Raspberry Linzer Cookies
These beautiful cookies will take a prominent place on your holiday cookie tray. A delicious raspberry jam is sandwiched between two scrumptious almond cookies. Don’t let the extra steps scare you off; each step is very easy, and the results are well worth the effort!
Raspberry Linzer Cookies are a traditional Austrian Christmas cookie. These cookies get their wonderful flavor from seedless raspberry jam sandwiched between two cookies made with toasted almonds and brown sugar, then dusted with a sprinkle of confectioners' sugar. They taste as wonderful as they look!
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Cookies
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Ingredients
- 2/3 cup whole, skin-on almonds
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2-1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar, for dusting
- 1 12 oz jar seedless raspberry preserves
Ingredients
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Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Spread the almonds on a rimmed baking sheet; toast in the preheated oven until they are fragrant and lightly browned, about 6 - 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking power, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a food processor, pulse the cooled almonds with ¼ cup of the brown sugar until the almonds are finely ground. Be sure to pulse the almonds, you don't want to turn them into almond butter.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and the remaining ¼ cup of brown sugar, using a hand mixer or stand mixer. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract, and beat until well combined.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low; gradually add the ground almonds. Add the flour mixture in several additions, mixing after each addition. Mix only until combined, be very careful to not over mix the cookie dough.
- Divide the dough in half; shape each half into a disk, then wrap securely in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until the dough is firm but not hard! You can prepare the dough the night before, if you prefer; just take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow the disks to sit on the counter until it is still firm, but not soft.
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out each half of the dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out cookies using a 3-inch cookie cutter; place on prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies 1-inch apart. With a 1-inch cookie cutter, cut the centers out of half of the rounds; re-rolling the scraps. Bake the bottoms and the tops (the ones with the cut-outs) on separate cookie sheets!
- Bake in preheated oven, one cookie sheet at a time; rotating the sheet pan half way through. Bake until the edges of the cookies just begin to brown, about 8 - 10 minutes for cookie bottoms and 6 - 8 minutes for the tops. Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When the tops are partially cool, generously dust them with confectioners' sugar.
Recipe Notes
Bake the tops (the cookies with the center cut-out) and the bottoms on separate sheet pans. The tops tend to bake a little faster than the bottoms.
