Brazilian Wedding Cookies Casadinhos Recipes

Steps:

• Cookies:In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and superfine sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, vanilla, and lemon zest and beat until well incorporated. Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture; mix until combined. Divide dough in half; shape each half into a flat disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Working with one disk at a time, roll out dough 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Using a 1 3/4-inch heart-shaped cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced 1 inch apart. Refrigerate 20 minutes.
• Bake, rotating halfway through, until edges are just golden but still pale on top, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.
• Filling:In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine guava paste with 1/3 cup water. Cook until paste has melted completely and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
• Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 1/4-inch round tip. Pipe 1 tablespoon filling onto bottoms of half the cookies, then sandwich with remaining cookies. In a small bowl, mix together confectioners' sugar and food coloring until well combined. Sift over cookies. Unfilled cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days; filling can be refrigerated, covered, up to 3 days.

Steps:

• Cream together butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy; stir in vanilla.
• Whisk together flour and salt; add gradually to butter mixture; stir in chopped nuts.
• Chill dough if it seems too soft.
• Form dough into 1 1/4" balls and place onto parchment-lined or ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake at 400° for 10-12 minutes or just until the cookies start to turn light golden-brown; remove from oven and allow to cool slightly; while cookies are still warm (but NOT hot) remove them from baking sheets and roll, a few at a time, in powdered sugar until evenly coated; cool cookies completely on wire racks.
• Cookies may (optionally) be rolled in powdered sugar a second time once cooled to room temperature.
• NOTE: Forming dough into 1" balls will increase yield to 48 cookies.