Name: Fantastic Linzer Cookies You'll Make On Repeat!
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 155 min
Ingredients: 113 g Butter (1 stick or 4 oz) (- at room temperature); 3 tbsp Panela sugar - finely ground; 1 Large egg yolk (optional); 1 tsp Lemon zest or lemon paste (- you could use a few drops of lemon oil instead too.); ½ tsp Cinnamon; 1 tsp Vanilla extract; ½ tsp Almond extract; ⅛ tsp Sea salt; 160 g Einkorn flour (approximately 1 ½ cups) (I recommend using the weight for the best cookies.); 80 g Almond or Hazelnut flour - unblanched is best.; Organic powdered sugar for dusting (- or finely ground cane sugar mixed with a a few pinches of arrowroot starch); Raspberry or Apricot jam (- or other fillings, see notes)

Linzer cookies are delicious sandwich cookies that you’ll want to make over and over again. They are a party hit and are easy to make!

plate full of linzer cookies filled with raspberry jam and red linzer eyes.

These awesome Linzer cookies are at the top of my favorites list. I found the recipe in a cookbook I had when I was a teenager, tried it, and was instantly hooked. I’ve been making them almost every Christmas since then. These cookies look so fancy, but they are simple to make and don’t take a lot of time. However, they taste best after hanging out a day or two in the cookie tin.

That’s when the magic happens. They soften and all the flavors meld to transform each one of these Linzer sandwich cookies into a perfectly delicious treat. This is one of those recipes that makes you wonder how you could live without it before. So if you’re up for a new addiction, join me in the kitchen and let’s bake up a batch!

If you like this recipe, may I recommend a few of my other favorite cookies: Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) and Lemon hearts, which are both gluten-free. And you must try the delightful Vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents) made with einkorn flour and almond or hazelnut flour! If you are a fan of healthy treats, you’ll love my Spicy Lemon & Honey Tahini Cookies, and for some guilt-free dessert indulgence, try Lemon Cheesecake Mousse and Panna Cotta With Raspberry Sauce.

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Fantastic Linzer Cookies You’ll Make On Repeat!

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Fantastic Linzer Cookies You’ll Make On Repeat!

photo shows a background of linzer cookies on a cooling rack with text overlay that reads outrageously delicious linzer cookies foodforlifegarden.

When I was a teenager and young adult, I loved to read cookbooks. Like from cover to cover. Like every line of each recipe.

I was a wicked how-to-books nerd. And knitting, traditional skills, herb, and recipe books were my favorites as long as I can remember. I liked reading especially the recipes in all the ethnic cook books that had a bit of an introduction and explained the origin or the cultural background for the food and the fascinating ingredients used.

My bookshelves were full of African, Scottish, English, Norwegian, Peruvian, Italian, Mediterranean, and other ethnic or antique recipe books and I always ripped the recipes out of my grandma’s magazines and newspapers to save, before she would toss them. I found reading recipes more interesting than novels, lol. I know, that’s pretty weird. 😜

But anyway, occasionally I came across a recipe that I just had to try and this one for Linzer cookies was one of those. It was from an Austrian baking book that ended up falling apart but I saved one page that I still have, which is this cookie recipe with all my notes on it from long ago.

A Little Bit Of Background About Linzer Cookies

Linzer cookies are a spin-off from the famous Linzertorte, a tart that was is said to have been created in the town of Linz in Austria hundreds of years ago and the recipe has been found dated around 1653. But as always, there are more than one version of the story.

The important part is, this delicious Linzertorte (it’s really super good) has been minimized and turned into these popular Linzer cookies.

The key components are a shortbread cookie, traditionally made with flour and hazelnut meal that is layered with jam. Nut meal was easier to obtain back in the day than wheat flour and nut flour is still a part of most Linzer cookie recipes and many other traditional European cookie recipes like Lebkuchen, Zimtsterne, and Vanillekipferl. The top normally gets a sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar for a pretty presentation, but it can also be glazed.

My Changes To the original Recipe

As I grew more mindful of my eating habits over the past few decades, I have been messing with my old recipes to make them more wholesome.

This recipe is no exception. I have changed a few things to make it healthier. For one, the original recipe is really way too sweet, as are most sweets in my opinion. Then I substitute whole einkorn flour for regular white flour.

