Dame Blanche

Place the butter, almond flour and sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer on medium speed, adding the eggs one at a time, until the mixture resembles scrambled eggs.

Using a sharp knife, slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Separate the seeds from the skin by scraping the blade of the knife along the inside of the bean. Add the vanilla bean seeds, cake flour, all-purpose flour and salt to the butter mixture and mix on medium speed just until everything is incorporated, about 1 minute. (Overworking the dough will cause it to become tough and elastic.)

Remove the dough from the bowl to a lightly floured work surface and pat it into a rectangle. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow the dough to stiffen. (The dough can be made in advance and refrigerated overnight.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured work surface and roll out to a 1/8-inch-thick rectangle. Using a 2 1/2-inch-wide heart-shaped cookie cutter (or any other desired shape cutter), stamp out as many cookies in the dough as you can. Pat together any leftover dough and gently roll it out to use for more cookies.

Place the cookies 1 inch apart on a parchment covered baking sheet. Use the top of a 1 inch plain decorating tip to cut the centers from half of the cookies in the shape of a heart (or simply remove a small piece from each with a small knife). Bake the cookies until they are golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place the cookies on a wire rack and allow to completely cool.

Spread a thin layer of jam on each on the cookies without the center cut-out about 1/4 inch from the edge of the cookie and set aside.

Sprinkle the cut-out cookies with powdered sugar through a fine mesh sieve and then sandwich the cutout tops and the bottoms together. The cookies will keep for up to 4 or 5 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.