Place the pecans in the food processor until nuts are finely ground. Pour in a small mixing bowl.
Pour the cracker crumbs into another small bowl
(I also first ground them in the food processor)
Place flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a third small bowl and stir together.
Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until the mixture looks pale yellow and creamy. Break the egg into the batter and add the vanilla; mix until smooth. Add the ground nuts and cracker crumbs and mix until blended.
Add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time and mix on low speed until blended after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl clean with the rubber spatula and cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Place an oven rack in the center of the over and pre-heat at 350 degrees
Sprinkle a little flour on a clean kitchen surface. Break the dough in half and place 1/2 on the flour. Press the dough lightly with your hands, then sprinkle a little more flour over the top. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick.
Press out hearts using 2 1/2 inch heart shaped cookie cutter. Press out as many hearts as possible, gathering up the remaining dough so that it can be rerolled. Do the same thing with the other half of the dough.
Slide a spatula underneath the cookies and place them on a cookie sheet. Count how many you have. Press a round circle in the center of 1/2 of the cookies, using a 1 1/2 inch round cookie cutter.
Bake cookies until they turn golden brown, about 10 minutes. When done, transfer to a cooling rack.
While the cookies are cooling, place the jam and water in a saucepan and heat on medium low until the water and jam are completely blended.
Put each heart cookie with a hole on top of a cookie without a hole. Put a spoonful of jam inside each hole. As the cools it will hold the cookies together.
Sprinkle with confectionary sugar
Recipe Notes
Healey Notes:
You can use any size cookie cutters you like
The dough is much easier to work with when cold
We made the dough a day in advance
We used (and actually mixed together) whatever jams we had in the house