Enjoyable and attractive Easter Linzer Cookies full of apricot jam or lemon curd. Recipe with step-by-step pictures.
Easter Linzer Cookies
Easter in Switzerland is normally celebrated with Zopfhasen, or Easter Bunny Rolls. However as Linzer Cookies are well-liked right here all year long, I assumed it was becoming to recreate an Easter model. These Easter Linzer Cookies are impressed by an Instagram put up from Nigella Lawson and, actually, they make for the cutest presents!
I at all times make Scorching Cross Buns within the lead as much as Easter, and an Easter brunch nearly at all times contains an Easter Egg Nest Cake or a Lemon Curd Pavlova, each of that are, by the way, additionally recipes from Nigella Lawson. However I feel there may be at all times room for some cookies, and these Easter Linzer Cookies are a enjoyable exercise to make with the children.
What are Linzer Cookies?
Linzer Cookies originate from Austria and are buttery sandwich cookies with a jam filling.
The extra conventional Linzer Cookies are flippantly spiced with cinnamon and cloves, however many variations exist. The preferred model might be a buttery, shortbread-like cookie sandwiched with jam, as this appeals to probably the most palates (and particularly kids).
Linzer Cookie Recipe
My recipe for Linzer Cookies is a “kid-friendly” model, specifically that it omits the spice which is extra usually present in a conventional Linzer Cookie which is claimed to originate from Austria. The truth is, many European Christmas cookies are spiced cookies – they’re usually heady with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves or a mixture of those three spices and extra. All of those spices work rather well with a candy jam filling.
Nonetheless, for this Easter model, I choose to depart out the spice for a lighter and brighter cookie.
As you may discover from the pictures, I’ve used Apricot Jam and Lemon Curd within the filling these Easter Linzer Cookies to type the “yolk”, however any orange or yellow colored jam would work, comparable to Orange Marmalade, lemon marmalade or quince jam (my favorite!).
Methods to Make Linzer Cookies
Step 1
Cream the butter and sugar till the combination is pale and fluffy. I like to make use of my electrical stand mixer with the flat paddle attachment.
Then flippantly beat via the egg yolks and vanilla.
Step 2
Measure the flour, almond meal (floor almonds) and salt into a big bowl.
Regularly beat within the flour combination, one tablespoon at a time. As soon as the entire flour has been added, the combination ought to type right into a mushy dough.
Step 3
Gently knead the dough right into a mushy ball, after which divide the dough into two items.
Step 4
Place one piece of dough between two sheets of baking paper. Roll out the dough till it’s 2-3 mm thick. Repeat with the opposite piece of dough.
Place each sheets of dough on a big baking tray, and place them into the fridge to relax for not less than 1 hour. At this stage, you’ll be able to preserve the dough within the fridge for 2-3 days.
Step 5
Use a cookie cutter to chop out shapes from the dough. You’ll need an even variety of cookies – half of the cookies will probably be plain to type the “cookie bottoms”, and the opposite half may have an ornamental form lower out to type the highest of the cookies.
For these Easter Linzer Cookies, I used an egg-shaped cookie cutter, plus the top of a piping nozzle for the yolk. For a extra traditional-style Easter Linzer Cookie, you may as well discover Easter-themed cookie cutters that are egg-shaped.
Place the lower out cookies onto a big baking tray lined with baking paper.
Place the tray within the fridge for not less than 1 hour for the dough to relax. It’s best to bake the cookies when the dough may be very agency and chilly, in order to make sure that the cookies will preserve their form upon baking. In any other case, in case you bake the cookies when the dough is mushy and heat, you could find yourself with some cookies that are bigger than others, which will probably be apparent whenever you later sandwich them collectively.
Step 6
Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F (with out fan). Place a steel tray on the center shelf of the oven.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or till the perimeters of the cookies simply begin to color. You need these cookies to be fairly pale in color. The baking time will depend upon the scale of your cookies, in addition to your oven. Should you choose to have extra crisp or crunchy cookies, you’ll be able to bake them for a contact longer till they’re flippantly golden.
Depart the cookies to relaxation on the recent baking tray for about 5 minutes, earlier than eradicating them to a wire rack to chill utterly.
Step 7
Place the cookies with cut-out shapes on a big sheet of baking paper. Mud them with icing sugar (powdered sugar), as little or as a lot as you want.
