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
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
- 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 Cream butter in a standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Add sugar and continue creaming. Add the egg, lemon, and vanilla and mix. Mix in the ground nuts.
2 Stir together dry ingredients in a bowl and add to mixer and blend. Form the dough into disks, wrap and chill.
3 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.
4 Preheat oven to 350°F.
5 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.
6 Bake for 12 minutes or until edges turn golden. Cool on a wire rack.
7 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. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, then fill the holes with more preserves. Let set slightly before serving.
Makes 12-24 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutter shapes.
Recipe adapted from The Food Network's Sweet Dreams show by Gale Grand.
Links:
Apple Linzer Cookies from Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess
Linzer Cookies with an explanation of their Austrian origins from Joy of Baking
Hazelnut Linzer Cookies from Nic at Bakingsheet
Those are lovely, and I especially like the little heart cut-outs made into their own cookies!
They’d make ‘great birthday cookies’ too, you know, for someone who’s really special, someone who gives of herself all the time, someone who makes the world a better place. I wonder who that might be …
When I was a little girl,Linzer cookies always reminded me of beautiful stained glass windows. I’m all grown up now, and they still do. Just looking at your lovely cookies made me smile.
Stunning photos and cookies! The only time I tried making sandwich cookies I found they got a little soggy even in a closed tin, from the humidity in the jam I suppose. Even though I reduced the jam to reduce its water content. Have you had that problem?
I loved it. It was very good and I enjoyed it a LOT. My husband did also. Try it!
I made these, and it took me about five hours, but they were very worth it.
Wow, these look awesome! And such a lovely drift from the usual chocolate!:)
A great recipe along with some great photos. Thanks Elise!
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I have a vegan/dairy-free/gluten-free version of the Linzer heart cookie over at elanaspantry.com.
My favorite thing about this cookie dough is that it only requires 5 ingredients, keeping the recipe quite simple.
Enjoy!
Hi there, thank you for your lovely recipes!
I was wondering, do I use regular or unsalted butter for these cookies?
Always unsalted butter in recipes, unless otherwise specified. ~Elise
Hi, your cookies look so pretty. I want to try to bake them, but was wondering if I should toast and peel the nuts first. Thanks.
Peeling is a good idea, toasting is unnecessary. ~Elise
It’s my first attempt in baking cookies for the first time ever in my life. And it’s for my boyfriend. They’re baking in the oven right now. Looks yummy. Smells yummy. I hope they taste yummy! :)
Easy recipe but took me a while. Luckily my mom helped !! Hopefully second batch tomorrow comes out perfect.
Can cookies be baked ahead and then frozen?
Good question. I don’t see why not. ~Elise
Now I’ve got something to make my girl for Valentine’s Day. :) Thanks Elise!
After method 2, you say to chill, but you don’t say for how long.
You want the dough to chill enough so that it is stiff enough to roll out. That’s usually about an hour. Could be less. ~Elise
My husband has a nut allergy. Could I leave them out or will it mess the recipe up. Could I use any other nuts?
If you just leave them out then yes, I suspect it will mess up the recipe. This particular recipe requires almond flour or hazelnut flour. I would look for a different linzer cookie recipe if you need one without using one of these nuts. ~Elise
I didn’t realise these were so easy to make, I’ve just made some gluten free double heart cookies using a similar method. If only I knew…well I guess it’s not too late!
I made these for a friend last week and learned two lessons – chill the dough thoroughly or else trying to keep the heart shapes intact will be nearly impossible, and don’t make them too thick or else your end product will look like sandwiches. I divided the dough into three discs and the first batch was a bit of a disaster, but after having learned my lesson, the second one was perfect. My friend loved them!
Hi, Joe’s here.
If I may ask, will this cookies’ jam (the middle of the heart shape) be sticky after it cool down? Like if I were want to put it in a small plastic bag and make it as a gift to my loved ones, will it be okay? Will it stick to the plastic bag and mess it up? I’m just curious, thank you. =)
It should be okay, especially after you sprinkle the whole thing with powdered sugar. ~Elise