cut cookies out with a thin spatula and placing on parchment lined baking sheets. This helps them keep their shape better. Take the excess dough and reform into a disc and chill again until firm but soft enough to roll out. Repeat until all the dough is cut out. 

Bake each tray of cookies for  8-10 min or until they look dry and set but not browning. 

Cool on baking sheet 5 min. Cool on cooling rack until fully cooled. 

When ready to assemble, dust the cookies with the cut out middle with powdered sugar. Spread a tablespoon of jam on the bottoms of the solid cookies then top with the cut out cookies. 

 Use a teaspoon of jam if using a smaller cookie cutter ( an inch and a half or so). These apple cutters are 3 inch cutters. 

Cookies keep well in an airtight container or bag in the freezer up to three months.