Linzer Cookies

I had a holiday luncheon at work this week so Kitchen M, a friend, and I decided to bake cookies for the party rather than buying dessert. After 4 hours of baking, we came out with plates and plates of cookies.

These first cookies were the most difficult to make, but they were also the most delicious.
Unfortunately, It wasn't until we had the nuts cooked and the dough made that we realized that the dough had to be chilled for at least 2 hours... I think this is the most diffcult recipe / production I have tried during my short cooking career.

The dough came out of the refrigerator very hard, but warmed up and softened quickly. Once the dough got soft it was very difficult to work with, so we had to continually stick it back in the refrigerator to cool down. - took much longer to get the cookies in the oven than expected!
The kitchen was filled with wonderful aromas while the cookies were baking! I made apricot jam in June and have lots of jars left, so we used the apricot jam rather than the raspberry jam the recipe calls for. We were able to make a little more than 2 dozen cookies - I guess the cookies were thinner than the recipe says. The cookies are not too sweet, but the combination of the apricot jam and the hazelnuts is to die for!
The cookies were a HUGE hit at work and everyone is telling me how delicious they are. I guess it was worth all of the time!

Recipe to follow:
Ingredients:

2/3c hazelnuts (3oz)

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 sticks (1cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 12-oz jar seedless raspberry jam

special: A 2 to 2 1/4-inch fluted round cookie cutter and assorted 1/2-inch shaped cookie cutters

Methods:

1. Put oven rack in muddle position and preheat oven to 350*F

2. Toast hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan until fragrant and skins begin to loosen, about 6 minutes. Rub nuts in a kitchen towel to remove any loose skins (some skins may not come off). then cool to room temperature. Pulse nuts and 1/4c brown sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely ground.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

4. Beat together butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add nut mixture and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

5. With floured hands, form dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 5-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 2 hours.

6. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350*F.

7. Roll out 1 disk of dough into 11-inch round (1/8 inch thick) between 2 sheets of wax paper (keep remaining dough chilled). If dough becomes too soft to roll out, re wrap in plastic and chill until firm.

8. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with larger cookie cutter and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging about 1 inch apart. Using smaller cutters, cut out centers fro half of the cookies, reserving centers and re-rolling along with scraps.

9. Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 10-15minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies from second disk.

10. Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 solid cookie and sandwich jam with flat side of 1 windowed cookie. Sandwich remaining cookies in the same manner.

No nutrition info for this recipe - sorry! But from the taste of the cookies, I don't think we want to know!

Recipe courtesy of: epicurious, DECEMBER 2008