Linzer Tart and Linzer Cookies

In 1653, the Linzer Tart recipe was discovered in the cookery manuscript of Countess Anna Margarita Sagramosa of Verona.

The tart was baked like a pie with a delicious buttery almond crust, filled with black currant preserve and topped with a latticework crust. The recipe was developed using a crust made of nuts since they were easier to come by at times than wheat for flour.

In the Austrian city of Linz, bakers came up with a cookie version they could stock in their shops and it became a Christmas holiday tradition to find these lovely treats in the frosty windows.

This recipe was adapted from my grandmother's recipe notebook - page 59, where my grandmother called it Brown Linzer Tart (Braune Linzer Torte) - the color is due to the amount of cinnamon in the dough.

The Linzer Tart

Ingredients

250 g butter (soft)

250 g flour

100 g granulated sugar

250 g almonds (unpeeled and ground)

1 lemon zest

5 g cinnamon + ground cloves

2 egg yolks

Sour cream

1 cup black currant jam

Instructions

1. Stir the butter until fluffy. Crumble the flour with the butter

2. Add the ground almonds, sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon and cloves

3. Make this into a firm dough with egg yolks and sour cream. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. If the dough is too soft refrigerate for 20 minutes

4. Roll out into 4 round sheets of 9” (22cm) on plastic (or clingwrap) sheets

5. Place the first sheet into a parchment paper-lined 9" (22cm) baking pan. Spread black currant jam on top of it. Stack the next 2 sheets on top with more jam on each. From the last sheet create the grid

6. Bake in a preheated oven of 350°F (180°C) for 40-45 minutes

For the cookies, the bakers would mix up a batch of Linzer dough, but instead of making a tart, they would make cookies with cut-out shapes such as stars, circles or hearts. These dessert artisans constructed sandwich cookies using a whole cookie and a cut-out cookie. In the middle, they would place the black or red currant preserves just like the tart. After the cookie is put together, the jam or preserves peek through the Linzer eye to make a beautiful dessert, perfect for the holidays.

The Linzer Cookies

Ingredients

250 g butter (soft)

400 g flour

125 g granulated sugar

250 g almonds (finely ground unpeeled)

1/2 lemon juice and zest

5 egg yolks (boiled)

2 egg yolks (raw)

Sour cream

1 cup raspberry jam

Instructions

1. Whisk g softened butter with the sugar

2. Mash the boiled egg yolks through a sieve into the butter

3. Add lemon zest and juice, and raw egg yolks and mix well

4. In a separate bowl mix the flour and the ground almonds

5. Pour the dry ingredients into the butter and knead together until smooth.

6. If too dry, add some sour cream until the dough is firm

7. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts (part for the bottoms and part for the tops) and refrigerate for 2 hours

8. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to cut out the cookie bottoms and tops

9. Preheat the oven to 350F° (180C°)

10. Bake the cut-outs on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges are pink

11. Spread raspberry jam on top of each cookie bottom and stack the top on each

12. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar