Recipe for Linzer Cookies, also known as the Linzer Eye

Recipe for Linzer Cookies

While researching this recipe for Linzer cookies, I discovered that these cookies are actually called Linzer eyes. So far I can only call them “Linzer Cookies or Spitzbuben”. The recipe definitely comes from the city of Linz. The cookies are smaller forms of the Linzer Torte, for which the place is famous. They consist of two cookies, with the top one having one or three holes. You can see what jam the cookies are filled with. If it is red, it is usually currant jam. If it is yellow, then the baker traditionally used apricot jam. My mother often filled them with raspberry jam instead. “Real” rascals are actually balls of dough that are pressed in the middle. The cavity is then filled with hot jam.

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Ingredients for 25 Linzer cookies:

100 g icing sugar
200 g butter
300 g flour (405), sifted
one egg
a tablespoon of vanilla sugar
grated lemon peel
Jam for filling (traditionally apricot or currant jam is used for Linzer cookies)
Powdered sugar for sprinkling

Preparation of the Linzer cookies:

Mix powdered sugar, butter and flour. Add egg, vanilla sugar and lemon peel. Knead everything together. Then wrap the dough in cling film and chill.

Then roll out the dough about three millimeters thick. Cut out shapes about 6 cm in size from this. Traditionally these are round circular shapes. Heart shapes or flower shapes like those in the picture above are also possible. Poke another hole or three into half of the Linzer cookies. Bake these pieces of dough in the oven at 180 degrees (fan oven 160 degrees) on a baking tray lined with baking paper until they are golden yellow. This takes between 7 and 10 minutes.

After baking the Linzer cookies, let the cookie halves cool. Then you spread them with jam. Finally, dust them thickly with powdered sugar, which is best passed through a sieve. This means it is evenly distributed across the cookies.