LINZER COOKIES
I must confess a hidden passion of mine: I have always adored Princess Sissi and even now if there is yet another rerun of one of her movies on TV, I watch it again!
From here comes a “study” so to speak of all Austrian desserts starting with the SACHER obviously up to the LINZER TORTE (if you want the recipe you can find it HERE), which is said to be one of the oldest cakes in the world. Occasionally I make it, but I don’t always have the time or desire to make a leavened cake, even though it’s easy.
Recently I found a recipe that recalls all the flavors and aromas of this fantastic dessert with the advantage of being super quick and super easy. What am I talking about? But the LINZER COOKIE, the famous Austrian cookies, a mini version of the LINZER CAKE!
Making these cookies is as simple as making the CLASSIC SHORTCRUST PASTRY. What characterizes them and makes them so special is the presence in the dough, in addition to all-purpose flour, of hazelnut flour, and a mix of spices including vanilla and cinnamon.
Once the dough is created in a bowl with just a fork, just let it rest in the fridge. After resting, roll out the LINZER PASTRY with a rolling pin and create cookies with the shape of your choice using cutters, bake them for 10 minutes and once baked, fill them in the center with red currant jam (or other red fruit jams) obtaining cookies filled with jam like the EYE OF OX COOKIES.
You’ll see how LINZER BISCUITS, in addition to being good, are fragrant, perfect for a tasty snack or breakfast and are so simple and quick to make that I’m almost sure they’ll enter your personal recipe book. Are you ready to start?
For more cookie and breakfast dessert recipes also check
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 20 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 310.04 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 36.73 (g) of which sugars 18.85 (g)
- Proteins 4.63 (g)
- Fat 16.90 (g) of which saturated 6.75 (g)of which unsaturated 3.83 (g)
- Fibers 1.31 (g)
- Sodium 92.86 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 40 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE LINZER COOKIES
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup hazelnut flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- to taste ground cinnamon
- 1/2 lemon zest (organic)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 packet vanillin)
- 1 pinch fine salt
- ground cloves (1 pinch optional)
- 5.3 oz currant jam (or other berry jams, strawberries, cranberries)
- to taste powdered sugar (optional)
Tools
- Mixer
- Plastic Wrap
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie Cutter
- Parchment Paper
- Baking Tray
HOW TO MAKE LINZER COOKIES
Place the sugar and cold butter pieces in a bowl (or in the stand mixer – leaf whisk), add a pinch of salt and start mixing. Once a butter cream is formed, add the whole egg, vanilla extract, cinnamon, ½ grated lemon zest, ground cloves, and continue to mix until everything is combined. Add the hazelnut flour, the sifted all-purpose flour, and continue mixing until you obtain the consistency of a classic shortcrust pastry.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, knead it for a few more seconds, then form a rectangular block. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
After the resting time, take the pastry out of the fridge and knead it by hand for a few seconds to make it malleable again. Roll out the dough with the rolling pin to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Use cookie cutters (shape doesn’t matter) with a diameter of about 2 inches to cut out the cookies. Re-knead the scraps to make more. In half of the cookies, cut out a small hole that will later be used to show the jam.
Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated static oven at 350°F for about 12 minutes. Baking times depend not only on the oven but also on the thickness of the pastry. Once baked, let them cool completely before removing them from the tray.
Before starting to fill the Linzer cookies, since they are handmade and not all identical, try to pair them by putting together the most similar ones. Lightly work the jam in a bowl to make it more creamy, then with a spoon (or a pastry bag) put a little jam in the center of the cookies without the central hole and place them on a tray. Take the holed cookies and sprinkle them lightly with powdered sugar only on the upper side. Once ready, create a sandwich by placing them on the cookies just filled with jam. Do not press, otherwise, the jam will spill out. There you go, your Linzer pastry cookies are ready.
LINZER COOKIE SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONS
LINZER PASTRY: the original Linzer cookie recipe includes a pastry flavored with ground cinnamon, vanilla, and ground cloves. Obviously, if you do not like one of these or do not have it, you can omit it.
HAZELNUT FLOUR: In the classic Austrian recipe for making Linzer cookies, hazelnut flour is used, but almond flour (in the same quantity) or other nut flours are also fine. Hazelnut or almond or other nut flours can also be made from whole nuts (hazelnut, almond, etc.). To do this, just toast the nuts in the oven, let them cool, and then grind them. Since nuts release oil, to avoid them turning into a paste instead of a powder, I recommend grinding them with ¼ of the sugar indicated in the recipe. The remaining ¾ of the sugar will be used as described above to mix with the butter.
JAM: Linzer cookies contain red currant jam inside, but you can replace it with cranberry or raspberry jam or other jams of your choice. Nutella or pistachio cream also work well.
HOW LONG DO LINZER COOKIES LAST
Linzer cookies can be prepared in advance and stored without issue before being filled for up to 4-5 days in an airtight container. Once filled with jam, I recommend consuming them within 2 days, otherwise, they may become soft from absorbing the jam’s moisture.
HISTORY AND CURIOSITIES LINZER TORTE AND COOKIES
Linzer torte is the typical Austrian dessert from the city of Linz, a true Christmas classic along with linzer cookies. It is said that this Linzer Cake is the oldest in the world known from recipe records. Its origins are debated, but the most credited story traces this dessert back to a pastry chef named Linz from the city of the same name. Then, due to its great success in 1823, an Austrian entrepreneur (Johann Konrad Vogel) began producing and commercializing it.
