Linzer

A traditional Christmas snack: 2 crispy cookies sandwiched together with marmalade, sprinkled with crushed nuts.

Recently, my mother gifted me a thick notebook populated with handwritten recipes. A wide collection of (sometimes weird) food descriptions and useful cooking/cleaning tips - all joint together by perfectly cursive ink lettering (see example below). These recipes date back at least 3-4 generations, and were documented by my grandparents, great-grandparents and their sisters/brothers in law and other relatives. Some were written about 100 years ago, if not more. Some of these traditional dishes and cakes are being prepared to this date in restaurants and confectionaries, while others are long forgotten, or have been modified and made unnecessarily complicated by modern culinary techniques.

Growing up, I always liked to maintain traditions and still absolutely love baking, so I had an idea to revive these old family recipes and test out whether they can compare to e.g. contemporary fine French patisserie. But most importantly, I want to carry on the traditional flavours and the art of baking in my own family, and pass it down to my future kids and grandkids. And now that I live so far away from home, there is nothing more soothing than freshly baked treats the way grandma used to make them.

Above is the original recipe for Linzer cookies written in Hungarian, most likely by my great-grandaunt Maca néni. The original recipe calls for 150 g fat + 150 g butter, but I substituted the fat for butter, as it is easier to get a hold of in Denmark. I added a bit lemon zest to the dough, and just before baking I sprinkled the cookies with crushed almonds and sugar. Once baked, I filled them with rosehip marmalade. I can say that my colleagues in the office were big fans of them! :)

I plan to translate the recipes I tested and liked to English, so stay tuned, there will be more coming to the blog. :)

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Ingredients

450 g flour

300 g cold butter, grated or cubed

150 g powder sugar

12 g vanilla sugar

3 egg yolks

1 egg white

1 lemon, zest

pinch of salt

100 g nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, etc.)

sugar

marmalade (raspberry, apricot, rosehip, etc.)

Instructions

I prefer to use a standing mixer (or a hand mixer) with the dough hook to keep the butter in the dough cold. Sift together dry ingredients. Mix in yolks and grated butter until the dough sticks together into 1 big clump. Wrap dough into cling fIlm and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Roll out dough on a well floured surface to cca. 3 mm thickness, and cut out shapes for the bottom and top of the cookies.

For sprinkling: brush the top cookie pieces with egg white and spinkle with a mixture of crushed nuts & sugar. I used almonds here.

Bake at 180 C (top+bottom setting) for about 10 minutes, 1 tray at a time. The cookies should not be browned. Once baked, let them cool on the baking tray and transfer to a cooling rack.

Sandwich 2 cookies together with the marmalade (I used rosehip). Store in an airtight container at room temperature. The cookies will get softer with time, and they can be stored for weeks in a box, so they are perfect for making ahead of the Christmas holidays.