winter is here ....and baking some cookies

and finally it's here. winter hit us with a storm last week and everywhere covered with snow now. it was not that bad , I heard  somewhere in Ontario they had a 100+ cm snow !

I love snow , its whiteness ..but after a few days , of course it won't be white anymore :( and everywhere will be  a mess. behind our apartment there is a snow dumpster , where they put part of the snow cleaned from street there and it's already 1/4 full ! the  streets also get quite messy , the 3 lanes street become one lane, the first lane  where was for parking now is fulled with snow so the next lane is parked with car and there will be only one lane for driving ! but no more complain from me because we'll have a long way to the end of winter and I don't want to be one of those people who are not happy during the winter and complains all the time so I got myself ready mentally and emotionally  for winter :)
I came from a country that have 4 separate season but the lowest we go in the winter in our city was about -10 C.I could not imagine at that time what  -40C is or how you could live at those conditions. but now is different.I got used to it and life goes on normally in the those severe cold weather.now enough about the weather .
I baked something new yesterday (new for me of course). it's cookie filled with jam . one of my friend cooked the most delicious apple jam a few months ago and becuse it tasted so good I use it only for baking .
here is the reciept , it is not mine but I don't remember from where I wrote it down .

Jam filled cookie:

butter 300 gr
250 gr sugar
400-500 gr flour ( it depends I used a little more than 400gr , so start with 400 and add frequently till you feel the dough is ready)
2 eggs
1 Tsp vanilla
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder
1 Tsp of orange zest  or 1/2 Tsp of orange essence ( this part added by myself )
Jam for filling ( I used apple jam , you could use any kind you want ,like  raspberry ..)
melted and cooled chocolate if you want ( I did not used it this time because I was in hurry!)

Mix , butter, flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder, and work the dough for at least 5-8 minutes, to get it smooth and workable. Then you can divide into two; and add melted chocolate to one half, and mix  it well.
Roll out each dough to a 1/2 cm thickness, and cut out cookies with cookie mould (put some flour on the top of the board so the cookies separate easily when you want to transfer to the pan without any misshaping ) . Bake  for about 5-8 minutes at 350 F, just pay attention not to overcook them, they should still remain white.
after cooled down , put plenty of jam between and stick them together . be generous on the jam because it get absorbed by the cookie and dried after a while.
you could dip them in the melted chocolate too if you like ( or any other fun ideas you have) so they don't look boring like mine!
Enjoy..!