Bakery Style Butter Cookies

My favorite cookies are usually the ones with the least curb appeal - chewy ginger cookies, plain peanut butter and sugar cookies, shortbread - all delicious but simple, if not dowdy. These cookies are beautiful and tasty! Really nice for the holiday cookie tray. The hardest part is actually the piping and mine did not retain starry grooves (but they didn't spread much either). Very stiff dough, and as many complained, these are hard to pipe. I just waited until dough was very soft, piped and then into the freezer for 10. I found that the thinner cookies retained their shape better (I went with small swirly rounds using the French star tip) and 10 minutes in the freezer didn't hurt either. I used raspberry and apricot jams in between the cookies and chocolate ganache for the outside. I did add 1/4 teaspoon almond and some lemon zest.