BUTTER COOKIE JELLY SANDWICHES

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar thoroughly; add egg, vanilla and almond extract and mix well. Add flour, mixing only until flour is combined. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cookie dough into a large pastry bag fitted with a large star tube. Holding the pastry bag at a 90 degree angle, pipe 2" size logs onto pieces of aluminum foil cut to fit cookie sheets. Position cookies approximately 1" apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, cookies should still be pale. Repeat, using remaining dough. You can bake two cookies sheets at a time, alternating sheets midway through baking time. When done, slide aluminum foil off cookie sheets and leave cookies on foil until cool.
• When cookies are cool, spread approximately one teaspoon of jam on bottom of cookie, top with another cookie, trying to match the size as much as possible. Place cookies on waxed paper or foil, cover and leave several hours before proceeding to decorate with chocolate.
• When ready to decorate, melt chocolate chips with shortening on top of a double boiler, or place in a small crockpot. When chips are melted, stir well. Dip one end of cookie sandwich into chocolate, scrape extra chocolate off the bottom of the cookie, and place on rack; continue to dip some cookies, then go back to the first few cookies, and sprinkle with colored sprinkles. This method prevents the sprinkles from sinking too deep into the melted chocolate.
• Store in an airtight container one week.