Linzer Cookies

Beautiful Austrian Linzer Cookies! Made with a buttery, nutty, tender and crisp cookie, a sweet, fruity and colorful jam filled center, and finished with a final snowy dusting of powdered sugar to highlight them. They’re easily one of the ultimate holiday cookies!

A Favorite Holiday Cookie!

If you haven’t made Linzer cookies before I’d say it’s due time! They are reminiscent of the Knots Berry Farm cookies / jammy Pepperidge Farm cookies but easily a thousand times better because they are homemade and fresh. Plus they have much more flavor.

They are similar to thumbprint cookies, butter cookies and shortbread. But they have the addition of preserves sandwiched between the center and finely ground nuts in the dough (here we go the easier route with pre-ground almond flour).

These are such a fun cookie to make and they are great for parties and gifting (just be mindful and careful to not give to those with nut allergies).

You can use various shapes of cookie cutters here. I recommend rounds, squares, stars or hearts, and you’ll just need to have a smaller cookie cutter to cut the mini shape from their centers.

Once you make these decadent sandwich cookies quickly hide them away. They’ll disappear in no time if you don’t!

No one can resist the layers of flavor, that nutty goodness, the perfect blend of textures and that tempting jammy goodness? It’s one dangerously delicious cookie!

Linzer Cookies Recipe Ingredients

• 2 cups (283g) all-purpose flour (scoop and level to measure)
• 1 cup (106g) almond flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (60g) powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
• 1/3 cup (68g) packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 3/4 cup thick fruit jam or preserves

 

How to Make Linzer Cookies {Making the Dough}

1. In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, almond flour and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together butter, powdered sugar and brown sugar until well blended. Scrape down bowl.
3. Mix in one egg yolk. Then blend in second egg yolk with vanilla and almond extract. Scrape down bowl.
4. Add in flour mixture and mix until combined.
5. Divide dough into two equal portions and shape into round balls. Flatten each ball to a 6-inch disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill until more firm to roll, about 45 to 60 minutes.

How to Shape and Bake Linzer Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees towards the end of dough is chilling (about the last 10 minutes). Line two 18 by 13-inch baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Dust a clean work surface with a fair amount of flour. Remove one portion of dough from the fridge. Place on floured surface sprinkle top of dough with flour and roll to 1/6-inch thickness.
3. Cut into desired shapes using a cookie cutter (something like a circle, square, or heart works well here. The size should be about 2 1/4 to 2 3/4-inches).
4. Transfer cut shapes to prepared baking sheet spacing 1-inch apart. Using a small star or heart cookie cutter (that’s about 1 1/4-inches across) cut the shape from the center of half of the cookies on the cookie sheet (these will be the top, the other half should be left whole for the bottoms).
5. Chill cut cookies on baking sheet in fridge 10 to 15 minutes so they hold their shape well.
6. Bake in preheated oven 9 – 11 minutes until edges are lightly golden brown. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Repeat this process of rolling, cutting and baking with the second disk of dough.

How to Fill and Top Linzer Cookies

1. Once cookies are completely cool spread jam over the whole cookies (the half without a shape cut from the center).
2. Place the cookies with shape cut centers on a baking sheet or over a sheet of parchment paper. Dust them with powdered sugar.
3. Place those powdered sugar dusted cookies over over tops of the jam topped cookies.

Possible Variations

• It’s a fun recipe where you can use different flavors of jam for flavor options and color variation.
• You can use hazelnut flour in this recipe in place of almond flour.
• Unblanched flour is fine, it’s doesn’t have to be blanched.
• Cinnamon can be added to the dough, adding 1/2 to 1 tsp with the flour. Personally for me it depends on the jam flavor I’m using if I opt to use it or not.
• You can use up to 1 tsp almond extract for more sweet almond flavor.

Recommended Storage for Linzer Cookies

• Linzer cookies store best (and longest) – without the jam filling in the center. Once jam is added keep them in the fridge.
• Also keep in mind once jam is added they’ll store okay the texture of the cookies will just soften slightly.
• The unfilled cookies freeze very well up to 3 months. Remove from the freezer and thaw at room temperature then fill with jam.

Helpful Tips for the Best Linzer Cookies

• Chill the dough for easier handling. The dough has a bit of a different consistency to work because of the addition of almond flour (there’s not as much gluten), so it can seem quite solid or quite soft to roll out.
• It may need to soften a little at room temperature if it’s too cold.
• Be sure to dust work surface with a fair amount of flour. The dough can soften quickly and this ensures the dough doesn’t stick and is still easy to transfer.
• You may also find a bench scraper is helpful to transfer the cookies to the cookie sheets.
• Keep the dough cold so it doesn’t spread while baking. This is why a second chilling is recommend in the fridge before baking.
• Use parchment paper or even silicone mats for baking rather than greasing the baking sheets. Greased baking sheets make cookies spread more.
• Be sure to us a thick jam. It’s a tip here I can’t stress enough. It really makes a big difference in having a cookie that’s not a mess to eat. Plus the presentation will be better too.
• Only add a little jam to each cookie (refer to the step photos), you don’t want it to run over when the tops are gently pressed on.
• Dust the cookies with powered sugar before you add them over the jam topped cookies. Otherwise you’ll have powered sugar dusted all over your jam filled shape if you do it after.

More Tempting Christmas Cookies to Try

• Gingerbread Cookies
• Iced Sugar Cookies
• Lemon Meltaway Cookies
• Peanut Butter Blossoms
• Stained Glass Cookies

Recipe modified and improved 12/11/21. Recipe previously included a whole egg and more flour but in re-testing the recipe I found I preferred egg yolks instead and less flour. It made for a crisper cookie with less floury taste.