With the holiday season upon us, we must pay attention to not only how our cookies taste, but how they can be feasts for the eyes! To help this cause, the kitchens of Full Moon Cuisine looked to a treat from the past and how it's been adapted. The result? A cookie that will dazzle the eyes and more than please the taste buds. With a little bit of time, you can have some treats that will truly be the stars of your table. Here's what you'll need:

- 1 1/2 sticks of butter (at room temp)
- 1 egg (at room temp)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup toasted, blanched, slivered almonds (ground)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 cup raspberry preserves/jam (or whatever flavor you'd like!)

Note: This recipe will make approximately 2 dozen sandwich cookies.

To begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Toast your almonds in a dry pan over low heat for a few minutes (your nose will know when the nuts are done, as the scent will be quite nice). Finish by grinding them in a food processor and set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and ground almonds. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter and sugar, then add in your egg and lemon zest. Gradually incorporate your dry ingredients (in thirds!) until fully combined. Please note, this dough will be dry and stiff (it's supposed to be).

Turn the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper, placing a second sheet atop it. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to roughly 1/4-1/8" thick. Peel back the top layer of parchment paper and then it's time for fun! Use a cookie cutter (I used a star, but you can use whatever shape you want!) and cut out the cookies. To achieve the linzer torte look, use a smaller cookie cutter of the same shape and make holes in half of the cookies. Transfer the cookies (both kinds) to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes (they're thin so they will cook quickly), rotating halfway through. You'll know it's time to take them out when you see them turning golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Once fully cooled, take the cookies without holes in them and spread a small amount of raspberry preserves/jam on them (roughly 1 tsp), carefully spreading the preserves out to the edges. Place one of the cookies with holes atop and there you go!

The holiday season is full of wonderful sights, sounds, smells, and especially tastes. By taking some time and care to make these treats, these star cookies, you will provide your diners with quite the experience. These crispy, lightly sweet treats will be sure to please the eyes and the mouth in one fell swoop. To help make sure there are plenty of stars for the night, the kitchen will be staying open late. Care to place an order?

Want to know what this challenge is all about? Check out my journal and feel free to send in recipes for cookies! http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3096204/