Nothing could be more appropriate for valentines day than a tray of these, buttery, confectioners’ sugar-dusted, jam-packed Biscuits.
Raspberries and almonds are a classic combination for a reason – they just work. The sweet raspberries accentuate the toasted almonds and brown sugar flavor of these traditional Austrian cookies.
Linzer cookies might look like another pretty sandwich cookie, but these sweet biscuits have a rich, crumb, thanks to a nearly invisible ingredient.
Small dollops of fruit jam add an extra touch of sweetness to these moorish butter cookies.
These linzer biscuits are filled with sticky raspberry jam to make them extra tasty, kids and grown ups will love them! You can use a variety of different cutters, round cutters with a hole in the centre are used for traditional Jammie Dodger biscuits, or you could cut out eyes and a mouth to make smiley faces.
What would normally be a fairly standard shortbread biscuit is instantly transformed by the presence of some jam and the lovely little love heart shapes.
What’s particularly great about this Linzer sandwich biscuit recipe is just how simple they are to whip together. The dough takes around 10 minutes to mix up, you’ll soon then have a batch of deliciously fresh Jammy biscuits for any occasion in no time at all.
- 275g unsalted butter, softened
- 130g caster sugar
- 250g sifted plain flour
- 250g ground almonds
- 100g raspberry jam
- 5 tablespoons icing sugar for decoration
- Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the flour about 60g at a time, the almonds and continue beating until the mixture becomes a slightly stiff dough.
- Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate it for about one hour.
- Preheat oven to 170 C.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the 1/2 of the dough into a sheet 3mm thick. With a heart biscuit cutter, cut as many hearts from the sheet as you can. Knead the leftover scraps of dough into a ball and roll it out again into a 3mm thick sheet. Cut out more heart shapes. You should now have about 12 heart shapes.
- Arrange them on an ungreased baking tray, leaving about 2.5cm of space between them.
- Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the other half of the dough, but before placing the second batch on the baking tray, cut out the centre of each heart with a 1smaller heart cutter. Bake both batches for 10 - 15 minutes or until light brown. Cool on cake rack for 20 minutes.
- Spread tops of the solid hearts with a thin coating of jam, lay a cutout biscuit on top of each, pressing the two together so they make a sandwich. Spoon a dab of jam into the opening of each sandwich and sprinkle the tops with icing sugar before serving.
- NOTE: Keep dough as cold as possible for easier handling. You may have to chill it after rolling it out so that it will be easier to cut.
- If the dough is still a little sticky, chill it in the fridge for a little longer until firm enough to roll out. The dough can also be frozen for up to 1 month or kept in the fridge for 1 week. Once cooked the biscuits will keep for 3-4 days in a cake tin.
