Linzer Cookies

Linzer cookies are one of my favorite cookies to bake (and eat). It's a bit time consuming but the end result is so fascinating.

Here's what you'll need:
230 grams / 2 cups/ 8 oz - Pecans ( you can use Almonds, Hazelnuts, Cashew nuts or a combination)
60 grams / 1/2 cup - cornflour 
340 grams / 1 1/2 cup / 3 sticks - unsalted Butter
110 grams / 1 cup - powder/confectioners sugar
2 tsp Vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
340 grams /3 cups All purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder


Fillings:

jam of your choice - Warm for a few seconds in the microwave.
Chocolate Ganache - Melt 100 grams chocolate with 2 tbsp of cream (white, dark or semisweet)
Nutella - not need to do anything. Just use straight from the jar.


If I can do this with these two chefs then you can definitely do this alone..! This was one of the projects we did recently. You can see me son loves to actually help while my daughter loves only to taste.

Method:
Place the pecans and cornflour in a food processor and pulse until finely ground.

 Place butter and confectioners sugar in a bowl and mix thoroughly until light and fluffy.

Add in the Vanilla.

 Next the egg.

Next the pecan mixture.

Add the baking powder and salt to the flour and swift.
Next add the flour.

 Your dough will be really soft...

 Divide into four and wrap in cling / plastic wrap,

 Refrigerate for a couple of hours before you roll out. (about 4 to 6 hours)

I use the method I shared with you on my cake blog on how to roll and cut sugar cookies.
I chill the dough for about two hours. Then roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper.
I freeze the sheets for about half hour.
When frozen, first release the dough form the parchment paper.
Cut out the cookies, they will be very easy to lift and place on the cookie sheet.
I do all four sheets together, gather up the left over dough and do the same.

Here you can see I have made heart cookies using the Wilton set of three - I used the largest and smallest.
Cut out heart shapes with the largest cutter.
using the smallest cutter cut the center out from half the cookies.

Bake the cookies in a preheat oven at 170C/340F for about 8 to 10 minutes.

To assemble the cookies.
Just place your filling on the bottom cookie. Here you see some strawberry jam.

Place 2 tbsp of confectioners sugar in a sieve and dust over the tops.
You do not need to dust them too much - here my son seemed to really have fun doing it....!

Place the tops on the bottom cookies and there you have your Linzer cookies.

Here are some made with Nutella

 Here's some with Jam again.

Here's some White Chocolate Ganache filling.

 An assortment of shapes you can do...

Well, I do hope you try these.