Linzer Cookies

One more cookie recipe, then back to other dishes. I could never find a Linzer Cookie recipe that did not come out very dry, also it never tasted like the Linzer Tarts I use to get at this one bakery in Buffalo. So I set I myself to recreating that recipe to the flavor I remember.

Linzer Cookies

2 1/2 cups of Unbleached flour
1 cup of Hazel nuts
2/3 cups of raw sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of cardamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter, diced
1/4 teaspoon of almond extract
1 teaspoon of fresh grated lemon zest

1 cup of raspberry jam
Powder Sugar

Direction
Place all the dry ingredients,plus the nuts into the food processor and pulse until nuts have been finely ground. Next turn on the processor and start adding the butter to the processor a few pieces at a time. Once all the butter is in, add the almond extract and the lemon zest. The dough should be in large moist clumps; remove from the processor and form into a ball: you will need to scrap the dough from the processor bowl. Place ball on plastic wrap and flatten into a disc, wrap and chill for at least 2 to 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

You are going to need a cookie cutters of choice: you will need one large one and one smaller one. I use a trees, one large and one small.

Divided the dough into quarters, working with the first quarter, roll out on a floured board to about 1/4 inch thick. Next using the larger cutter, cut out your cookies, you will need pairs, a top and a bottom. Next cut out the center of one the pairs with the smaller cookie cutter. Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Now baking depends on the size of your cookies, my trees take about 18 minutes in the oven, but i had once made small stars and those took 10 minutes. You want to bake them until the start to turn golden on the edges. Remove sheet from oven and cool and racks for about 5 minutes, then like the OMG Chocolate Cookies transfer parchment and cookies onto racks to cool completely.

Repeat with the balance of the dough, remember to keep the dough chilled until ready to use. Also collect the scraps from each cutting: you should be able to make about a dozen or so paired cookies (tops & bottoms).

Now place the bottoms of the cookies on parchment paper, place the jam into a bowl and stir to loosen up and smooth the jam. Taking a spatula, spread a thin layer of jam on the top of the bottom cookie. Next take its mate, the top cookie with the cut out, and place it on top. Then dust the finished cookies with powder sugar.

There is an additional optional step that you can do. Once the cookies are assembled I take a zip lock bag and place some of the jam in it. I then cut a small end of the bag off and pipe additional jam into the cut out of the cookie, then I dust them with powdered sugar.

Enjoy Cooking