Linzer Cookies
- Total Time
- 3½ hours, including chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3cups/435 grams all-purpose flour
- 1cup/155 grams raw, skin-on almonds (or ¾ cup/75 grams almond flour)
- 1½teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1teaspoon baking powder
- 1teaspoon kosher salt
- 1½cups/340 grams unsalted butter (3 sticks)
- 1¼cups/250 grams granulated sugar
- 2large eggs
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1cup/290 grams raspberry jam
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Nutritional analysis per serving (30 servings)
231 calories; 12 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 28 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 14 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 84 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Pulse together flour and almonds in a food processor until the almonds are very finely ground. Add cinnamon, baking powder and salt, and pulse to blend. (Alternatively, whisk together flour, ground almonds or almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.)
- Step 2
Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together on medium-high until the mixture is light, fluffy and pale, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, and beat until everything is well combined, again stopping to scrape down bowl as necessary.
- Step 3
Add in dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed, just until incorporated.
- Step 4
Divide dough in 2 equal pieces, and wrap each piece in cling film, patting into a 1-inch-thick disk. Chill at least 2 hours, up to 5 days ahead.
- Step 5
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper so it's about ⅛ inch thick. (Because of the almonds, the dough may crack in places while you’re rolling it out. This is O.K., just patch it up with scraps.)
- Step 6
Using a round cookie cutter 2½ inches in diameter, cut out as many circles as possible. Take half of these circles and cut out a 1-inch circle from the interior of the larger circles, creating a doughnut shape that will become the top of the cookie. If at any point the dough becomes too soft to cut and cleanly remove from parchment paper, slide it onto a cookie sheet and chill for a few minutes in the freezer or refrigerator. Gather any scraps of dough, combine them and roll them out, chilling as necessary. Transfer dough circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet spaced 1 inch apart and bake until the edges are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Step 7
To assemble the linzer cookies, spread about a teaspoon of raspberry jam onto the flat sides of the larger circles. Dust the tops of the cutout circles with powdered sugar and place on top of raspberry jam.
- Dough can be made 5 days ahead, refrigerated. Cookies can be baked 2 days ahead, unfilled, wrapped tightly and stored at room temperature. Cookies can be filled same day.
Private Notes
Comments
It helps to boil moisture out the jam you use until it has a very thick consistency. I used storebought jam. The texture won't be what you expect in jam sandwich cookie if you use the jam straight from the jar. Like others have said here, I needed a lot of fridge/freezer space and several metal pans to keep the dough cold to work with. Using pans lined with parchment while baking worked much better than using a Silpat, which made the cookies spread too much.
This recipe is almost identical to the one I found in a 1990 Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookie Magazine. They call it Ischel Tarts (Ischler Torchen) and have it in the Austrian Cookie section. They recommend baking at 350 and say it takes 7 - 8 minutes. The 325 you recommend took way too long for me (22 minutes!) so I tried it at 350 - It took 12 minutes - much better. They also recommend 1/2 teaspoon of jam for each cookie. I thought 1 teaspoon was way too much. Overall, a great recipe!
I love linzer cookies. I agree with some of the reviewers re the butter, and you can get away with using much less (I use two sticks instead of three). I toast the almond flour; it makes the cookies even more delicious (I order almond flour from amazon, great prices). This is a really scrummy (as my fav baker Mary Berry would put it !) European cookie, not too sweet, just right.
This is absolutely a Christmas favorite at our house. My grown up daughter looks forward to making them with me every year. She insists on raspberry jam, and I insist on grinding skin on roasted almonds for it. Following this recipe exactly yields perfect results! They are also lovely for Valentine’s Day with heart cutouts.
Made heart shaped for Valentine’s Day. Used two sticks of butter. Used the top of the vanilla extract for the cutout in the center. I had a chunky strawberry jam which I added to the blender with a half a cup of water and boiled down for 15 minutes. That worked perfectly. I felt that a teaspoon of the jam was totally necessary to create the filled jewel effect and bind the cookies. Everyone asked me if I bought them in a specialty store because they looked and tasted professional.
Used 2 sticks of butter and they turned out perfect after being in the freezer for 2 hours! I tried rolling the dough thin before chilling and rolling into a log to cut and the stamping out the dough gave me a much cleaner cookie. Great basic linzer recipe!