Step 8
Place a scant teaspoon of jam within the centre of the cookie bottoms. You want sufficient jam to unfold to the perimeters of the cookies when sandwiched collectively. Sandwich the cookies collectively gently.
Suggestions For Making Linzer Cookies
- Chill the dough. The dough must be chilled in order that it’s straightforward to deal with. When you have a heat kitchen, work with a fan or the air-conditioning turned on.
- Re-roll. Any dough scraps will be re-rolled and re-chilled.
- Make time. Making sandwich cookies takes time, so put aside a superb 2-3 hours to make them (particularly in case your youngsters are “serving to”). You will get a head begin by making and rolling the dough the evening earlier than.
- Use your favorite jam. For these Easter Linzer Cookies, I like to recommend utilizing an orange or yellow colored jam for the “yolk”, comparable to an Orange Marmalade, Apricot Jam, quince jam, or Lemon Curd. The jam doesn’t have to be do-it-yourself, however it’s value utilizing a good-quality jam.
- Crisp vs mushy cookies. I prefer to eat Linzer Cookies on the day they’re made when the cookies are somewhat crisp. However in addition they style nice after just a few days when the cookies have softened and the jam has dried out and turn into chewy. Yum!
Easter Linzer Cookies
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook dinner Time: 10 minutes
- Whole Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: Makes about 20 cookies
- Class: Cookies
- Methodology: Oven
- Delicacies: Austrian
Enjoyable and attractive Easter Linzer Cookies full of apricot jam or lemon curd. Recipe with step-by-step pictures.
Components
For the Cookies
To Beautify
Directions
To Make the Cookie Dough
- Cream the butter and icing sugar (powdered sugar) till the combination is gentle and fluffy.
- Add the egg yolks and vanilla.
- Beat flippantly till the egg yolks are integrated.
- Measure the flour, almond meal and salt into a big bowl.
- Add the flour combination, one tablespoon at a time, to the egg combination.
- Maintain beating the combination as you add the flour.
- As soon as the entire components have been added, the combination ought to type a mushy dough.
- Gently knead the dough collectively on the kitchen bench till if types a mushy ball.
- Divide the ball of dough into two.
- Place one ball of dough between two sheets of baking paper.
- Roll till the dough is about 2-3 mm thick.
- Repeat with the opposite ball of dough.
- Place each rolled out sheets of dough onto a big baking tray.
- Place the tray into the fridge and depart the dough to relax for 1-2 hours. At this stage, the dough will be stored within the fridge for 2-3 days.
To Minimize Out the Cookies
- Use an egg-shaped cookie cutter to chop out shapes from the dough.
- Switch the lower out cookies to a big baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Use the top of a piping nozzle to chop out the yolk.
- Any unused dough will be re-rolled. Because the dough will probably be fairly mushy, I like to recommend re-rolling the dough between two sheets of baking paper, and chilling the dough within the fridge once more if obligatory.
- Place the tray of lower out cookies within the fridge for the dough to relax. It’s best to bake the cookies when the dough may be very agency and chilly, in order to make sure that the cookies will preserve their form upon baking. I like to recommend chilling the lower out cookies for not less than 1 hour.
To Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F (with out fan).
- Place a steel tray on the center shelf of the oven.
- Place the tray of lower out cookies on the pre-heated steel tray.
- Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes, or till the cookies are simply beginning to flip golden on the edges. The cookies ought to in any other case be fairly pale. The baking time will depend upon the scale of your cookies, in addition to your oven. Should you choose your cookies extra crisp or crunchy, bake them for barely longer till they’re flippantly golden.
- As soon as the cookies are baked, depart them to relaxation on the recent baking tray for five minutes earlier than eradicating them to a wire rack to chill utterly.
To Beautify the Cookies
- Place the cookies with holes lower out on a big sheet of baking paper.
- Mud these cookies with icing sugar (powdered sugar), as little or as a lot as you want.
- For the cookie bottoms, dollop a small teaspoon of jam within the centre.
- Sandwich the cookies collectively gently with the dusted cookie on prime.
Kitchen Notes
OVEN & STOVE TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this web site have been examined on an induction range and/or with a typical oven (i.e. an oven with out fan). All recipes on this web site use temperatures for a standard oven, until in any other case talked about. Convection ovens (i.e. fan-forced ovens) are sometimes 20°C/70°F hotter than typical ovens, however please test your producer’s handbook.
CONVERSIONS
To transform from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this useful Conversion Chart for Primary Components.