Other changes are that my old recipe was made with almond meal, but I like making it with hazelnut meal for a stronger nutty flavor and I can grow hazelnuts at home. I also like to add some almond extract and change out the vanilla sugar with vanilla extract. Adding an egg yolk makes them a little more sturdy, but it’s not required. I also added some lemon paste and a bit of cinnamon.

Why You’ll Love Linzer Cookies

closeup photo of a linzer cookie with a red linzer eye, filled with raspberry jam. There are more cookies behind it on a plate.

These cookies taste fantastic!

They are super pretty on any cookie plate and are often the first thing that people reach for at a party.

Great for so many occasions! These are not just for Christmas. I cut out a heart instead of a circle in the middle for Valentine’s day or an anniversary. You could also make heart shapes or any other shapes, with or without Linzer eyes (the little window openings). But they are great for a teatime treat any day. They are served year-round in coffee shops.

Versatile: They are delicious filled with the traditional jams, which are most often raspberry, currant, or apricot. But experiment with other fillings too: Chocolate ganache, nutella, dulce de leche, cajeta, lemon curd…

My version is healthier than the original. We’ll use only ⅓ of the amount of sugar that is normally used. I use unrefined panela sugar (sucanat) for these. You can use sugar free spreads such as date paste, to sandwich them together and dust very lightly with powdered sugar if at all. Trust me, they still taste awesome or even better than those original ones!

And this recipe uses fresh milled whole grain einkorn flour to stay focused on a whole foods diet. They are really much better for you with whole foods and they taste fantastic!

Tips And Variations For The Best Linzer Cookies

photo of 3 linzer cookies on a red plate. they are filled with raspberry jam and have heart shaped peekaboo cutouts.

Chill the dough after making it to make it easier to cut out the cookies.

Rolling out and shaping: Use two pieces of parchment and sprinkle with nut flour when rolling out the dough. Flip occasionally while rolling and re-flour. Dip the cookie cutter into the nutmeal between cuts to keep the dough from sticking to it.

After cutting out the cookie shapes, place the cookie tray into the fridge to chill them well before baking. This will help keep the shape of the cookies and prevent spreading. My fridge isn’t wide enough to fit a whole cookie sheet. So I have a small cookie sheet and I place all the pieces on it and stack them, with layers divided by parchment paper. When finished, I put this in the fridge and when they are chilled through, and it’s time to bake, I place them on the bigger baking sheets.

Bake the tops and bottoms separately. The tops need less time to bake.

Watch the cookies closely while baking! Check after 5 minutes and then check about every half minute. They are done when they just turn golden at the bottom, and then they turn brown really fast. You want them to be golden, not brown.

Flour substitute: If you don’t have einkorn flour, you can use soft whole grain pastry flour or all-purpose flour, but reduce to 150g.

I grind my panela sugar fine before I mix it with the butter, which helps incorporated it better when mixing. You could substitute fine coconut sugar or evaporated cane juice crystals.

Switch out the nuts. I love these with ground almonds, but I think they are super extra good with ground hazelnuts, which is what was used in the traditional Linzer torte recipe. I imagine these Linzer cookies would be wonderful with ground walnuts or pecans too.

Don’t forget to dust the tops before sandwiching them together. If you forget, cut out a small piece of parchment to cover the peekaboo hole. Then dust.

Jam: Don’t use too much jam or they might turn soggy after a day. And it’s best to use a thick jam that isn’t runny. If you don’t like the seeds in raspberry jam, just strain them out with a sieve. I love currant jelly and apricot jam with these too!

How to make Linzer Cookies

demo of a linzer cookie getting sandwiched together. Closeup of a finished cookie in a persons hand.

My recipe uses much less sweetener than the traditional recipe and I use unrefined panela sugar and whole grain einkorn flour to make these cookies wholesome and healthier. I love the taste of these and find the greater depth of flavor and texture superior to the original. I do not miss the extra sugar, but instead I love that all the delicious taste isn’t overpowered by cloying sweetness. I’m certain that you’ll agree!

Equipment

For links to my favorite equipment mentioned here, check the Shop#16-shopping-listping list at the end of the post!

Grain mill (optional) – I use a Mockmill 100, or you can get a Nutrimill, which is very popular. Use if you grind your own flour

A bowl – for mixing the dough

A hand mixer – you can do it without a mixer by cutting the cold butter into the flour and nut mix and then adding the wet ingredients.

