Linzer Christmas Cookies – Linecké cukroví
Linzer cookies are delicate, buttery cookies which originated in Austria. Linzer cookies are especially popular during the holiday season and are loved for their elegant look, nostalgic feel, and perfect balance of sweetness and buttery richness.
Tips:
- Save the butter wrapper so you can use it for buttering up the baking sheets.
- If the dough starts to be too soft and the cut out shapes are not keeping their shape, put the dough back to the refrigerator for a little bit. You can also keep the dough in the refrigerator and just cut pieces off as needed.
- Use cookie cutters that are symmetrical so the shape is the same no matter what side you use. This results in two matching baked halves that do not overlap.
- I stack a matching pair of baked cookies together on a platter to be filled with jam later. One is solid and one has a hole in the middle so the jam can be seen nicely. This way you don’t have to take time looking for matching pairs later.
Ingredients:
Makes: About 4 dozen small cookies
Prep: 20 minutes
Rest: 1 hour
Hands On & Bake: 1 hour 20 minutes
Assembly: 30 minutes
Bake: 350 °F (180 °C) about 5 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
2 cups (280 g) all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
1 lemon for zest
3 egg yolks
1 stick (1⁄2 cup) and 6 tablespoons (200 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Jam or jelly of your choice
Directions:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer add 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup powdered sugar and zest from 1 lemon. Mix together with a wooden spoon.
- Add 3 egg yolks, 1 stick and 6 Tbsp softened unsalted butter.
- Mix in the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment starting on slow and then add speed. Continue mixing until everything is well combined into a dough.
- Transfer the dough to a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Butter up two baking sheets and set aside. (You will want to use two so while one is in the oven you can work on the second one.)
- Sprinkle flour on a pastry board and cut off a piece of the dough. Put a little bit of flour on a rolling pin and start flattening the dough. Slide the dough a bit so it doesn’t stick to the board. Put more flour on the rolling pin and pastry board if it starts to stick to the board. Ideally you want to flatten it to about ⅛ of an inch (3 mm) thick.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
- Using cookie cutters, cut out shapes and transfer to the buttered baking sheet. Ideally you want the dough to be picked up as you pull up the cookie cutter. If the dough remains on the board, use the tip of a butter knife to pick up and transfer the cookie to the baking sheet. Make one row with solid shaped cookies and the next row the same shape but using a straw to make a hole in the middle.
- Bake for about 5 – 6 minutes, depending on how thin your cookies are. You do not want them to get golden brown. They should be removed from the oven when they are a lightly baked color.
- Let them cool off before you transfer them to a platter.
- Take a solid cookie and flip it over. Then put a little bit of jam in the middle of the solid cookie. Take a cookie with a hole in the middle and lay it on top of the jam, connecting the pair by pressing very lightly. (Be careful since they are fragile.) Repeat for all cookies.
you can make a mickey mouse cut out with your straw (3 holes) just like your apron. I’ve also seen current jam at Ross stores it’s the Scottish Mackay brand. As ever another great video.
Thank you Ann :) I do have a Mickey cutter and love it. ;)
These were really good (and fun to make) :) Made them last night with boysenberry jam for the fun of it and my family gobbled ’em down! Thanks for cookie recipe. :)
Yay! Glad to hear how much you enjoyed them. :)
thank you
Kristýna:
I am so happy I found your website, I lost my maminka this year and although we have many of her recipes there are some we are missing. I am looking forward to making these Linecké for Christmas this year. I also wondered if you could also include the directions for all your recipes so that we could easily print out a complete copy. Thank you
I am so sorry to hear that Lena! I hope my recipes will bring back wonderful memories! Just yesterday I published my Christmas Kindle Book http://amzn.to/2AhGQxw I hope that helps!
I just did these and it was the very first time I had ever successfully made them. I don’t even want to tell you about last time, however, I will say it was the last time I try to bake cookies with gluten free flour. Lol
:D I don’t even attempt to try gluten free flour. :D I am glad to hear this time they turned out well! :)
Are these cook books normal books to read or are they for the kindle or todays techmology. I want a normal cookbook . Thank you.
Only electronic right now but will have printed one soon.
Just a little technical one: you don’t have this recipe under the “Christmas” category.
Otherwise — perfect!!! ❤️
Thank you Martina! I just checked and I see it in Christmas category. I don’t have the Linzer hearts in Christmas category since I made it for Valentines. :)
No, actually, it was my bad! You can find it under xmas cookies too, – I just didn’t notice it’s more than one page…
Anyway.
Thank you for all your recipes, you are awesome!
Wishing you the very best in 2019, Martina
Thank you so much Martina! ☺️
Hi, I can’t find your linzer hearts recipe :( it was a bit different than this one. Is it no longer available? Merry Christmas!
Thank you :) Merry Christmas! Here it is:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
lemon zest
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 sticks of butter
jam
Something is wrong with the measurement of the butter, it is too much!
All is correct with the measurements. Since I posted this recipe from 2014 everyone is having success. I actually just made the dough using grams and it worked perfect as always. Not sure what error you made. It may seems like lots of butter, but it isn’t. Works perfect!