Hey guys! Another day, another cookie, amirite? I hope you guys are all in the thick of holiday life just as best as we can right now, including cookies on an extremely regular basis!
Today we’re making linzer cookies. These are little almondy sandwich cookies with cherry jam in the middle, dusted with powdered sugar. Plus, there’s a little window in the middle for the jam to peak out, and you can make that little window any shape cutter you have!
How to Make Cherry Linzer Cookies
When you’re baking at a high-altitude, cookies are one of the items least affected by the altitude. Still, you need to make a few adjustments to cookies, mainly in the form of reducing the baking powder or soda in the recipe.
These cookies actually start with cold butter, unlike most recipes, which mean you can roll the dough out, cut it, and immediately bake it without any chilling in between! This does, however, make it a bit harder to mix up. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can go for closer to room-temp butter, and then roll out the dough, and place the rolled out sheets into the fridge to chill for a bit.
Linzer cookies are typically made with some kind of nut flour incorporated with the all-purpose flour, which gives the cookies some really appealing texture and flavor. I also like to add a touch of almond extract to mine, especially when using cherry jam.
Once you’ve got your cookies rolled out, use about a 2 inch cutter in any shape you like, and then a small 1/2-1 inch cutter for the inside window. You can really use any cutters you want- there’s a lot of really cute mini ones out there today for the inside window, or you can keep it simple and go round, like I did!
Bake up every little bit here- even the window pieces that you remove. You can make tiny jam sandwiches with those!
Once baked, you can cool the cookies, spread the bottoms with jam, and top with the top cookies. You can either dust the top cookies with powdered sugar before sandwiching, which will leave a cleaner looking cookie, or you can just dust it all together, which is what I usually opt for.
Tips & Tricks for High-Altitude Linzer Cookies
These cookies come together pretty easily, but here’s some tips to help along the way!
- Use your stand mixer if you have one. Working with cold butter is a bit of a heavy lift, and it’s very difficult to get it incorporated by hand or hand mixer. When using your stand mixer, make sure to use the metal paddle attachment, and not any plastic spatula ones you may have. The cold butter creates a very firm dough!
- If you don’t have a stand mixer use room temp butter instead. Then, roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper in two-three batches, and place the sheets in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes before cutting and baking.
- Use any jam you prefer I really love cherry jam because the flavor of cherry with almond is one of my favs, but these cookies are wonderful with any jam. Go with raspberry or strawberry, or even apricot!
- I’m at about 5,000 feet above sea level and I usually find that people who live anywhere from 3,000-7,000 feet above sea level don’t need to make any adjustments to my recipes.
- Don’t under-mix the dough. I find that cookie dough is easily under-mixed, so give it a few minutes in the mixer to make sure there’s no dry pockets of flour at the bottom of the bowl. It ensures that your cookies will be even and smooth throughout!
I hope you guys enjoy this one!!
Cherry Linzer Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups flour
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 cups cold butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cold eggs
- 1/2 cup cherry jam
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or non-stick mats. Set aside.
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In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt, and set this mixture aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the cold butter and sugar until well combined. Because the butter is cold, this will take a couple of minutes. Beat in the vanilla and eggs until just combined. Slowly beat in the flour mixture, and beat the dough until very well combined and no flour pockets remain at the bottom of the mixture.
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Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick, and cut out cookies with a 2 inch cutter. Using a small 1/2 inch cutter, cut out holes in the center of about half of the cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies look just set. Bake up all the inside holes too- you can make mini linzers with these!
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Let the cookies cool completely. Spread the bottom halves with your cherry jam, and dust the tops with powdered sugar. Then, sandwich your cookies and enjoy!
Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!
While I love your recipes (5000') and most that I've tried work at my 9200' altitude, for here, cookies are the _most_ affected recipes. If a person has come from sea level, I always recommend reducing the sugar by 1/4, then try the recipe.
Hi Sue! Glad to hear you're enjoying the recipes, and thanks for the great tips! I don't typically reduce sugar at my altitude, but I have heard that it's important once you get above about 7,000ft. Thank you!!
I was wanting to make lemon curd daisy linzer cookies. What can I do ahead of time (i.e., freeze cut cookies?)
Thanks so much! I enjoy your book and your blog.
Hi there! You can make the dough and freeze it either on a sheet pan in rolled out layers (rolling out a third of the dough and placing on the sheet between parchment. You can then stack the other rolled layers on top) or you can cut the cookies and freeze them that way!