Linzer cookies recipe

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Linzer cookies

When growing up linzer (also known as empire biscuits) and ishler (chocolate covered version) cookies were one of my favorites. My grandmother used to make them around Christmas. These jam-filled cookies have their origin in Austria, but they are extremely famous in Hungary. Especially during Christmas time, linzer cookies can’t be missed from the Christmas table. A great thing about linzer cookies is you can make them well in advance, and you can enjoy them weeks later (store them in a dry, cool place). Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

  • 500 g flour
  • 250g unsalted butter (softened)
  • 130g granulated sugar
  • 1 package vanilla sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons cold water
  • 1 tablespoon of finely grated lemon grind
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon of baking powder
  • 250g of jam: apricot, raspberry, cherry, etc.
  • icing sugar

Instructions

In a large bowl beat the flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla sugar and unsalted butter. Add the finely grated lemon grind, egg yolk, cold water and lemon juice. Beat this mixture until you have a consistent dough. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for 1 hour.

On lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 3-4mm thickness. Using round crinkle cookie cutter, cut out shapes, rerolling scraps. Using a 2.5cm round crinkle or star-shaped cutter, cut centers out of half of the cookies to make tops.

Preheat oven to 170°C. Place about 2.5cm apart, on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake in 170°C oven until golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Be careful not to bake the shapes too long, the dough can easily become too hard. Let cool on pans on racks.

When the shapes are cooled, spread generous amount of apricot jam on each cookie bottom (1 teaspoon of jam), place the tops on the bottoms. Dust icing sugar over tops.

Enjoy!