Hippie Jam

My parents used to be hippies and lived on a commune in Boulder Creek, CA. Most of their friends now are people they met there and a lot of them still have at least a little to do with the place which, incredibly, is still in existence. They still have hippies in that part of the world. When these people come to visit they will often bring jam and honey which they make there. It's incredibly good but neither of my parents are big jam eaters so it tends to hang around for awhile. Then three things happened at once. Martha Stewart published this recipe as her "cookie of the month," I was in New York and had bought some sparkling sugar because I have always wanted to make something with it, and I came to stay at my parents house where the jam is. Not "at once" exactly but in close and coincidental fashion.
These cookies take a long time to make and also coincidentally, I have pretty much nothing but time right now. Lucky for these cookies because normally it is not my style to do tedious and time consuming cooking with many steps. They aren't hard but they just take a long time, blah blah, everyone always says that. I guess because it's true. Doesn't really make it sound less annoying though.

Oh p.s., the place my parents lived is called Camp Joy. Doesn't seem that funny to me but somebody I once told that to still tells me it's the most hilarious thing ever. Perhaps it's amusing to you?

Jam Sammiches
that's not what Martha calls them

2 1/2 cups cake flour (or substitute all purpose flour using 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons for every cup)
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 1/2 sticks butter
3/4 c sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 T heavy cream, plus more for brushing
1 c jam of your liking
sanding sugar

Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in yolks and vanilla. Add half of flour mixture and mix until combined, then add cream and mix, then add the rest of the flour and beat until well incorporated. Shape dough into 2 squares and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours or more.
On floured parchment, roll dough into a 1/8" rectangle. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both for 30 minutes.
Spread jam over one piece of dough and top with the other. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter (about 2 1/2") and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Brush tops with cream and sprinkle with sugar. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the cookies until golden, 16-20 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
I baked the scraps too, what the hell, better than throwing them away.