Linzer Sandwich Cookies
CATEGORIES
INGREDIENTS
- Servings: 16
- 1 cup unblanched hazelnuts
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 lg egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (plus more for the work surface)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup of jam (I used my Pomegranate Jelly)
- Powder sugar for dusting
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 375' F.
- Toast your hazelnuts on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes. Immediately transfer the nuts to a clean towel and vigorously rub them in the towel to remove the skins.
- It kinda worked. I got a workout. The nuts were not completely skinless or even halfway skinless. There has got to be a better way.
- Anyways....set the semi-skinless nuts aside and allow to cool completely. Once cool, place in a food processor and grind them up until they are....well..... finely ground. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat for another 3 minutes, until smooth. Beat in the vanilla.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the hazelnuts, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add to the butter mixture (I added a little at a time), beat on low to combine.
- Divide the dough in half and flatten into disks. Wrap them with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight.
- When you're ready to bake:
- Preheat the oven to 350' Prepare 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Get out a 2 1/2" round cookie cutter and a 3/4" theme cookie cutter.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4".
- Well, if your dough is anything like mine, it might be a bit on the crumbly side and not very rollable. What I did at this point was to form it into a ball first...and get that dough meshed together. Flattened it.... then it was very agreeable to being rolled out to 1/4" and then cut with the 2 1/2" round cookie cutter
- Carefully transfer the cookies to one of the prepared cookie sheets. Using the decorative cookie cutter, cut out the centers of half of the rounds
- Repeat with the rest of the dough and the scraps.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and place on wire racks to cool completely.
- Once they're completely cooled off, you can dust the decorative tops with powdered sugar.
- Spread a little jam on the bottoms (about a tablespoon)
- Put the sugar dusted, decorative tops on and there you have the prettiest little tasty cookies ever.