Linzer Cookies

January 23rd, 2010  |  14 Comments

Consider today the beginning of a cookie revolution. This cookie will raise the bar on all other cookies in a way that will make you wish you never met this cookie. All other cookies will be the poor stepchildren of this cookie. You will look upon your old favorite cookies with a whistful expression that will say “I loved you once, but now you’re a sore disappointment.” And then you will turn your back on the old cookies, without a second glance.

There was a time I didn’t know any better myself. I was a young design school graduate hammering away at my first advertising job. Nabisco was one of our clients and they regularly sent us cases of Chips Ahoy and Nutter Butters. We all know what happens when there is free food around. We absentmindedly shovel it in, whether we’re hungry or not. Every afternoon I would grind through an entire sleeveful of these. My hummingbird metabolism didn’t seem to mind, and the cookies were good enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.

As I became more interested in food, I threw together a few recipes at home. Much to my amazement, the outcomes were far and away better than the store-bought counterparts. Crazy, I know! The company cookies became less attractive. And cookies, when you are a new baker are one of the easiest things to make. Even if you mess up a little somewhere along the way, they still end up pretty good.

A few years and a few gained pounds later, I was working in my first kitchen and the chef put me to work cutting out hundreds of linzer cookies. The dough was already rolled out and all I had to do was cut them out and space them out on sheets for baking. As I cut, the dough became softer and harder to transfer. I was struggling with the task. The chef noticed and shooed me into the walk in-refrigerator, along with the dough and the cutters. He stood outside the walk-in, arms folded, like some burly club bouncer and didn’t let me leave until the job was done. He must’ve borrowed this zen move from the Karate Kid, because if there is one way to get someone to hustle and cut faster, it’s to shove them into a 40 degree walk-in. The cookies firmed up enough to cut again and my shivering blue hand moved over the dough at the speed of sound.

That’s when I noticed that the cookies were packed with butter. Makes sense. The dough is easy to work with when cold, hard to work with when room temperature, the obvious properties of fat. I was allowed out with my finished trays, which I threw in the ovens to bake, then sandwiched the halves with strawberry jam. I popped one in my mouth.

HOLY! Did I just see the seas part? I held on to the wall to keep from fainting. As I bit in, I heard the faintest crunch. The fragile crumb practically dissipated away as I chewed, giving way to flavors of fresh butter and nuts. And what a kindred spirit the jam was. It ramped up an already stellar base and lulled me into a kind of trance. I had to have another. And another. Thanks to my earlier training in eating cookies by the stack, I could really put ‘em away. Some made it on to the petit-four plates, but many made it into my gullet. Soon enough, after giving myself a nice cookie flush, I realized there wouldn’t be enough for service. Back into the walk-in I went. And to the back of the line all other cookies went.

Linzer Cookies
makes about thirty 2″ cookies

Yes, this dough is a little hard to deal with when at room temperature, so work with one piece or one sheet at a time, work quickly, and keep the rest refrigerated. If it gets unmanageable, get it back into the fridge and pull out another sheet or piece of dough.

Here are some cookie cutters:

Plain:

Ateco 11-Piece Graduated Round Cookie Cutter Set

or fluted:

Ateco Set of 11 Graduated Crinkle Cookie Cutters

You can also find square shapes, heart shapes, or whatever else you see that has a big and a little version. I don’t wash these under running water, as they can rust. Wipe off the residue with a damp paper towel.

3 sticks (336 g) butter, softened at room temperature
1 1/4 cup (108 g) sugar
1 cup (112 g) hazelnuts
1/3 cup (56 g) almonds
2 large eggs
3 cups (420 g) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons (7 g) cinnamon
2 teaspoons (7 g) baking powder

powdered sugar for garnish

1. The cast of characters:

 

2. In a food processor, grind the almonds and hazelnuts as finely as possible. Don’t grind them so long that they become a paste.

 

Right on.

 

3. On medium speed, using the handy dandy mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. (Your butter should be soft enough that you can accomplish this by hand if you want, using an old-fashioned bowl and wooden spoon.) You are not trying to beat air into this. No need to get this fluffy. You are just making it smooth and creamy.

 

Just like so.

 

4. Pour in the ground nuts, and stir in on low speed.

 

Yup.

 

5. Add the eggs one at a time and incorporate each into the batter before adding the next.

 

6. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, and baking powder…

 

… and add them to the butter mixture.

 

Incorporate the dry stuff in on slow speed. At the end, you will probably have to scrape down the bowl and stir in by hand the stubborn buttery layer on the bottom that the paddle cant seem to reach.

 

The finished dough. It is now VERY soft, and will need to be refrigerated before proceeding.

 

Scrape the dough out onto some plastic wrap…

 

…wrap tightly, and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight.

 

7. Now we roll out the dough. Cut off about a third of the dough. Lightly flour your surface and the top of the dough.

 

You may want to let the dough sit at room temperature first for 5 or 10 minutes just so it isn’t so cold that it cracks at the edges while rolling, like my first piece:

 

The second piece did a little better.

 

Tip: If you have a very sticky dough that keeps sticking to your table, roll it directly on your parchment paper, like here. You’ll still want to flour the paper first, as you would a table.

Flour the top as needed to keep the rolling pin from sticking and tearing the dough. Work as quickly as you can, as the dough is easiest to work with while still cold.

 

Here is a good thickness, about 1/8″. If some of the dough rolls past the edge of the paper, trim the excess away.

 

As you roll you can stack up the sheets together on one sheet tray.

Refrigerate again for half an hour to firm up the dough enough for cutting out.

 

We’re almost baking. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Because they are conveniently stacked up, you can pull each sheet out of the fridge one at a time. Quickly, cut out the rounds and transfer them to another parchment-lined sheet (you can use a plain or a fluted cutter). An offset spatula makes it easier to transfer the rounds. They don’t spread, so fit them close together. (Of course, you can refrigerate and reroll the scraps.)

 

Once all your rounds are cut, you will need to cut smaller circles out of the centers of HALF the available quantity. These will be the tops. Again, if the dough is too soft to pull out the centers easily, refrigerate first for easier handling.

Bake your trays. They take 15 to 20 minutes.

Here is one baked tray of bottoms and one tray of tops. You can see the cookies have deepened in color a little. And that’s all you are looking for. A happy, golden brown color. Let them cool to room temperature.

 

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip and load up with your favorite preserve. I like strawberry or raspberry here.

 

Pipe the jam over the bottoms (if you don’t have a pastry bag, you can spoon it on.) Keep the jam away from the edges. When you make the sandwiches, the tops will force the jam to the edges when you press.

Sprinkle some powdered sugar over the hole-y ones.

 

Now carefully sandwich.

 

Eat as many as you can before anyone gets home.