These cookies are complicated and I love them. This was my first try and a linzer learning experience. My recipe called for crushed cake crumbs and ground hazelnuts- kinda uncommon ingredients. Warning: hazelnuts aren’t cheap. I used Emerils’ recipe for Spongebread…very controversial. There were almost 30 comments on the Food Network website about his spongebread recipe. Some bakers thought it was perfect and others thought it should be removed from the site. I found it to be strange – it seemed cooked on the top & bottom but underdone in the middle. Rubbery. I still threw it in the food processor and used the yummy crumbs as ordered. The result- a delicious, cute, high maintenance cookie 🙂
My attempt at an authentic Linzer Tart Cookie Recipe
- 2 cups cake flour sifted (king arthur sells unbleached on their website)
- 1 3/4 cups crushed cake crumbs
- 1 cups ground hazelnuts (toasting is optional)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- raspberry preserves or jam
- powdered sugar for dusting
Cream butter and sugar in mixer. Add eggs. Sift salt, flour and cinnamon. Mix ground hazelnuts, sifted cake flour mixture and cake crumbs in a large bowl. Gently add to butter and sugar mixture. Dough should be sticky and I added 1/4 cup extra cake flour since spongebread crumbs were moist..(a tip from Jerabek’s Linzer Cookie Recipe)
You will need parchment paper or a silpat for your cookie sheets and you will need extra flour to roll out dough. This dough is very rich and needs to be chilled an hour before you try rolling out. A tip is to divide dough into 3 containers and keep 2 in freezer or fridge while you are working with 1. When ready to bake preheat oven to 350 and bake 10 minutes or until light brown. Let cool before spreading preserves and assembling cookies. Dust with powdered sugar – enjoy! I got about 2 dozen large sandwiches but this is an approximation….I didn’t keep track…next time!
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