Linzer Wreaths Recipes

LINZER HEART COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Toast hazelnuts until skins darken and begin to split, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a clean dish towel, and rub vigorously to remove skins; discard skins. Place nuts in a food processor; pulse until medium fine.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar at medium-high speed until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs; beat until smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, hazelnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and zest. Add to butter mixture; beat to combine, about 1 minute. Place in freezer until very firm, about 30 minutes.
• Liberally dust a clean surface with flour, and roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out seventy-two hearts. To make top halves of cookies, use a 1-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out centers from thirty-six of the hearts.
• Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets, and bake until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled.
• Lightly sift confectioners' sugar over cookie tops. Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on each of the bottom halves, and sandwich both halves together. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

LINZER COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, cocoa, salt and spices; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in almonds. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. round or cookie cutter. From the center of half the cookies, cut out a 1-1/2-in. shape., Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool completely., Spread bottom of each solid cookie with 1/2 teaspoon jam. Sprinkle cutout cookies with confectioners' sugar; carefully place over jam.

CRANBERRY-GINGER LINZER TORTE COOKIES

Steps:

• Combine cranberries, sugar, orange zest, orange juice, water, ginger, and salt for filling in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Lower heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until cranberries burst. Continue cooking, mashing fruit a bit with the back of a spoon, until thick as jam, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat to cool completely. Can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
• Sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt for cookies together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
• Mix butter and white sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until just combined. Add the vanilla. Gradually add in flour mixture on low speed just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
• Roll the dough ¼-inch thick and cut into 2-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With 1/2 of the rounds, cut a hole from the middle of each round into a desired shape. Place all cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes.
• While cookies chill, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Bake in the preheated oven until the edges just begin to brown or the cookies are crisp, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven; let cookies cool for 1 minute on the pan, then remove to a wire rack and allow to cool completely, 15 to 20 minutes.
• When the cookies have cooled, place 1 teaspoon of filling on the flat side of each whole cookie, spreading it out to the edges with the back of the spoon. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners' sugar. Place the sugared tops on the filled bottoms.

LINZER WREATHS

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper orgrease it lightly and set aside.2. Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, cloves, andsalt, then lightly whisk in the hazelnuts and set aside.3. In a stand mixer set on medium speed, beat the butter until creamy,about 30 seconds. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3minutes. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated,scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Beat in thelemon zest until blended. Turn off the mixer, add half the flour mixture,and beat on low speed until blended. Add the remaining flour and beat untilblended.4. Use lightly floured hands to gather the sticky dough into a ball. Dividethe ball in half and flatten each portion into a 6- to 8-inch disk. Tightlywrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Roll out the firstdisk 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured board, between 2 sheets of parchmentpaper or heavy-duty plastic wrap, or on a pastry cloth with a cloth-coveredrolling pin.5. Lightly dip a 2 1/2-inch wreath-shaped cookie cutter or round biscuit cutterin flour, then firmly press it straight down into the dough. Repeat, cuttingthe cookies close together to avoid rerolling. Using a spatula, carefullytransfer the cookies to the baking sheet. Bake until lightly colored, 10to 12 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.6. Roll out the remaining disk of dough, cut into cookies with the sameround cutter, and use a smaller, 1 1/2-inch round garnish cutter to removethe centers from the cookies. Bake the large and small rounds as directed.(The small rounds will take less time to bake, 7 to 9 minutes.) When cool,lightly spread half the large rounds with black currant preserves. Sift powderedsugar onto the cut-out rounds' frames and carefully set them atopthe jam-spread rounds. Enjoy the mini-rounds on their own.NOTE: Hazelnut meal is available in the baking section of many supermarkets orin specialty markets such as Trader Joe's in the nut section. One brand isBob's Red Mill. Hazelnut meal is finely ground hazelnuts.From Holiday Baking. Text copyright © 2005 by Sara Perry. Photographs copyright © 2005 by Leigh Beisch. All rights reserved. First published by Chronicle Books LLC, San Francisco, California.