Linzer Bars
Fills a 16 inch x 12 inch (40.5 cm x 30.5 cm) baking sheet
Adapted from Razy Kitchen
250 grams white sugar
300 grams unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
⅛ teaspoon (a pinch) freshly ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
400 grams all-purpose flour, sifted
300 grams ground almonds (almond flour also works, but your bars won’t have the same chunkiness)
250-300 grams raspberry jam (or your favorite jam)
Powdered sugar, for decoration
In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar, softened butter, eggs, vanilla extract, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and salt. Using either a stand mixer or a handheld mixer, beat everything together on high speed until light and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.
Turn the mixer speed to low and slowly pour in the flour and ground almonds as you continue mixing. Mix until the flour and almonds are fully incorporated, scraping down the sides, and you have a smooth dough.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes or overnight. You want the dough to stiffen, which will make the next steps easier when handling the dough.
When your dough is ready, take it out of the fridge. Remove about ⅓ of the dough, cover it, and place it back in the refrigerator until you need you it.
Place the remaining ⅔ of the dough between two large sheets of parchment paper and place this inside your baking tray. Roll the dough out until you fill the entire bottom of the baking tray and the dough is an even thickness throughout.
I find this method easiest, but you can also roll out the dough between the parchment paper outside of the baking tray until it’s about the same size as the baking tray. Then transfer the dough into the baking tray.
Remove the top layer of parchment paper (the bottom layer of parchment paper will stay). Using your hands, gently go around the edge of the baking tray and push the dough up the sides of the tray forming a crust. Be sure not to break through the dough.
Evenly spread the raspberry jam over top the dough.
Take the remaining dough out of the refrigerator. Place this between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out into a thin sheet.
Remove the top layer of parchment paper. Using cookie cutters (I used various sized hearts), cut out shapes and place them on top of the raspberry jam. Keep cutting out shapes until the entire top of the bars is filled, but make sure the top isn’t too cramped with cookies, you want the jam to show through.
Once done, place the baking tray back in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes to cool.
With 15 minutes left of cooling, preheat your oven to 350° F (180° C).
Once the bars have cooled and your oven is ready, bake the bars on the middle shelf for 30-35 minutes. They’ll be ready when the edges start to brown. The cutout shapes might still be soft, but they will harden once they cool.
Cut the bars into squares immediately after taking them out of the oven. If you let them cool, the bars will be crumbly and your cuts won’t be as neat.
Once your bars have cooled, decorate by dusting powdered sugar over top.
Enjoy!