A thoroughly authentic Linzer Cookies recipe from Austria! Made with almonds, these cookies have a delightfully delicate crumb with a fruit jam filling. They’re fun to make, look beautiful, and taste absolutely delicious!
You can never have too many kinds of Christmas cookies, especially when they’re as good as these ones. All the way from Austria, welcome the Linzer Kekse! The origin of today’s recipe is Linz, Austria. Located in north-central part of the country, it’s Austria’s 3rd largest city. Founded by Romans, it served as an important trading point for many centuries. Linz is home to several notable individuals including Johannes Kepler who discovered the law of planetary motion, Anton Bruckner, the famous Austrian composer (the Brucknerhaus, a famous concert hall there, is named after him), and one of the most notorious villains in all of history – along with a couple of his cronies – considered Linz his hometown and envisioned it to become the main cultural centre of the Third Reich. Linz is also where the father of Fred Astaire is from – Frederic “Fritz” Austerlitz. On a side note, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers are two of my all-time favorites. Linz continues to be one of the main economic centers of Austria and has a flourishing music and arts scene. The Musiktheater (“music theater”) was opened just last year and is considered to be one of the most modern opera houses in all of Europe. Linz is home to roughly 270,000 people. And then of course we have the famous Linzer Torte, the inspiration for the Linzer cookies which are a 19th century adaptation of the torte. Created in the 17th century, did you know that the Linzer Torte is the world’s oldest torte recipe? The distinguishing characteristic of tortes is that they use nuts rather than flour as the main ingredient. The Linzer Torte, like the Linzer cookies, features an almond-based dough with preserves in the center. Black currant preserves are traditionally used in the Torte and raspberry preserves are most commonly used for the cookies. These nutty-buttery cookies are very popular throughout Austria and Germany. They have a fabulous texture and taste simply wonderful! The color of the cookies – whether they’re light in color or darker and speckled – will depend on what kind of ground nuts you’re using. Blanched ground almonds will give you lighter colored cookies while ground hazelnuts and walnuts usually come only non-blanched and will give you darker, speckled cookies. It’s entirely a matter of personal preference and difference nuts will give you a different flavor.
Linzer Cookies Recipe
Let’s get started! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the almonds or hazelnuts (you can use blanched or unblanched) out on a cookie sheet and toast them on the middle rack for 8-10 minutes or until light golden and fragrant. Let the almonds cool completely and then grind them in a food processor with 1/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside. I highly recommend using whole nuts, toasting and grinding them. They have much more flavor than using already ground almond meal/flour.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until light pale in color.
Add the sugar and beat until fluffy.
Zest the lemon. Organic lemon is recommended since you’re using the rind.
Beat in the egg yolks, vanilla extract and lemon zest.
Sift together the flour, salt and cinnamon in a separate bowl.
Stir the ground nuts into the flour mixture.
Beat the flour/nut mixture in the butter mixture, adding it gradually.
You’ll have a fairly soft but malleable dough.
Form the dough into a log and divide it into four pieces.
Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to two days.
Place the chilled dough between two sheets of wax paper.
Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness.
Cut out the desired shapes and place them on a cookie sheet. Reform the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and cut out more cookies. Refrigerate the dough first if necessary. I use and LOVE cookie cutter/stencil set from Progressive International. They used to have a larger set that included the heart shape but it’s not available at the moment. But they have stars, circles, Christmas trees, gingerbread men and more and they come with the center cut outs that makes making these Linzer cookies a breeze.
Cut out the corresponding tops of the cookies (with holes in the center to expose the raspberry preserves you’ll spread on later) and place them on the cookie sheet as well. *Important: You need to work fairly quickly so the dough stays chilled/firm. If the cut out cookies get too soft, place the cookie sheets in the fridge until the dough has firmed up again. This will prevent the cookie dough from spreading and will help them retain their shape.
In an oven preheated to 350 degrees, bake the cookies for about 12 minutes or until just starting to turn light golden on the edges. Allow the cookies to cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, spread the bottom halves of each cookie with raspberry preserves, leaving a small border around each cookie.
Dust the tops of each cookie with sifted powdered sugar.
Place the tops of the cookies on each bottom. Use a spoon or piping bag to fill the open centers of the cookies with some more of the preserves. Keep stored in an airtight container for up to several days. Enjoy! Adapted from Joy of Baking Originally published on The Daring Gourmet December 23, 2014 Read more about me…
