Steps of the Apple and Cinnamon Heart Cookies Recipe with Butter-Free Shortcrust Pastry

• The first thing to prepare is, of course, the shortcrust pastry with which we’ll make the apple and cinnamon cookies. Considering that it needs a rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, let’s start right away. So we take a bowl with nice high edges; I never make the flour fountain because I don’t particularly like getting my hands dirty. If you’ve watched the Pao de Queijo video, you know this very well.

  In the bowl, we pour the two room temperature egg yolks, add the sugar amount and mix with a spoon or a whisk, then gradually add the amount of vegetable oil. Or butter if you think of substituting the oil. Stir with a spoon until you get a nice cream.

  Then gradually add the amount of all-purpose flour previously sifted. If you don’t want to use too much all-purpose flour, you can mix it with buckwheat flour, maybe half and half, because otherwise, the cookies would be too grainy. Continuing to work with the spoon, we’ll realize that the dough is ready to be transferred to the slightly floured wooden work surface. So, we flip it over and work with our hands until we get a nice compact dough. Wrap it with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

  Meanwhile, let’s prepare the apple and cinnamon filling for today’s breakfast shortbreads. Using a wooden cutting board, we cut, from just one apple in my case because I picked a large one, many small cubes. I chose a red apple, hard and crunchy, I don’t like mealy apples, and I was afraid it would become a puree during the filling preparation; instead, I wanted the cookies to clearly show the whole pieces. Gradually pour the apple pieces into a pot or saucepan with high edges.

  Sprinkle with the juice of half a lemon, add an abundant tablespoon of honey, even two if you like, a pinch of salt, two good pinches of brown sugar (equivalent to about 4 tablespoons), a generous tablespoon of jam (fruit of your choice) and then lots and lots of cinnamon. All the cinnamon you can, I hope you like it because the more cinnamon you add, the more the aroma of these cookies will intoxicate you.

  If you look at the video recipe, you can clearly see that I added a lot, yet both my colleagues and my grandma told me that I could have added even more. Apparently, the apple with the honey captures and disguises much of the cinnamon aroma.

  

• Now we just need to bring the pot to the stove. With a spoon, we stir continuously to prevent the apple pieces from sticking to the pot. If necessary, add a half cup of water; in my case, it wasn’t needed as I stirred constantly. We’ll know the cookie filling is ready when it’s well combined, the apples are slightly softened, and the color is browned, creating a delicious and aromatic cream at the bottom of the pot. In the video recipe, you can clearly see the color change and consistency of the filling. Let it cool at room temperature.

  Meanwhile, we can prepare everything needed for the next steps of this recipe. That is, place the work surface back on the counter. Take a sheet of parchment paper and place it on the wooden board. Then take two baking trays; I placed the cookies well apart, baking them in two batches to better control the cooking. Place two sheets of parchment paper, one for each tray. Then take the rolling pin, in my case silicone, and the cookie cutters we chose, in my case a heart.

  Turn on the oven in static mode to 350 degrees Fahrenheit when at least 30 minutes of resting the shortcrust pastry and about 20 minutes of the apple filling cooling have passed. Please don’t rush during the preparation of this recipe. The too-hot filling could ruin the shortcrust pastry we’re about to roll out. We risk ending up with a soft shortcrust that will never become crispy and will crumble during the steps we’re about to perform.

  So, let’s start rolling out the shortcrust pastry: we can roll it all out and then cut out the various hearts, just make sure they are always in even numbers, or roll out a little shortcrust at a time with the rolling pin gently. This step is very well depicted in the apple and cinnamon heart cookie video recipe.

  I preferred to do it this way to better control the consistency and thickness of each individual cookie, as we are going to fill them with apples, I didn’t want cookies too thin or, on the other hand, too thick. Let’s say they should be somewhere between a dunking cookie and a cat’s tongue. About 1/4 inch thick for each base, so that when overlapped and well closed, they don’t end up being too tall and dry.

  Then, having rolled out the shortcrust pastry and cut out many hearts, about 20 if you have a medium-sized cutter like mine. Consider that 20 means you actually had 40 hearts. We can proceed to fill them with the apple pieces we previously prepared. With a teaspoon, place a few pieces of apple in the center of each heart, cover with another cookie base, apply firm pressure both on top and on the sides to seal the shortcrust pastry.

  Gradually place the cookies on the trays lined with parchment paper and bake. I placed 10 hearts on each tray, baking twice. The first batch took about 15 minutes, while the second was ready around 13 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately place the apple and cinnamon heart cookies on a cooling rack, letting them cool completely before serving!

  At this point, I would say there’s nothing left to tell you except enjoy and remind you that I await you every morning on the recipe blog with the Recipe of the Day!!! Below, you’ll find the social profile box, and the ability to leave a review or a comment is the simplest way to help grow and make my recipes known to more and more people.