An old adage proclaims, “As the days lengthen so the cold strengthens,” though the month of February features a holiday heart warmer—Valentine’s Day!
The holiday’s earliest history is muddled, with origins in pagan festivals. The most popular explanation begins with the execution of Valentine, a Christian priest, by Emperor Claudius II sometime within the third century AD. Valentine’s crime was presiding over illegal marriages, and he himself fell in love with the prison guard’s daughter. Before he was taken to be killed on Feb. 14, he sent her a love letter signed “from your Valentine.” His martyrdom was celebrated by the Catholic Church as St. Valentine’s Day.
So, when did we start to define “love” with paper cards and frilly boxes filled with chocolate? Valentine’s Day cards were originally made by hand in the 18th century as tokens of affection. The first mass-produced cards in America were made by Hallmark in 1913. And we can thank Richard Cadbury for those frilly lace chocolate boxes, introduced in 1861 as a keepsake where once the chocolate was gone, one could use it to store mementos—like Valentine’s Day cards.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely ground almonds or hazelnuts
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
confectioner’s sugar
cookie cutters, heart-shaped or round, both large and smaller
Directions
Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and extracts and beat until blended.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, nuts, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to the butter-sugar mixture and beat until blended. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour.
Divide the dough into four portions and roll out each portion to 1/8-inch thick. Cut out heart or round cookie shapes with the larger cutter, and then cut center holes in half of these with the smaller cutter.
Place the shapes on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9–12 minutes at 375° until brown on the bottom. Let cool and spread jam on the solid cookies, then top with the center hole ones. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.