Authentic Gluten Free Linzer Cookies | Easy Crowd-Pleasing Recipe
Learn how to make authentic gluten free linzer cookies with a tender, melt-in-the-mouth cookie dough and sweet, tangy jam filling.
Yield: 24 cookies
Equipment
- Cookie cutters 2-inch round + Small for cutout top
Ingredients
- 5 ounces raw hazelnuts (or roasted, blanched hazelnuts)
- 2 ½ cups (350 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter; please click thru for info on appropriate blends)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
- 16 tablespoons (224 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 (50 g (weighed out of shell)) egg at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
- ½ cup seedless raspberry jam
Instructions
Roast the hazelnuts.
- If your hazelnuts are raw, you must first roast them and remove their skins.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and set aside a clean tea towel.
- Place the hazelnuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, and place in the center of the preheated oven. Roast for 10 minutes, or until fragrant.
- Remove the hazelnuts from the oven and place them immediately in the center of the tea towel, cover the hazelnuts with the towel and rub vigorously from the outside of the towel to remove the skins of the hazelnuts.
- Allow the hazelnuts to cool.
Grind the hazelnuts.
- Place the peeled and roasted hazelnuts in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or a blender, and pulse or blend until finely ground (stopping short of creating a paste).
- Lower the oven temperature to 325°F.
Make the cookie dough.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and whisk to combine well.
- Add the ground hazelnuts and brown sugar, and mix to combine well, breaking up any lumps in the brown sugar.
- Add the butter, egg, and vanilla, and mix to combine as much as possible. Then, using clean, dry hands, kneadi the cookie dough to bring it together. The dough should come together and be soft but thick.
- Divide the dough into two equal portions. Cover one portion in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out, and set it aside.
Roll out the cookie dough.
- Place the remaining portion of cookie between two sheets of parchment paper, and roll out about ¼ inch thick, if not a tiny bit thicker.
Cut out the cookies.
- Remove the top piece of parchment paper, and cut out 24 rounds of dough with a 2 inch diameter cookie cutter.
- Peel away the excess cookie dough around the rounds, and set it aside to reroll.
- Without moving the cutouts, place them, still on the parchment, on a flat surface and place it in the freezer until firm enough to handle without tearing (about 20 minutes).
- Place the rounds 1 inch apart on a the prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat with the second piece of dough, cutting out 24 more rounds. From these 24 rounds, cut out and remove a small shape from the very center of the dough (here I used a small star cutter).
- Be sure to cut out the holes in the center when the raw cookie rounds are not cold, or the dough will crack when you attempt to push the small cutter through.
Bake the cookies.
- Place the first baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake, rotating once, until lightly golden brown (about 10 minutes).
- Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool until firm on the baking sheet and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Place the second baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake, rotating once, until lightly golden brown (about 9 minutes for the cookies with the center shapes cut out). These are the tops of the cookies.
- Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool until firm on the baking sheet and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Assemble the cooled cookies.
- Once the cookies are completely cool, place the cookie tops (with the cutout centers) face up on a clean sheet of parchment paper.
- Place the confectioners’ sugar in a fine mesh sieve, and dust the tops of the cutout cookies evenly with a fine layer of the sugar.
- On a separate sheet of parchment paper, lay out the whole, bottom cookies, face down.
- Place 1 teaspoon of jam on the underside of each cookie, spreading the jam carefully into an even layer.
- Top the jam with the sugared cookies. Do not use much pressure in assembling the cookies or the tops will break.
- These cookies, even once fully assembled, with be relatively fragile, so take care in serving.
Notes
Originally published on the blog in 2012. Republished in 2022: recipe unchanged, photos, video, and most text new.