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Position racks to divide oven in thirds. Heat to 350F. Lightly coat 2 cookie sheets with nonstick cooking
spray. Mix flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. With pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles
coarse crumbs. Add egg yolks and vanilla and stir with a fork until mixture clumps together to a form
a dough. Divide dough in half. Press each portion into a flat square. Place each between 2 sheets of waxed
paper and, with a rolling pin, roll each half into a 7 1/2-in. square, occasionally checking underside
of dough and smoothing any creases. Patch dough as needed to make sides straight. Stack on a cookie sheet
and chill in freezer 20 minutes or until slightly firm. Peel off top sheet of waxed paper and replace.
(This makes it easier to lift cookies from paper later.) Flip dough and paper over; peel off and discard
other sheet. Cut dough in 1 1/2-in. squares. Gently peel cookies from waxed paper and place about 1 in.
apart on a prepared cookie sheet. (if dough is too soft to transfer, freeze 20 minutes.) Repeat with remaining
dough; place on another cookie sheet. With a 1/2-in. aspic cutter (I use a heart shape), cut centers from
half the squares, reroll and cut scraps. In upper third of oven, bake cut out cookies 8 minutes, whole
cookies 12 minutes, or until lightly browned and slightly darker at edges. Place cookie sheets on wire
racks and let stand until cookies are firm enough to handle, but still hot. Place chocolate-mint wafers
on whole cookies; gently press cut out cookies on top. Carefully transfer to wire racks to cool. MAKES:
30
TIP: Use chocolate mints no more than 1/8 in. thick. Thicker ones, such as mint patties, don't melt enough
to bond the 2 cookies together.
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