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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 0 Minutes |
Ready In: 0 Minutes Servings: 3 |
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Editor's note: This recipe is from chef Wolfgang Puck. My mother would always begin baking in early December and keep it up right through the holidays. But she wasn't working frantically the whole time. She just knew that the earlier you start your holiday baking, the more you'll be free to enjoy the big celebrations. The ingredients in her cookies promote tenderness and retain moisture so that they stand up well to storage for several weeks when properly packed. My mother's Linzer cookies not only stay moist thanks to their ground hazelnuts and raspberry jam, but they actually improve in flavor as their subtle blend of spices matures. They remain one of my favorites. Ingredients:
1/2 pound whole shelled hazelnuts |
1 cup cake flour, plus more for dusting |
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting |
1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature if using a hand mixer |
1 cup granulated sugar |
1 egg |
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon |
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg |
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves |
1/4 teaspoon salt |
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest |
1 cup raspberry jam |
powdered sugar, for dusting |
Directions:
1. 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spread the hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Empty them into a folded kitchen towel, enclosing them between the folds, and rub them to remove their skins. Transfer the nuts to a food processor fitted with the stainless-steel blade and discard the skins. Add the flours. Process until the nuts are finely ground.
2. 2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar together at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and lemon zest and continue mixing for 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the nut-flour mixture. Mix just until the mixture comes together into a smooth dough. Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and gently press it into a flat disc about 2 inches thick. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 to 3 hours, or preferably overnight.
3. 3. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it into quarters. Place one piece between two sheets of lightly dusted parchment paper and roll out to an even 1/8-inch thickness. Repeat with the other pieces of dough. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes or longer.
4. 4. Preheat the oven to 350° F. with the rack in the lower third. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the freezer, one sheet at a time. Carefully peel the top piece of parchment off the dough and, using a 2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out stars of dough. With a 1/2-inch diameter circular cookie cutter, cut out holes from the centers of half of the stars (the holes will make nice mini-cookies).
5. 5. Carefully transfer the cookies to the baking sheets, placing them about 1/2 inch apart. If the dough is too soft to transfer easily, return it to the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes. If you need to bake the cookies in batches make sure you let the baking sheets cool before baking each batch. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven until golden brown, 10 to 14 minutes. Slide the parchment onto cooling racks and wait 10 minutes, then carefully transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely.
6. 6. Return the cookies to your work surface. Place a scant teaspoon of jam on each cookie without the holes and spread in an even layer. Generously dust the cookies with the holes with powdered sugar either from a sugar sifter or from a fine-meshed sieve held over the cookies and tapped with your hand, and neatly place them on top of the jam so that the jam pokes out the center.
7. Wolfgang's Easy Tips: ·It helps to have more than one cookie sheet when baking quantities of cookies. That way you can have one ready to go into the oven while the other is baking. I prefer shiny metal sheets to the dark ones, as dark metals absorb heat more quickly and can make cookies brown too fast. Always line the cookie sheets with parchment paper. Then you can quickly slide the entire batch on the paper off of the cookie sheet to cool. ·After rolling out the dough and before cutting the cookies, place the dough in the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes to facilitate cutting.
8. From Wolfgang Puck Makes It Easy: Delicious Recipes for Your Home Kitchen, 2004. Rutledge Hill Press
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