Linzer Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract)
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 cup ground blanched almonds (or other ground nuts or almond flour)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp lemon zest (finely grated)
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup (seedless) jam (e.g., raspberry, strawberry)

Instructions

1. 1

   In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar. Add flour, salt, vanilla sugar, egg yolks, ground almonds, cinnamon, and lemon peel. Mix until a crumbly dough forms. Press dough together with your hands and flatten into a disk. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

2. 2

   Take the dough out of the fridge, divide into two portions, and shortly knead portions by hand.

3. 3

   On a floured work surface, roll out the dough. It should be 1/5 inches (5mm) high. Cut half of the dough using a round cutter with your chosen insert and an equal number of rounds without the insert. Transfer cut out cookies to a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Chill cookies on the baking sheet for 30 minutes.

4. 4

   Preheat oven to 350F (177C). Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes in the middle of the oven until edges are very lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

5. 5

   To decorate the cookies, sprinkle the cookies with the cut-out with powdered sugar. Pipe jam on top of the cookies that don’t have a hole and put one of the other cookies on top. Let the cookies dry on the cooling rack for about 2 hours then transfer to cookie tins with parchment paper in between. Store in a dry and cool place.