These Linzer cookies with cranberry jam are the ultimate dessert. They are fragrant and sweet with a sharp punch from the homemade cranberry jam. Also, these cookies are easy to make and look absolutely stunning!
These butter cookies with cranberry jam are truly heavenly! Perfectly sweet with crunchy wafers and a delicious cranberry spread. In England and America, they are better known as linzer cookies.
If you haven’t heard of these cookies before, they are basically buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched together with colourful jam. You can just see the jam poking through the sweet buttery window. It’s a wonderful sight.
I know that you can easily find dozens of different recipes for these cookies on the internet, but I’d like to share my recipe interpretation, packed with citrusy and sharp flavours. You know, just to brighten your day!
Top Tips for Making Linzer Cookies
Before you start making these cookies, check out these tips:
- You need your butter to be at room temperature before you start mixing it with sugar.
- Chilling time is very important. After you make the dough, leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or even overnight if you can. Also after you cut the cookies, if you feel they’re getting too warm, leave them in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking.
- I know it’s tempting, but don’t add too much filling to your cookies. Around half a teaspoon is enough. Otherwise, you’ll overfill the cookies.
- When you sandwich your cookies, don’t apply too much pressure – the cookies are very soft, so you need to be gentle. Too much pressure will lead to cracked tops. And no one wants that!
Linzer Cookies Recipe Variations
This is an easy recipe, so all the swaps come naturally, but here are some suggestions:
- Make the cookies gluten free. You can swap the plain flour for gluten free plain white flour.
- For this recipe I used ground almonds, however you can make the Linzer cookies with ground pistachios, walnuts or hazelnuts.
- Swap the cranberry jam for homemade raspberry, blueberry or even strawberry jam. Also, if you love citrus flavours, you can also use orange marmalade or even homemade lemon curd.
If you love cookies, give these recipes a go as well:
Brown Butter Cookies with Raspberries
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Oat Cookies with Cranberries and Pecans
Soft Coconut Cookies with Clementines
Recipe
Ingredients
Cranberry Jam:
200g cranberries
60g caster sugar
Cookies:
150g room temperature butter
70g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 egg
1 clementine
250g plain flour
60g ground almonds
Method
Prepare the jam:
- Add the cranberries and sugar into a saucepan. Heat over low heat. Start breaking the cranberries down using a spatula.
- Heat the jam for 8-10 minutes until the berries are fully broken and the jam is glossy and shiny.
- Leave the jam aside and let it cool completely.
Prepare the cookies:
- Beat the butter with caster and vanilla sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer for a couple of minutes. Stop once you have a pale and smooth mix.
- Add the egg with the zest and juice of one clementine. Whisk until combined and smooth.
- Add the remaining ingredients and knead the cookie dough until everything is combined.
- Wrap the dough in the cling film and leave it in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
Assemble the cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line the baking tray with baking paper.
- Take the dough from the fridge and cut it in half.
- Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and use a rolling pin to roll it out, until it’s around 3mm thick.
- Use a round ravioli cutter to cut circles from the dough.
- Roll out the remaining dough with your rolling pin and cut the same number of circles, but this time also cut a smaller circle in the middle of the disc.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes or until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges.
- After the cookies are baked, let them cool down.
- Add a dollop of jam on a solid cookie and place the cookie with the cut in the middle on top of the jam. Gently press them together.
- Finish the cookies with icing sugar dusting.
