Fruit Pillows

Ingredients

• 2 cups sifted flour
• 8 ounces salted butter (room temperature)
• 6 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
• Raspberry, strawberry, apricot preserves or seedless jam

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Mix butter and cream cheese with a pastry blender until evenly blended. Do not overwork the dough, as the less light and flaky the dough will become. Blend in the flour a little at a time with the pastry blender or two knives until dough is uniform in color. Separate into 2 balls; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour or until firm enough to roll.
3. Roll one of the balls out on floured pastry sheet or board to "pie crust" thickness (keep the second ball in the refrigerator). Using a 1-inch round cookie cutter (metal is best), cut out circles. Roll up the remaining dough and re-roll and cut out circles until there is no more of the first ball left. Place all the circles of dough 1/4 inch apart on foil-covered cookie sheet. In center of each circle, put about 1/4 teaspoon jam or preserves. Roll out second ball of dough and cut out circles as above. Using a clean floured thimble, cut out a tiny circle in the center of each. Re-roll the discarded centers, etc. of the dough and cut out into circles, making half the "bottoms" and half the ones with the thimble hole the "tops". Do the same with these new bottoms as above. Place a cut out "top" on top of each of the circles with the jam or preserves, so the jam shows through the center of the top. Press down the edges of each cookie so the cookie is sealed.
4. Bake in center of oven for about 10 to12 minutes, until tops of puffed-up cookies are very slightly browned.
5. Cool cookies; dust lightly with sifted confectioners sugar.

Strawberry, apricot or seedless raspberry preserves look the prettiest and taste good; jellies tend to ooze and lose the pretty color because they melt faster. The preserves should not have "lumps." Take big fruit pieces out first. Preserves should take up all of the cut-out circle from the thimble in the top of the cookie but do not overfill or they will run over the top of the cookie and burn.