Lunettes (Spectacles)

These elegant cookies are easy to make and are lovely for an afternoon tea.  A nice alternate to the Lunette shaped cookie cutter would be a round cutter with a smaller round for the center or a heart-shaped cutter with a smaller heart for the center. This recipe is one of my favorites.

Ingredients:

  • 3 egg yolks

  • A pinch of salt

  • Ground vanilla bean or 1 tsp. vanilla extract

  • 1 Tblsp. water

  • 5 oz. butter at room temperature

  • 1 cup confectioner’s sugar

  • ½ tsp. baking powder

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour

  • 3 Tblsp. jam (strawberry, raspberry, or apricot)

  • Confectioner’s sugar

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, mix together egg yolks, salt, vanilla, and water.

  2. Add in the softened butter in small chunks. 

  3. Gradually mix in the flour and baking powder.

  4. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough briefly, about 3 times. (Note on kneading: using the palm of your hand, press the dough out and with the help of a scraper gather all the dough pieces together. Repeat this process until dough can be easily formed into a smooth ball.)

  5. Form the dough in to a ball, wrap in wax paper and let stand in refrigerator for at least two hours, ideally overnight.

  6. On a lightly floured surface using a rolling pin, roll dough flat to 1/8” thickness.

  7. Using cookie cutters cut the dough into cookies. Be sure to cut out an even number of cookies.

  8. Use the smaller cookie cutter to cut out two shapes in ½ of the cookies. These will be used as the top layers of the cookies.

  9. Line baking sheet with wax paper or a non-stick liner.

  10. Lay cookies flat onto baking sheet.

  11. Bake in 350°F oven for 10 – 12 minutes until lightly golden.

  12. Once out of the oven, let cool on rack.

  13. Add a few drops of water to your favorite strawberry, raspberry or apricot jam in a small saucepan or microwave bowl. Heat on stove or in microwave (30 seconds) until jam is melted.

  14. Brush jam on the cookie bottoms (the solid cookies without the cutouts).

  15. Dust the cookie tops (that have the cutouts) with confectioner’s sugar.

  16. Cover cookie bottoms with the dusted cookie tops like a sandwich and fill in the holes with jam using a pointed spoon such as a grapefruit spoon.

In the early 19th century, in Victorian England, a Duchess began the trend of serving her friends mid-afternoon tea, tarts and cakes to appease their hunger and quench their thirst between lunch and their late dinner. This became a popular social event and began the tradition that we call High Tea today.