The best Linzer Cookies

Linzer cookies are sweet, soft, buttery and extremely delicious. They’re a real Christmas classic and the perfect small sandwich cookie to complete your holiday baking marathon. Linzer Cookies might be a little bit time-consuming, but oh-so worth it!

Where do Linzer Cookies come from?

Linzer Cookies are a traditional Christmas cookie in all German-speaking countries in Europe. Germany loves them, Switzerland does, and Austria loves them too. In fact, they’re so popular that you can get them all year round – they’re that well liked! 🙂

Linzer Cookies originated in Linz, Austria. Every Oma (grandmother) has her own true & tested recipe, and everyone makes them slightly different.

Maybe you’ve heard of the world-famous “Linzer-Torte”. It’s kind of an XXL-version of the Linzer Cookies, and the dough is a bit more elaborate. You’ll add an egg into the dough, along with lots of ground hazelnuts or ground almonds, lemon zest and a whole assortment of spices. The dough is then divided into two, evenly pressing the first half of the dough into the cake pan. Then a mountain of redcurrant or raspberry jam is smeared on top, and the Torte is decorated with a beautiful pie lattice. It’s a delicious Torte, and one day I hope to publish a recipe for Linzer-Torte on my blog here, too! 🙂

Now back to the Linzer Cookies. The recipe I am showing you today isn’t the real classic-classic Linzer Cookie – I like to say it’s the Swiss version, which is a slightly simplified edition of the Austrian Linzer Cookie. In German, when we talk about Linzer Cookies (Linzer Guetzli), we actually mean a mini version of the Torte. The cookie dough is made with ground nuts, spices, an egg, and lemon zest too. The cookies are also sandwiched together with jam. When we talk about “Spitzbuebe”, we mean the cookies I baked for this blog post: They’re more buttery, only use flour, no eggs, and no spices except for some vanilla.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Spitzbuebe. I think they’re one of the most delicious sandwich cookies ever: Soft, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cookies, with lots of delicious jam in between. Who couldn’t say no?

You might be asking yourself what “Spitzbueb” means. Well, if translating it directly, it means “Point Boy”, or rather pointy boy. When we refer to a Spitzbueb in German, it is a cute way of saying a person is mischievous.

How to make the dough

Making the dough is really easy.

1. First, you need to cream your butter with the sugar, salt and vanilla. Make sure the butter is really at room temperature!
2. Then you carefully add in the flour into the bowl, mixing continuously on a low speed. I repeat: Mix on a low speed. I can’t remember how many times I had to clean the kitchen counter this holiday because I mixed too fast. Been there, done that.
3. The dough will come together really quickly. And make sure to not over-mix it. Next, you need to form a flat disk about the size of your hand, and wrap it in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge to cool for about half an hour.

Making the cookies

When it comes to rolling out the dough, you need the dough to be warm enough to be able to roll out the dough, but also cold enough to cut-out the cookies.

I roll my cookie dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap on a little bit of flour. If the dough is too cold to work with, I will let it stand at room temperature for around 10 minutes, and then start cutting out the cookies. If the dough is too warm, I will roll out the dough 2-3 mm thick, and the place the whole rolled out cookie dough sheet on a cutting board of some kind, and put it in the fridge to cool for 15 minutes. Cutting out cookies is easy if the dough isn’t too cold, so don’t leave the dough in the fridge too long!

Cutting the cookies out really isn’t hard. I recommend cutting out only “base-cookies”, and then when you see how many cookies you have, you cut out the middle of half of all your cookies.

When cutting out the little “windows”, a.k.a. middle parts of the cookies, I suggest you do that when you have placed all your cut-out cookies on your baking tray. As soon as you have cut-out the middle parts, your cookies will be extremely finickity! Google “Linzer Cookies” or “Spitzbuebe” to be inspired for more designs.

You can roll the remaining dough out again, and cut out even more Linzer Cookies!

Then, you bake the cookies, let them cool and sprinkle the window-cookies with powdered sugar. On top of each base cookie, you add about a teaspoon (or two) of jam, and then you sandwich the window-cookie on top. All done!

Some thoughts & tips

• I especially love using apricot jam for Linzer cookies, but raspberry jam or redcurrant jam are equally as delicious. I also loved using mango-passionfruit – you do you!
• The Linzer Cookies are fairly easy, but you do need to calculate some extra time when making them. I suggest putting on a good audio book or listening to your favourite playlist 🙂
• You do you when cutting out the cookies. Traditionally, we use round cookie cutters with a serrated edge, but I honestly couldn’t be bothered this year and wanted to try a bit more of a modern look with straight edges! You could also cut out stars and use smaller stars to cut out windows, or make Linzer Christmas trees. Options are endless! 🙂
• If the cookie cutter sticks to the dough, sometimes I find it helpful to freeze the cookie cutter (yep, you read that right!). Pop in into the fridge or freezer for 15-25 minutes and you’re good to go! It also helps having a cool surface to work on.
• Linzer Cookies will keep for about 2-3 weeks in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. In winter, we keep our biscuit tin on the balcony, because it’s always cold outside, but also dry.
• I’ve read that several people keep their Linzer Cookies 1 week prior to eating to “fuse flavours”. I haven’t found a big difference in flavour, and I actually prefer them as fresh as possible!
• You can make the cookie dough in advance. Keep the cookie dough disk in the fridge for 2-3 days or freeze the cookie dough 1 month, and let thaw in the fridge!

I hope I have inspired you to make this wonderful Christmas cookie. It truly is a favourite! Even though it’s a bit of a hands-on cookie, the results are absolutely worth the effort.

If you make these Linzer Cookies, please comment and rate the recipe! And don’t forget to follow and tag me on Instagram! 🙂

You might also like …

• These delicious Shortbread Cookies with salted butter. To die for, and easy enough for a last-minute Christmas gift!
• These Almond Thumbprint Cookies. I dare say they’re almost as delicious as these Linzer Cookies, and they’re definitely less time-consuming!

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