Linzer Cookies
Linzer cookies are the kind of Christmas tradition that never goes out of style!
Delicate almond shortbread, sweet jam peeking through, and a generous snowfall of powdered sugar - because the holidays deserve a little magic, one cookie at a time!
Linzer Cookies
Yield: 18
Ingredients
- 1 cup toasted hazelnuts or almonds
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Raspberry jam for the filling
- Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Instructions
- In a food processor, finely grind the hazelnuts or almonds. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg yolk, orange zest and vanilla. Beat until blended.
- Sift the flour, cinnamon and salt in a different bowl. Add the ground hazelnuts and stir to blend.
- Fold the dry ingredients mixture into the butter mixture.
- Turn the dough out, divide it into 4 equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled for about 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove 1 piece of the dough at a time from the fridge. Roll it out on a floured surface.
- Use a 2-inch cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Repeat to roll out the remaining dough portions then re-roll the dough scraps to make 36 cookies total.
- Cut a hole in the center of 18 of the cookies using a 1-inch cookie cutter.
- Carefully transfer the cookies to the prepared sheets and bake in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes until firm to the touch. Let the cookies cool on the sheets.
- To assemble, spread the solid cookies with about 1 tsp of the raspberry jam leaving a 1/4-inch border. Top the solid cookies with the cutout cookies pressing them together gently.
- Dust the cookies with confectioner’s sugar.
- Serve and enjoy!
