If you don’t have homemade, use any good-quality jam. Strawberry rhubarb, on the other hand, could be lovely. Plain raspberry would work well too, but strawberry might be cloying. I used some of my homemade raspberry-red currant jam - the recipe for which will be in my new cookbook The Joys of Jewish Preserving out June 1 - which Máša approved as a traditional choice. You can definitely taste it and the bright lemon flavor contrasts nicely with all that powdered sugar. I recommend using a tart jam for the same reason. Without the almond flour, though, the lemon zest takes on added importance. They are so buttery, so crumbly, so meltingly tender that you won’t be able to stop eating them. (Not a fan!) And I know I keep coming back to the texture, but honestly, these cookies are the antithesis of a dry, tasteless butter cookie. Personally, I don’t miss the almond flavor at all. These Linzer cookies or Linecké Cukroví are the best I’ve ever had. I was a little skeptical at first, but the powdered sugar, in fact, prevented the dough from sticking and the cookie is incredibly flaky and tender. I think the benefit of using powdered sugar for dusting is that, one, it sweetens the not-particularly-sweet dough and two, the dough does not take on any additional flour, which might make the cookies tougher. Second, Máša instructed me to dust my cutting board and rolling pin with powdered sugar, not flour, when rolling out the cookie dough. One, it calls for powdered, not granulated sugar, which, as it turns out, gives the cookies an especially melt-in-your-mouth, crumbly texture. I was intrigued by Máša’s recipe for a few reasons. In Czech, they’re called Linecké Cukroví.) So, for our purposes, these Linzer cookies are Czech. Moreover, Linz is in northern Austria, quite close to the Czech border. (Wait, you’re saying, didn’t you just explain that Linzer cookies are Austrian? Why are you now claiming that these cookies are Czech? Check the map, people! Austria, the Czech Republic - they’re right next to each other. Sure, I didn’t get around to it before Christmas, but I think Valentine’s Day may be an even better occasion for these delicate treats. So when my Czech cleaning lady, Máša (pronounced “Masha”), who is very special and has been with our family for over twelve years, handed me a nut-free recipe for Linzer cookies this fall and explained that these were her family’s preferred holiday cookie, I knew that I had to make them. Hence, I had never attempted Linzer cookies. But most Linzer cookie recipes call for almond flour and with my daughter’s nut allergy, almond flour is pretty much a no-go in this house. Thumbprint cookies, Linzer cookies, rugelach - I’ll make anything that lets me finish off a half-full jar of jam. With their delicate, crumbly texture and jammy center, Linzer cookies are pretty enough to grace an elegant tea table, yet simple and homey enough to please all palates.Īnyone who make his or her own jam loves a recipe that calls for jam and I am no exception. A bottom layer of cookie, a middle layer of jam and a top layer of cookie with a pretty cut-out design (through which one can see the jam) all dusted with frosty powdered sugar.
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