Linzer Cookies

Linzer cookies are one of my new favorites, and I can't wait until next year to make them again. Layers of crumbly, nutty dough, your favorite sweet jam, topped with powdered sugar Linzers are the essence of a traditional Christmas cookie. They even have a stained-glass window-like appearance making them their own holiday ornament.

Have fun with these!

A printer-friendly version of this recipe can be found by clicking here.

And my attempt (with help from Wife):

Slivered almonds on baking sheet

Almonds toasted. The smell is incredible!

Almonds going into the processor with 1/4 cup from the 2/3 cup of sugar.

Food processor action photo.

You want these as fine as you can get them. They're going to become part of your cookie dough.

Looks good.

Flour, cinnamon, and salt into the sifter.

Flour, cinnamon and salt sifted.

Butter and remaining sugar to be creamed.

Butter and sugar creamed.

Add your lemon zest, vanilla extract, and egg yolks to the butter and sugar mixture.

Incorporate the almond and sugar mixture into the butter, sugar, vanilla, lemon, and egg yolk mixture.

After it's all mixed up start slowly adding the flour mixture.

Flour incorporating nicely.

Divide your dough into 2 equal parts.

Roll into rectangle (this was Wife's "rectangle" I had to make fun of her a little bit) and wrap in plastic.

This was my rectangle. - Refrigerate these doughs for about an hour or more.

When the dough is firm, it's time for oven prep. Two baking sheets need parchment paper and preheat your oven to 350.

Roll out the dough. We stretched out and rolled between the plastic wrap because "on floured surface" was failing for us big time.

Just a warning: Out of the fridge the dough is very stiff at first, but it's going to warm up fast and become very soft and sticky to work with.

Cut out whole cookies.

Reroll remaining dough and cut out more whole cookies.

Using a smaller cookie cutter, cut out the "window" on half of your whole cookies.

Bake 12-14 at 350 and these are your whole cookies.

Same temp and time for these and these are going to be your tops.

While your cookies are cooling gently heat up your jam. We used far more than the 1/2 cup the recipe calls for, and we wish we had used even more than that.

When your cookies are cool, spread your warm jam on the bottoms of the whole cookies.

Sift powdered sugar onto the tops of your window cookies.

Gently place your window cookie onto the jam side of your whole cookie.

Fill centers with a little more jam. - A bit of a process but it's simple, and you come up with an elegant, delicious, and fun cookie for the holidays.