Has Anyone Seen My Linzer Cookies?

Photo updated December 2012

I can finally publish this post now that my sister knows I sent her a package of linzer cookies.  Bad news is, she still hasn't received them, and I sent them by priority shipping over a week ago!  I told her that some neighbor has to be chewing on them now.  At least I have this photo here, so she can see what her batch looked like.  (I don't think she'll find that funny.)  Hazelnuts give the linzer cookie its great flavor, sweetened by raspberry jam, and cutout centers make them fun.  I bake them for her every year, but they can be a pain to make.  But this year, I have a recipe resulting in less swearing and other language not in the spirit of the holidays.

This King Arthur Flour version calls for hazelnut flour (essentially smushed-up nuts), eliminating the need the grind up my own nuts.  Never mind cracking them, like the first time I made these cookies.  Not fun.  It also doesn't call for repeatedly freezing the dough like my old Martha Stewart recipe.  Really, who has freezer space to devote to sheets of cookie dough, anyway?  As for the taste and texture, they're really so similar I might not be able to tell the two recipes apart in a taste test.  My vote is for this simpler one!  Merry Christmas, everyone!

Linzer Cookies by King Arthur Flour
For volume measurements, click on the link
8 ounces unsalted butter
3½ ounces granulated sugar
4 ounces confectioners sugar (I reduced this, but that's just me)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
2½ ounces hazelnut flour (I used toasted)
9½ ounces all-purpose flour
1 large egg
12 ounces seedless raspberry jam
Confectioners sugar, for dusting

Beat together the butter, sugars, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and flavor.  Mix in the nut flour, flour, and egg.

Divide the dough in half, wrap, and refrigerate for 60 minutes, for easiest rolling. Towards the end of the chilling time, preheat the oven to 375°.

Roll the dough 1/8" thick. Cut the dough into shapes with large linzer cutters. Use small cutters to cut a design out of the center of half the cookies.  Transfer the cookies to an ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned on the edges. Remove from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Waxed paper is my friend this cookie season.  No scrubbing the counter or baking mat, no need for extra flour, no sticking to surfaces.  When I'm done, I just throw out the sheets.  I roll them before chilling when the dough is soft (I find this is allowed for cookies, as opposed to pie or biscuit dough), and refrigerate the entire sheets, paper and all.

When the cookies have cooled, spread the whole cookies with jam and top with the cutout cookies.

Then finish them off with freshly fallen sugar.