Linzer biscuits
Simple yet incredibly moreish, these festive biscuits contain a jammy centre and keep for weeks. The touch of warming cinnamon and cocoa brings out the nutty flavour of the hazelnuts wonderfully.
This recipe is taken from Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas by Anja Dunk (Quadrille, £25).
Ingredients
- 175g of plain flour
- 25g of cornflour
- 100g of ground hazelnuts , or 50g ground hazelnuts and 50g ground almonds
- 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch of fine sea salt
- 120g of unsalted butter , at room temperature
- 1/2 lemon , zested
- 120g of caster sugar
- 1 egg
To finish
- icing sugar, for dusting
- 80g of raspberry jam, or blackcurrant jam
Method
Line two large baking sheets with nonstick baking parchment. Put both flours, the ground hazelnuts, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and gently work it into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until it resembles something similar to breadcrumbs. Now add the lemon zest, sugar and egg and bring the dough together with your hands
- 175g of plain flour
- 25g of cornflour
- 100g of ground hazelnuts , or 50g ground hazelnuts and 50g ground almonds
- 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch of fine sea salt
- 120g of unsalted butter , at room temperature
- 1/2 lemon , zested
- 120g of caster sugar
- 1 egg
Knead for about 3 minutes until a soft, pliable dough is formed. Alternatively, put all the ingredients into the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and beat together to a pliable dough
Form the dough into a ball, wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4. Dust the work surface with icing sugar. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 5mm/1/8in. Cut out biscuits using a round cookie cutter and lay them on the prepared baking sheets. Using a mini cutter, cut a smaller circle out of the centre of half the biscuits. Re-roll the dough offcuts into more biscuits
- icing sugar, for dusting
Bake for about 10 minutes until just starting to turn golden. Transfer to two wire racks, one
for the whole biscuits and one for the cut-out biscuits, to cool completely
Once cool, spoon a generous ½ teaspoon of jam onto each whole biscuit. Dust each cut-out
biscuit with icing sugar and gently lay one on top of each jam-covered biscuit. Stored in an
airtight tin, these will keep for at least 3 weeks
- 80g of raspberry jam, or blackcurrant jam
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Linzer biscuits
