Prepare your lard. Heat it in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time. Remove after each round and stir. Your goal is to render the lard to be one smooth consistency as it often is bought from the store or scooped with uneven chunks. Once you can stir it into one consistency, set it aside to let it cool
Using a stand mixer, beat the eggs and granulated sugar until a little foamy. Add the vanilla extract. Mix in the lard slowly making sure it is no longer warm.
In a separate bowl mix the all-purpose flour and baking powder. Slowly add this to the wet mixture and continue mixing everything to create a dough.
Turn out the dough onto a flat surface covered in plastic wrap and spread the dough out to about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap this all up in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This will make rolling and shaping easier.
Preheat oven to 350℉
Dust a surface with flour and take your dough out of the chiller. Dust the dough with flour and dust a rolling pin. Roll the dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 2 ½ inch circle cutter, shape the cookies.
Cut out a small hole in half the cookies using a fun shaped cookie cutter or freehand. Reuse the scraps to make more cookies!
Place all the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 350℉ for 7 to 8 minutes or until edges turn golden.
Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool before filling
Put a small dollop of jam on the full circle cookies and then press the cookies that have cutouts to fully assemble the cookie. Dust with powdered sugar to complete the Maslenki!
