Valentine Linzer Cookies

Linzer cookies recipe with ground almonds and raspberry jam.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Why should chocolate have all the fun? Here are some Austrian Linzer cookies with a red preserve filling that seem perfectly suited for the occasion. Enjoy. 🙂

Valentine Linzer Cookies Recipe

  • Yield: Makes 12-24 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutter shapes

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cups butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups finely ground blanched almonds or hazelnuts
  • 2 1/4 cups cake flour (can sub all purpose flour)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 6 ounces raspberry jam, or other red preserve (I used quince jelly)
  • Powdered sugar

Method

1 Beat butter, sugar, egg mixture: Beat the butter in a standing electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating. Beat in the egg, lemon zest, and vanilla extract.

2 Make dough: Whisk together the flour, ground nuts, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add to butter sugar egg mixture a third at a time, beating well after each addition.

3 Chill dough: Form the dough into disks, wrap with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

4 Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment paper to 1/8-inch thickness. Put rolled dough (still between parchment paper) in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to firm up before cutting.

5 Preheat oven to 350°F.

6 Cut out base and center cookie shapes: Cut out the base cookie shapes. Cut out the centers of half the disks with a smaller cookie cutter shape. Re-roll scraps and repeat.

7 Bake for 12 minutes at 350°F or until edges turn golden. Cool on a wire rack.

8 Heat the jam or jelly and spread the solid disks with a layer of the hot preserves. Place the top layer cookie over the bottom, pressing down lightly.

9 Sprinkle with powdered sugar, then fill the holes with more preserves. Let set slightly before serving.


Recipe adapted from The Food Network’s Sweet Dreams show by Gale Grand.

Links:

Hazelnut Raspberry Linzer Cookies from Serious Eats

Rhubarb Linzer Cookies from Molly Yeh

Linzer Cookies with an explanation of their Austrian origins from Joy of Baking