Maria Pucks Linzer Cookies Recipes

Steps:

• Toasting the hazelnuts: Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until deep golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Empty into a folded kitchen towel, rub to remove the skins, and discard the skins. Leave to cool to room temperature, then empty into a food processor.
• Making the dough: Add the cake flour, sugar, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, butter, egg, and lemon zest. Pulse on and off several time; then, process until the nuts are ground and a soft dough has formed, stopping once or twice as necessary to scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula.
• Chilling the dough: Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Turn out the dough onto the surface. Separate into 2 equal pieces, dusting lightly with flour. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap, flattening and shaping it into a rectangle. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
• Rolling out the dough: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Meanwhile, line large rimmed baking sheets with silicon sheets or parchment paper. On another silicon sheet or a lightly flour-dusted work surface, roll out 1 piece of dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Roll out the second piece the same way.
• Cutting the cookies: With a 2 1/2- to 3-inch cutter, preferably star-shaped, cut out cookies from one piece of dough close to each other. Pull away dough around the shapes. With a thin spatula, transfer the cookies to a baking sheet. Repeat rolling and cutting the second piece. Use a 3/4- to 1-inch-diameter cutter to cut out the centers of half of the cookies.
• Baking the cookies: Bake the cookies until deep golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool the fragile cookies completely on the baking sheets.
• Filling & finishing the cookies: Transfer the whole cookies to a work surface. Spread each with jam. Sift powdered sugar over the cookies with cutout centers. Gently press powdered sugar cookies on top of the jam on the whole cookies. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight tins.

Steps:

• Pulse together flour and almonds in a food processor until the almonds are very finely ground. Add cinnamon, baking powder and salt, and pulse to blend. (Alternatively, whisk together flour, ground almonds or almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.)
• Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together on medium-high until the mixture is light, fluffy and pale, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, and beat until everything is well combined, again stopping to scrape down bowl as necessary.
• Add in dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed, just until incorporated.
• Divide dough in 2 equal pieces, and wrap each piece in cling film, patting into a 1-inch-thick disk. Chill at least 2 hours, up to 5 days ahead.
• Heat oven to 325 degrees. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper so it's about 1/8 inch thick. (Because of the almonds, the dough may crack in places while you're rolling it out. This is O.K., just patch it up with scraps.)
• Using a round cookie cutter 2 1/2 inches in diameter, cut out as many circles as possible. Take half of these circles and cut out a 1-inch circle from the interior of the larger circles, creating a doughnut shape that will become the top of the cookie. If at any point the dough becomes too soft to cut and cleanly remove from parchment paper, slide it onto a cookie sheet and chill for a few minutes in the freezer or refrigerator. Gather any scraps of dough, combine them and roll them out, chilling as necessary. Transfer dough circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet spaced 1 inch apart and bake until the edges are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.
• To assemble the linzer cookies, spread about a teaspoon of raspberry jam onto the flat sides of the larger circles. Dust the tops of the cutout circles with powdered sugar and place on top of raspberry jam.

Steps:

• Mix the flour, 1 tsp cinnamon and the allspice in a large bowl until combined. Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the almonds and caster sugar. Drizzle in the egg and mix with a cutlery knife until the dough comes together in large clumps. Using your hands, knead the dough in the bowl until it forms a tight, compact disc. If the dough is still very soft, chill for 15 mins.
• Roll the dough out on a lightly dusted work surface to 5mm thickness. Stamp out 20 x 7cm rounds using a crinkle-edged cookie cutter and place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Re-roll the off-cuts and cut out as many more biscuits as you can (you need to end up with an even number). Use a small round or other festive cutter to stamp a circle from the centre of half the biscuits. Chill all the biscuits in the freezer for 20 mins or the fridge for 30 mins until firm.
• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Bake the biscuits for about 10-12 mins, or until lightly golden and sandy to the touch. Leave to cool for 5 mins on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Mix the icing sugar with the rest of the cinnamon and dust this over the cut-out biscuits. Spoon the jam over the whole biscuits and smooth with the back of a spoon. Sandwich these with the icing-sugar-dusted biscuits. Will keep in an airtight container for six days. Best eaten within three days.