Hazelnut Raspberry Linzer Squares Recipes

LINZER BARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position the rack in the middle of the oven.
• Spread hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven until golden, about 10 minutes. Turn oven off since you will not need it on again for at least 45 minutes. Empty nuts onto a folded towel, enclosing them between the folds, and rub them to remove their skins. Transfer the nuts to a strainer and carefully discard the skins. Allow nuts to cool to room temperature.
• Put the hazelnuts in a food processor fitted with the stainless-steel blade and pulse a few times. Add cake flour and process until the nuts are finely ground. Set aside.
• In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon zest on medium speed until light and creamy. Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Over medium speed, add the egg and continue mixing for 1 more minute. Reduce the speed to low, add the hazelnut-flour mixture, and continue mixing until well blended into a smooth dough.
• Divide the dough into 2 portions, with 1 portion about 8 ounces or 1/3 of the dough. Transfer to a medium pastry bag fitted with a number 1 plain tip and set aside. With the remaining 2/3 of the dough (about 20 ounces), form into a 1-inch flat disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• With a marking pen, trace a 16 by 13-inch rectangle shape on parchment paper. Place paper, marked side down, onto a baking sheet. With the reserved dough in the pastry bag, pipe straight parallel lines, about 1-inch apart, inside the marked rectangle. Then pipe a second set of parallel lines at a 45 degree angle to the first set of lines to make a trellis shape. Refrigerate until needed (dough should be well chilled before using).
• With more cake flour, lightly dust a pastry board or work surface with flour. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a rectangular shape, about 15 by 12 inches by 1/4-inch thick. Transfer dough to a parchment lined baking sheet and trim any excess dough to make an even rectangle. Bake for 20 minutes, or until dough starts to color. Remove baking sheet from the oven and transfer to a rack. Leave oven on. Allow dough to cool for at least 10 minutes.
• Spread raspberry jam over the entire surface of the cooled dough. Carefully place the refrigerated trellis-shaped dough over the jam. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until crust is golden in color. Allow to cool completely before cutting. Trim edges and then cut into 3 by 1-inch bars. Lightly dust bars with powdered sugar.

RASPBERRY LINZER BARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and lemon zest. In another bowl, mix flour, ground almonds and cinnamon; gradually beat into creamed mixture., Press 2 cups dough onto bottom of a greased 13x9-in. baking pan. Spread with preserves to within 1/2 in. of edges. Crumble remaining dough over preserves., Bake until lightly browned, 35-40 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. If desired, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Cut into bars.

HAZELNUT LINZER BARS

Steps:

• Make Classic Shortbread dough with just 1 cup flour. Add 1 cup ground oats and 3/4 cup finely ground hazelnuts with the flour. Mix one-third of the dough with 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts; freeze tablespoonfuls in clumps for 30 minutes. Press the remaining dough into a buttered 8-inch square pan. Spread with raspberry preserves and top with the frozen clumps. Bake about 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

HAZELNUT LINZER TORTE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roast the hazelnuts until they smell toasty. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Rub off the skins and cool the nuts another 15 minutes.
• In a food processor grind the nuts with the sugar until finely ground but not pasty. With your hands work in the butter, flour and chocolate together. Add the eggs, one at a time. You just need the egg to hold the dough together; you may need only 1.
• Butter a 13 1/2 x 5 x 2 1/2 inch deep meatloaf pan. Spread about 2/3 of dough in the bottom and up the sides of the pan, spread the jam in the middle and top with more dough. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 5 minutes more, then reduce heat to 300 and bake for 1 hour longer or 1 1/4 hours in all. To test insert a cake tester in dough and it should come out dry. Can be made days ahead of time.

LINZER COOKIES

Steps:

• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
• 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 1/4 cup brown sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely ground.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
• 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 in a stand mixer (preferably fitted with paddle) or 6 minutes with a handheld. 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.
• 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.
• Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
• Roll out 1 disk of dough into an 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, rewrap in plastic and chill until firm. 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 from half of the cookies, reserving centers and rerolling along with scraps (reroll only once). Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies from second disk.
• 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 same manner.