Nut or cheese grinder (optional) – to grind the nuts if you’re grinding your own

Coffee and spice grinder (optional) – for a finer textured nut flour and for grinding the panela or coconut sugar.

Rolling pin – Use any rolling pin to roll out your dough. I have a handled one, but I have this one on my wishlist :).

Parchment paper – I use two sheets of parchment for rolling out the dough. It’s so much easier that way, and then I like to line the baking sheet with parchment too. This could be reused several times, just wipe the crumbs off. You could also use a silicone baking mat.

Two Baking sheets – I am recommening Greenpan baking sheets. After a long search to find a perfect baking sheet, I feel that this is the best I have found. It has a non-toxic and non-stick ceramic coating that holds up to metal utensils. Stainless steel sheets often warp, and aluminum is toxic when it leaches into foods. And while I love cast iron, it is pretty heavy. You could use any baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. You’ll need one for the bottoms and one for the tops and mini cutouts. I recommend avoiding dark colored baking sheets for better control of the browning.

Cooling rack

Ingredients

I try my best to use only organic ingredients if I don’t grow it myself, with rare exceptions. Unfortunately I live in a rural area and food desert where organic is apparently a foreign word, lol. So I’ve had to make exceptions a few times since the closest health food store is over an hour away. I do order a lot of my organic foods from Azure Standard, but they only deliver once a month in my area. If you live around Sedro-Wooley in Washington, there is a Azure drop (Full Quiver) that gets weekly deliveries without shipping charges. I miss that drop!

Fortunately, this recipe has ingredients that I can get organic on Amazon. I’ll post the links below in “Shop This Post” for a clickable shopping list of ingredients.

Butter – at room temperature. I recommend using a high quality grass fed butter for all your baking needs.

Panela sugar (Sucanat), powdered – or substitute with coconut sugar. Finely ground works best, but that’s optional. I use a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder. My original recipe calls for half a cup of regular powdered sugar, but that’s way more sugar than is necessary. I prefer the lower sugar content and the deeper flavor of the unrefined sugars. These cookies get most of their sweetness from the filling and the decorative sugar dusting, and you can adjust both as you like.

Egg yolk – optional. This will make the dough a little easier to handle.

Lemon zest or lemon paste – you could use a few drops of lemon oil instead too. I used lemon paste, which is made with preserved lemons. I keep this in my refrigerator for convenient access whenever I bake and it keeps for years in the fridge. Check out the recipe for Fermented Lemon Paste here.

Cinnamon – My advise for cinnamon is to use Ceylon cinnamon. It’s loaded with antioxidants and it is low in coumarin. Coumarin is a toxic substance that is more concentrated in the common Cassis (Korintije) cinnamon and can potentially cause health problems if consumed in high quantities.

Vanilla extract – My original recipe calls for vanilla sugar, which is commonly used in German baking, but harder to come by here in America. Vanilla extract works just fine.

Almond extract – this is optional and not in the original recipe, but I really like the flavor it imparts.

Sea salt – Just a pinch or two, but it helps round the flavors. I prefer Redmond’s Real Salt that contains many essential trace minerals.

Fresh milled einkorn flour – or use purchased whole einkorn flour. Note however, that even whole grain flour is partially refined to make it more shelf stable. Milling your own is nutritionally far superior.

Hazelnut or almond meal – unblanched is best. Use a finely ground meal for this, but be careful not to make a butter out of your nuts if you’re grinding your own. Try to get organic nuts as coventional nuts can be high in pesticides.

Organic powdered sugar – or finely ground less processed evaporated cane sugar mixed with a bit of arrowroot starch. This is decorative, to dust the cookies. There is very little sweetener in the cookies themselves, but with the filling and sprinkled on sugar, they become plenty sweet enough.

Raspberry or Apricot jam – or any other jam or thick spread, such as nutella, lemon curd, or dulce de leche. My mom often used currant jam in her sandwich cookies and it’s the best!

Make your own delicious honey-sweetened lemon curd that you’ll find in my Lemon mousse dessert recipe!

Instructions

photo shows a stick of soft butter in a bowl with ground up panela sugar.

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

A bowl with creamed butter and sugar and an egg yolk.

Add the egg yolk and beat well.

spices are added to the creamed butter, sucanat, and egg.

