Steps

• To prepare the Christmas cookies with poppy seeds, place the flour, sugar, salt, grated lemon zest, ground poppy seeds, and cold butter cut into pieces in the mixer. Blend for a few seconds until you obtain a sandy mixture. Then add the egg and blend again for 30-40 seconds until you get a crumbly mixture.

  Transfer everything onto a work surface, knead briefly just until a homogeneous dough forms, shape into a block, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator for about an hour.

  Of course, you can also knead everything by hand. If you prepare the dough the day before and leave it in the fridge longer, make sure to take it out about 30 minutes before using it, otherwise it will be harder to roll out.

• After the dough has rested, cut a quarter of it and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1/16 inch.

  Preheat the oven to 375°F (static) if you bake one tray at a time or to 340°F (fan) if you bake multiple trays at once.

  Cut out many cookies with your chosen cookie cutter and place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. For each cookie, make another with the same shape but with a hole in the center, so you have a base and a top with a hole.

  The cookies will only slightly expand during baking, so you can place them fairly close together if you want.

  

• Bake your cookies at the temperature indicated above for about 10 minutes, until they are slightly golden at the edges.

  Remove the cookies from the oven, let them cool on the tray for about ten minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

  When the cookies are cold, arrange all the ones with a hole on a tray, side by side, and dust them with powdered sugar. Then spread the plum jam on the bases and place a cookie with a hole on each one. Let them dry for about an hour, then store your Christmas cookies with poppy seeds in an airtight container.