Linzer cookies

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/12/2014 (3950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This December we’re celebrating The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies with a new format. I’m drawing on everything I’ve learned from the past four years to offer a “best of the best” array of cookies, bars and candies. Over the next two weeks, I’ll offer recipes that will include old favourites, new twists and — I hope — something for everyone.

Based on a classic Austrian dessert, the Linzer torte, these sandwich cookies combine the tastes of toasted hazelnuts, warm spices and sweet jam.

Linzer cookies

100 g (3.5 oz/ 175 ml/ 3/4 cup) hazelnuts
125 ml (1/2 cup) golden brown sugar, divided
530 ml (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
2 ml (1/2 tsp) baking powder
2 ml (1/2 tsp) salt
2 ml (1/2 tsp) cinnamon
Scant 1 ml (scant 1/4 tsp) cloves
5 ml (1 tsp) grated lemon rind
250 ml (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla
About 125 ml (1/2 cup) seedless raspberry jam
Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Place hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan and bake for about 6-8 minutes or until the skins begin to loosen and nuts are fragrant. (Check often to make sure nuts don’t scorch.) Turn off the oven. Place the hot nuts in a clean tea towel and rub with the towel to loosen the skins. Discard any skins. Place half the brown sugar and the toasted nuts in a food processor. Process until the nuts are finely ground but not powdery.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon. cloves and lemon rind. In large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter and remaining brown sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the nut mixture and beat until well combined. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture by hand, stirring just until combined. Divide the dough in half, shaping each portion into a flat round. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 2-3 hours or overnight. (If refrigerating overnight, let the dough soften slightly at room temperature before starting to roll out.)

Preheat oven to 160C (325F). Butter cookie sheets. Roll out one disc of dough to 3 mm (1/8 in) thickness between two sheets of wax paper. Cut out as many cookies as you can with a 6 cm (2 1/2 in) fluted round cookie cutter. Using a smaller cookie cutter (about 4 cm or 1 1/2 in), cut out the centres of half the rounds. Re-roll scraps to make more cookies (but only once, otherwise the cookies will be tough). Place cookies on prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool cookies completely on sheets on wire racks. Repeat with remaining dough.

Place cooled cookie rounds browned side up and spread each round with about 5 ml (1 tsp) jam. Dust all cookie rings with icing sugar. Assemble Linzer cookies by placing a cookie ring on top of a jam-covered cookie round and pressing lightly. Store at room temperature in single layers between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container.

Makes about 20 sandwich cookies.

Tester’s notes: On the one hand, these treats are harder to make than many standard cookies. On the other hand, they’re easier to make than a Linzer torte, and they contain the same gorgeous mix of nuts, spices and fruit.

The tea-towel trick is one of those baking techniques that seems goofy but actually works. Don’t worry about removing every single bit of skin — a little skin adds a slight edge to the hazelnut flavour. Try baking the rings on one cookie sheet and the rounds on another: The rings tend to brown more quickly and need a slightly shorter baking time. You can buy seedless raspberry jam for this recipe, or press jam with seeds through a fine-mesh sieve. Or, of course, you can use other preserves, like cherry or apricot.

Served on the first day, these cookies taste like crisp pastries. Left in an airtight container for a day or two, the jam will soften them up.

Alison Gillmor
Writer

Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto’s York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992.

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