Add all the spices, flavorings, and salt and beat for another minute.

photo of the finished dough before shaping it.

Dump in the einkorn and nut flour and mix just very briefly to combine.

a finished dough, shaped into a ball inside a bowl

Stop mixing and press the dough together to form a ball.

dough is pressed into a disk on parchment for chilling.

Flatten the ball of dough, wrap in a piece of parchment and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Take the dough out of the fridge. You can let it warm just a bit to make rolling it out easier.

dough after chilling and covered with nut meal for rolling out. — I am using some regular almond flour to roll out my dough. This helps to keep it from sticking to the parchment and greatly helps with getting well shaped cookies that transfer easily onto the cookie sheet.

Sprinkle nut flour on both sides of the dough to help with rolling and cutting. Flip the dough disk a couple of times and roll and reapply nut meal till it’s the desired thickness. About ⅛ inch is perfect.

photo of cookies getting cut out of rolled out dough. A bench knife is getting slid under the cutouts for easier transfer to the baking sheet. — I use a bench knife to transfer the cutouts onto the baking sheet. Care must be taken to not deform the cookies during transfer, especially after the centers are cut out.

Use your favorite shape to cut out cookie rounds. I used a 2 ½ inch round cutter and little round or heart shapes for the center. This will yield about 24 rounds depending on the thickness of the dough.

A baking sheet filled with cutout cookie rings and small cutout shapes that used to be the centers of the rings.

Half of these rounds will get a little center peekaboo hole. Use whatever cutter you prefer, just make it small enough to leave a substantial frame.

Careful not to break or change the shape of these rings when transferring them. I like to use a bench knife to help with the transfer.

You can make a few mini-cookies with the center cutouts or re-roll them and cut a couple more large cookies.

I like to use a bench knife for transferring the cookies.

Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Use one for the whole circles and another for the rings with the cutouts and the minis.

A consolidated bunch of cookies stacked onto a small cookie sheet, layers separated with parchment. The cookies are getting chilled this way to better retain their shape when baking. They are placed onto bigger cookie sheets once chilled. — Stacking the cookies on a small cookie sheets, the layers separated with parchment. This helps if you’ve got little room in the fridge.

Chill the cookies on the cookie sheet for 20 minutes or more.

Preheat your oven to 375-400℉ about 5-10 minutes before you’re ready to bake.

My full size cookie sheet does not fit into my narrow refrigerator. So I pile them up, separated with parchment paper on a smaller cookie sheet and leave them in the fridge for about an hour to chill through. When cold, they are easy to pick up and transfer to the bigger sheets. I start preheating my bbq grill (you can use your oven!!😉 I would if I had one) about 5-10 minutes before I’m ready to bake.

Bake at 375-400 degrees till they start to turn golden. Don’t undercook, but watch them closely so they won’t turn brown. Rotate the baking sheet if necessary. Golden is perfect. My recipe says to bake for 10 minutes, and that might be perfect in some ovens, but you will definitely want to check after 5 minutes and every half minute thereafter. All ovens differ and the thickness of your cookies and heat conductivity of your baking sheet, as well as distance from the burners can all change the baking time.

Take the cookie sheet out of the oven immediately. After one minute, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

the cookies are finished baking and the bottoms are sitting on a cooling rack while the tops are on a separate rack and just got dusted with powder sugar.

Once cooled, dust the rings with powdered sugar.

close-up photo of a cookie bottom in a persons hand with jam spread over it. More cookies to be filled are below on a rack.

Spread a layer of jam onto the solid rounds.

a person's hand holding up a finished cookie after placing the sugared ring top onto the jam with the linzer eye revealing the red raspberry jam. More cookies are below on a rack waiting to get filled.

Place a dusted ring on top.

When stacking them in a tin, place parchment between the layers. You may need to refresh the dusting after storing them if you want them to look pretty as new again. Just cut a small piece of parchment, the size of the little cutout hole and cover the jam with it. Then dust the cookie and remove the parchment.

Storage

These cookies improve when they sit a day or two in a tin. It makes them soft and improves the flavor and texture, so plan to make them ahead of time.

They will stay fresh for a week in a cookie tin, stored in a cool place, or refrigerate them. Refrigerate immediately if you’re using lemon curd or another filling that is not shelf-stable.

