• Cut the vegan butter into small chunks and place it in a large bowl. Use an electric whisk or stand mixer to whisk the butter for 2 minutes. It will become light and airy. Add the caster sugar and vanilla extract and whisk for another minute to cream everything together.
• To the bowl, add the flour, ground almonds, and sea salt. Use your fingertips to rub the flour into the butter mixture. Once the mixture resembles a crumb consistency, use your hands to knead the ingredients until they form a dough. Once you have a uniform dough ball, flatten it down into a disc shape and wrap it with cling film. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat your oven to 180°C (356°F). Lightly dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour and carefully roll out the dough to approximately 1cm in height. Use a 2.5" cookie cutter to cut out cookies and place them on the lined baking tray, leaving at least 2 inches between each cookie. Use a smaller 1" cookie cutter to cut out the centers of half of the cookies. Make sure the cutout cookies are on a separate tray from the whole cookies as they will take less time to bake.
• Bake the cutout cookies for 8 minutes and the full cookies for 10 minutes, then remove them from the oven and allow the cookies to sit on the baking tray to cool for about 5 minutes. Carefully slide the sheet of parchment paper with the cookies off of the tray and onto a cooling rack. Cool for another 15-20 minutes.
• Dust the cutout cookies (which will be on top) with icing sugar. Add 1-2 teaspoons of jam to the center of each whole cookie and sandwich a cutout cookie on top of them.

Storage

• Keep them in an airtight container and store them at room temperature. They will easily keep for a couple of weeks but are tastiest when enjoyed fresh within the first 3-4 days.