Linzer cookies are small shortcrust pastries filled with jam. They are named after their shape, which resembles a “sunny side up” egg: they are made by stacking two round cookies, one of which is cut out in the center, filled with jam.
For a tasty snack, you can prepare Linzer cookies and enjoy them with a good cup of tea or hot chocolate. Pair them with coffee after lunch.
To make them this time, I used the recipe for Milan shortcrust pastry from a famous Italian pastry chef, Iginio Massari, simply replacing the all-purpose flour with white spelt flour, which I prefer. This recipe yields a delicate and very crumbly dough suitable for cookies like Linzer cookies.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups spelt flour
- 7 oz butter
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 1 tbsp water
- vanilla (or vanillin)
- 2 tbsps acacia honey
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/3 jam (to taste)
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
Tools
That everyone has, or you can knead by hand making the classic well.
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Hand whisk
- 1 Baking tray
- 1 Mat perforated
- 1 Cookie cutter round
Instructions
To make these Milan shortcrust cookies, start by taking the necessary amount of butter out of the fridge so it’s already soft.
Place the butter in the bowl and begin to soften it by mixing it with the sugar and honey, but without whipping the mixture.
At this point, you can start adding the eggs and also the flour together.
At some point, you will get a soft but fairly compact dough.
Stop kneading and store your dough in the fridge for about half an hour or even longer.
After the resting time, you can take the dough out of the fridge and knead it quickly to soften and plasticize your shortcrust pastry. At this point, it is ready to be rolled out as desired.
To achieve an even roll of about 1/5 inch, I recommend using rolling pins with thickness rings. They are very convenient and allow you to achieve a perfectly smooth and evenly rolled dough.
Once the dough is rolled out, you can use cookie cutters of your choice to shape your Linzer cookies. Remember to make some solid and some cut-out to pair them and get the classic Linzer cookie.
Place your cookies on a baking tray. You can use a classic tray provided with the oven lined with parchment paper, or ideally, a perforated tray with a perforated mat for even and uniform baking.
Bake your cookies at 340°F for about 15-18 minutes.
Let them cool; at this point, you can fill them with your favorite jam and sprinkle them with powdered sugar.
Storage, tips, variations….
Linzer cookies can be stored for many days in a tin box.
Instead of jam, you can use chocolate, pistachio spread, etc.
You can replace all the flour with spelt flour or all-purpose flour: the important thing is that it is a soft flour for sweets.
You can also make this recipe with gluten-free flours.
