Desserts -- Hazelnut-Raspberry Christmas Trees

Recipes on this page were developed or tested by CeCe Sullivan of The Times food staff and were evaluated by staff members.

HAZELNUT-RASPBERRY CHRISTMAS TREES About 32 cookies

1 cup shelled hazelnuts

2/3 cup granulated sugar

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups raspberry jam

About 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

1. Put the hazelnuts into a small baking pan. Toast in a preheated 350-degree oven 10 to 15 minutes, or until the skins start to crack. Put into a kitchen towel, close and rub to remove the skins.

2. In a food processor, grind the nuts with the granulated sugar to a powder. Set aside. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder; set aside.

3. With an electric mixer beat the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the ground nut mixture, followed by the eggs and vanilla. Beat in the dry ingredients just to blend.

4. Divide dough into 4 portions; flatten each into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out 1 dough disk on a floured work surface to about 1/8-inch thickness. (Keep the remainder of the dough refrigerated.) Cut out cookies, using a floured 3 1/2-inch-wide tree cookie cutter. Transfer to ungreased baking sheet, spacing about 1/2-inch apart. Using a 1/2 inch wide pastry bag tip, cut out rounds to look like ornaments from half of the cookies. Gather scraps; reshape into a disk and refrigerate. Bake cookies until golden, about 10 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer cookies to rack and cool.

6. Repeat rolling, cutting and baking with remaining dough disks and scraps. (To lessen sticking of the dough to the work surface, scrape clean with a spatula between rolling of each disk.)

7. Boil the jam in a small heavy saucepan 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and spread each solid cookie with a little of the jam, leaving 1/4-inch border. Immediately top with a cut-out cookie, pressing gently to adhere. (Cookies can be prepared 2 weeks ahead. Place in single layer in airtight container and freeze.)

8. Before serving the cookies sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar.

Data per cookie Calories 187 Protein 2g Fat 11g Carbohydrates 23g Sodium 24mg Saturated fat 5g Monounsaturated fat 4g Polyunsaturated fat 1g Cholesterol 33mg

From "Bon Appetit Christmas."