Spicyana

Linzer cookies - Christmas in July !

The famous Austrian- Linzer cookie is one charming goodie, a jam filled cookie with a window of its own!!!! Considered as a cookie equivalent of the famed Linzer torte, this melt in the mouth butter cookie has a warm blend of flavors coming from the added ground almond, lemon zest, cinnamon and the seedless raspberry jam/preserve used as filling. A couple of years ago, for my first Christmas here, one of our friends gave me a box of assorted Linzer cookies with all different shapes and fillings. I loved this cookie ever since, and when the berry season came calling this year I made it again using the blueberry conserve we made with freshly picked blueberries. You can use any fruit jam for sandwiching the cookie, substituting almonds with cashew nuts is a nice variation to try.

Tags cookies baking berry jam Linzer
Blueberry Conserve

2 cups Blueberries
1 cup Sugar (reduce according to your taste)

Mix berries and sugar and cook under medium heat for 5 minutes or till the berries turn tender. Cool. In a blender, blend the mixture till it is smooth. Transfer to a heavy bottom sauce pan, and stir till the mixture thickens. Cool to room temperature. Keep refrigerated.


Cookies

3/4 cups butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon lemon rind
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups finely ground hazelnuts or almonds
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 ounces raspberry jam
Powdered sugar

Cream butter, add sugar and continue creaming. Add egg, lemon zest, vanilla, ground almond and mix well. Stir or sift dry ingredients together in a bowl and blend with the creamed mixture. Divide the dough into 2 portions, form thick disks and chill for 20 minutes. Roll out dough with floured rolling pin to 1/8-inch thickness on a parchment or wax paper. Cut out disks (any shape), approximately 2 inches in diameter. Cut out the centers of half the disks with a cutter in the shape of your choice. Transfer the shaped cookies to a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F for 10 minutes or until edges turn golden. Cool on a wire rack. Heat the jam and spread on the solid disk (without windows!) with a layer of hot jam/preserve. Take another cookie with the center cut out, and sandwich both together. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar, and then fill the holes with more jam/preserve (A pastry bag fitted with a small nozzle icing tip might help a lot.) Keep and serve at room temperature.

Cookie Recipe courtesy – Food TV