Linzer biscuits mean Christmas. Linzer is an Austrian city and originally these biscuits were called “Linzer Augen” or “Linzer eyes” as they had 3 small holes in the upper biscuit from which you could see the jam.
The recipe has changed a little over time, including the addition of spices, which make Linzer biscuits one of the symbols of Christmas. The scent that will spread throughout your kitchen is truly exceptional!
Ingredients
- 130 g of 00 flour
- 115 g of cold butter from the fridge
- 70 g of almond flour
- 70 g of brown sugar (large-grain blond sugar is better)
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- the zest of half a lemon
- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
- a spoonful of cloves
- a grating of nutmeg
- 1 pinch of salt
- half a teaspoon of baking powder for desserts
- red currant or raspberry jam for filling
- powdered sugar
In a bowl mix the dry ingredients: the flour together with the sifted yeast and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to mix the cold butter into cubes together with the brown sugar for a few minutes (alternatively, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk at low speed). Add the almond flour and knead the dough for a couple of minutes and then add the egg yolk together with the grated lemon zest, vanilla and cinnamon and mix well.
Add the flour with the yeast and salt and knead until you obtain a homogeneous and elastic mixture (shortcrust pastry). Form a ball, flatten it a little and wrap it in baking paper or cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Heat the oven to 180° C. Roll out half the pastry with a rolling pin on a floured surface (if you prefer you can do it between two sheets of baking paper), bringing it to a thickness of about 3 mm. Using a circular pastry cutter with a diameter of 5 cm, cut out round biscuits (these will be the basic biscuits) and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Proceed in the same way with the other half of the dough, creating a hole in the center of each biscuit with a pastry cutter with a different smaller cutter (star, tree, etc.). These biscuits will then be placed on top of the bases created with the other dough.
Cook the biscuits at 180° C for about 13-15 minutes or until lightly golden. Once baked, let them cool completely.
Sprinkle the perforated biscuits with icing sugar.
At this point you will have to create the “sandwich” as in stuffed biscuits: spread a little jam on the basic biscuits without going too close to the edges, at this point place a perforated biscuit on top and press lightly to make it adhere and repeat the operation for all the biscuits . Let them rest on a baking tray for 15 minutes so that they compact well.
And here are the Linzer Cookies, so soft that melt in your mouth, a biscuit that really tastes like Christmas!
