Chocolate Hazelnut Linzer Cookies
These festive linzer cookies start with buttery, flaky sugar cookies, filled with creamy chocolate hazelnut spread, for a delicious holiday treat.
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Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus extra for rolling
- ⅓ cup hazelnuts
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp praline hazelnut extract, optional
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1 egg white
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup chocolate hazelnut spread
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In a food processor, pulse the flour, hazelnuts, powdered sugar and salt, until the hazelnuts are finely ground.
- With the food processor running, drop the cold butter pieces in one at a time, pulsing until evenly dispersed.
- Add the vanilla extract, hazelnut extract and milk, then pulse until the mixture comes together into a soft, supple dough.Note that if you don't have a food processor, you can make the dough in a bowl, using a pastry cutter. I've done this many times, and it just takes a bit longer to work the butter evenly into the flour, and then work the liquid into the mixture until it forms a soft dough.
- Dump the dough out and knead a few times just to bring together any stray floury bits. Shape into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll and Cut the Dough
- Get your cookie cutters ready. You can use a linzer cookie cutter set, or just match up small cutters with larger ones to cut the "window". My cookie cutters ranged from 2 1/2 - 3 inches for the large ones, and 1 - 1 1/2 inches for the smaller window cutter. Line several large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Flour a clean work surface, and flour the dough lightly as well. Roll the dough out evenly to about 1/8 inch thick, using more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the counter or your rolling pin. The dough will be delicate when rolled thin, so handle it gently.
- Cut as many cookies as you can, and set the cut cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Make sure to cut an even number of each shape, since you'll need to match up the top and bottom cookies of your sandwich.
- With the cut cookies on the baking sheet, cut and remove the center window from the top cookies, and add that piece to your dough scraps.
- Gather up the scraps of dough, re-roll the dough, and continue cutting cookies. Depending on the thickness of your dough and the size of your cookie cutters, you may be able to cut around 40 cookies for 20 sandwich cookies.
- Refrigerate the cut cookies on the baking sheets for 30 minutes. Chilling the cut cookies helps to keep the cookies from spreading while they bake, so they maintain their shape.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the top cookies (the ones with the window) with the egg white, then sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
- Bake one pan of chilled cookies at a time, keeping the other pans refrigerated until needed. Depending on their size and thickness, they should take about 9-10 minutes. The baked cookies will still be very pale on top, with light golden edges. If you gently turn a cookie over, there should be no appearance of raw or wet dough on the bottom. Since there's no leavening in the dough, the cookies will not rise, spread, or lose their shape, but it's normal to see little bubbles, since as the butter cooks, the water in the butter evaporates, and the pockets of steam create flaky layers and bubbles.
- Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for several minutes, and then carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. You might want to sprinkle the top cookies with a little more granulated sugar after cooling. Remember, these are delicate, and they break easily, so handle with care.
Filling and Assembling Linzer Cookies
- Once the cookies are cooled, turn over the bottom cookies, so the bottom side faces up.
- Spread with several teaspoons of chocolate hazelnut spread, stopping 1/8 inch from the edge. Place the top cookie with the window on top, and press down lightly.
Notes
Leftover cookies should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, or frozen for 3-6 months.
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