For longer storage, you can freeze them. They will keep for 3 months in the freezer.

Tip: If you want to make these ahead, bake the cookies and store them without filling in an airtight container. Then, when you need some Linzer cookies, dust the tops and fill them. The unfilled cookies will stay good for a month in a sealed container at room temperature.

Variations

This is a delicious dough that you can use for any kind of cutout cookie and it’s great for stuffing with your favorite jam, jelly, caramel or dulce de leche or a really thick cajeta. Or try chocolate ganache, butter cream, or nutella. Or how about fig jam or ground dates, hmm I might just have to try that! Or make your own delicious honey-sweetened lemon curd and use it to stuff the cookies!

You could omit the little window, make them a bit smaller, and, after sandwiching them together, dip them in melted chocolate. I love filling them with orange marmalade and then dipping them half-way or fully in chocolate. Delish!

a plate with three cookies with heart cutouts for a valentine's day treat.

These are great Christmas cookies, but they are awesome too for Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, bridal showers, birthdays, picnics, or any parties. Or use them for the fourth of july with red and blue berry jams showing through larger windows. And they are just perfect any day, or every day for coffee break, teatime, or dessert.

Serving Suggestion

photo shows a red plate filled with an assortment of christmas cookies. Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars), Lemon hearts, vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents) and red-eyed linzer cookies.

Make a cookie platter with some of the best German cookies: Linzer cookies, Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars), Vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents), and Zitronenherzen (Lemon heart cookies).

Your Questions Answered

What are Linzer cookies?

Linzer cookies are a mini version of the famous Linzertorte, a tart that was invented in Linz, Austria around the mid 1600s according to historical accounts. They are typically shortbread cookies made with flour and hazelnut meal, and sandwiched together with jam and decorated with confectioner’s sugar.

What is a Linzer eye?

This is the cutout part of the cookie, a peekaboo hole in the center of the top cookie to give us a peek at the filling. It is a signature mark of these cookies, but they can also be made without a window. I just think this Linzer eye really makes them more special.

How long can I store these cookies?

In my opinion, they are best after a day or two in a cookie tin and can keep for up to a week in a cool place or the refrigerator. Definitely refrigerate if you’re using lemon curd or another filling that isn’t shelf stable. Freeze them for longer storage, up to 3 months.

You can make the cookies and not fill them. If you keep them in a cookie tin or other airtight container, they’ll stay fresh at room temperature for about a month. Just fill them with jam when you need them or a day before.

Enjoy Your Fantastic Linzer Cookies!

closeup photo of a plate piled up with linzer cookies that are filled with red jam. there is christmas decoration in the background.

If you made these cookies with me just now, try one if you like, they are delicious. But let some of them spend a day or two in a lidded cookie tin to become even better. Go try another one then and I think you’ll be so pleased. I hope you’ll love these delicious Linzer cookies as much as I do. I’m certain that you’ll be making them over and over again! Take a bite and enjoy!

Have you made this recipe? I’d love to get your feedback and your ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating! And I’d love to hear about your favorite Christmas cookies. And please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments if you have any questions!

Join the Food For Life Garden Community for more great recipes and homestead tips and ideas. I’m always adding new content. Don’t miss any new posts and learn more about my off-grid farm life.

Other Recipes You Might Like

Zimtsterne, (Cinnamon Stars) – Another German favorite for the Christmas cookie platter. Delicious, chewy, gluten-free nut meal cookies with a delicate, crunchy meringue frosting.

Lemon Cheesecake Mousse – A decadent, delicious, super healthy lemon dessert made with honey & lemon curd. Use the extra lemon curd to fill these cookies!

Vanillekipferl are delicate German almond and vanilla crescent cookies, a rich, buttery shortbread confections that’s a favorite to bake for Christmas cookie platters.

Zitronenherzen (Lemon Hearts Cookies) – Try these delightful gluten-free iced almond and lemon hearts cookies, for Christmas cookie plates, gifting, and perfect for Valentine’s day too!

Lemon Tahini Cookies – Delicious, healthy spice cookies with lemon and honey. These spicy cookies are radical, especially if you love bold, complex flavors and healthy treats.

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photo at the top shows linzer cookies spread out on a wooden cutting board. below is a plate filled with linzer cookies. text overlay read delicious and wholesome. linzer cookies for any occasion and any day. food for life garden.