Linzer cookies (in German Linzer Augen, “Linzer Eyes”) are biscuit-size versions of the Linzer cake.

It is a typical cake of the Christmas season in Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany and South Tyrol and these fragrant cookies can be easily found at any Christmas markets in these countries.

My version uses orange marmalade instead of raspberry, and orange zest instead of lemon zest.

Recipe: Sara’s Linzer Cookies

Ingredients

• 300 g wheat flour
• 125 g roasted hazelnuts or hazelnut flour (almonds can be used as an alternative)
• 200 g butter
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 spoonful of cinnamon
• 1 tea spoonful of vanilla essence
• 1 tea spoonful of baking powder
• grated orange peel from 1 orange
• 1 pinch of salt
• orange marmalade

Specific tools required
Round cookie cutter (5 1/2 cm/diameter ) and some small Christmas cookie molds

Directions

Use a food processor and crumble the hazelnuts until they become like powder.

Mix hazelnut flour with wheat flour, orange peel, salt, baking powder, and vanilla essence. Add the egg and start kneading the dough until you get a rectangular shape. Wrap the dough with a food wrapper and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime heat the oven at 180 °C.

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out with a rolling pin until it is 4-5 mm thick. Cut the dough with a circular cookie cutter, and use the Christmas cookie molds to cut the central hole on the larger round cookie.

Place the cookies onto a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes, until they get brown.

Let the cookies cool down, dust with powdered sugar only the ones with the hole. Spread some orange marmalade on the hole cookies and sandwich the two parts. Enjoy!