Linzer cookie is originally based on the Linzer Torte which is named after the city of Linz in Austria. It is believed to be the oldest cake in the world with the recipe dating back to 1653.
Linzer torte is made of a buttery shortcrust pastry with the addition of almonds, lemon zest and cinnamon. It is traditionally filled with blackcurrant jam and topped with a lattice crust.
A Linzer Cookie is pretty much the same only presented differently; it is two cookies sandwiched together with jam and the top cookie is dusted previously with icing sugar. Even though it’s not traditional the most popular filling is raspberry jam.
These ones are made with toasted hazelnuts instead of almonds and are very slightly sweet on their own. I use whatever jam is on hand and this time it was red plum. The pastry should be rolled as thin as possible so not like the ones I made :):) I was in quite a rush when making them so some turned out a little thicker than I would have liked but were none the less delicious.
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ⅔ cup toasted hazelnuts
- 1 cup butter (225 gr) softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- a small jar of jam
- Pulse nuts with half the sugar until finely ground.
- Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
- Beat butter and the remaining sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy for a few minutes. Add the nut mixture & beat for another minute until well combined. Mix in the egg and the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture & mix at the lowest speed until just combined.
- Form dough into two balls, flatten then wrap in cling film. Chill for a couple of hours.
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
- Roll out the dough to a ⅛ inch thickness (about 4 mm) between two pieces of baking parchments. If the dough becomes too soft to work with put back in the fridge until firm.
- Cut out with the cookie cutter of your choosing then using a smaller cutter make little openings in the centre of half the cookies and arrange on the baking sheet lined with parchment. Put all the scraps of dough aside.
- Roll the other disk of dough and continue until you use it all. Gather all the leftover pieces of dough together and reroll only once.
- Bake cookies until edges are golden for about 10 to 15 mins. and transfer to a cooling rack.
- Once completely cool dust the ones with the hole in the middle with plenty icing sugar. Spread a tea spoon of jam each on the rest of the cookies and place a windowed cookie on top pressing gently to sandwich it well.
[…] cool. Now here’s Hati’s Linzer Cookie […]