I apologize for the absence this last week. I’ve been busy making cookies. When I haven’t been thinking about cookies, it’s the holiday activities. Decorating, shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, parties, making gifts, putting up the tree, shopping for more gifts, wrapping more gifts….I love the holiday season! But today is a time to finally share a delicious aspect of the holiday season that makes our holiday complete.
I first learned of linzer cookies while looking over an Ina Garten cookbook. At the time, I was in search of a dessert and her recipe for linzer cookies caught my eye. I was interested in trying them but not more than her brownies, which I knew I loved. So I skipped over the recipe and never tried them. When I got married a while after, my husband introduced a new recipe to our little family – Linzer Schnitten cookies. This new word addition makes this cookie a little like Ina Garten’s linzer cookies but just different! This recipe is one his family has been enjoying for years. I’m not quite certain the difference of meaning of the two names, but I usually call them linzer cookies for short. I’m also not certain how Ina Garten’s cookie or any other linzer cookie recipe would compare to this recipe seeing as how I never got around to making them. Because once I smelled the vanilla, cloves and zesty lemon dough from this recipe, I was in heaven and didn’t need to look any further. You will, too.
Linzer (Schnitten) Cookies
LINZER SCHNITTEN COOKIES
2 Large Eggs
1 1/2 cups Powdered Honey
3/4 cup Coconut Oil or Unsalted Butter, melted
3 2/3 cups Spelt Flour plus more for rolling out
1/2 teaspoon Pink Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Cloves
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
Zest and Juice of 1 Large Lemon
Sugar Free Seedless Jam
GLAZE
1 Organic Egg White
2/3 cup Xylitol
1/2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
2 drops Fresh Lemon Juice
Melt the coconut oil or butter and set aside to let cool. Beat two eggs until light and frothy in a large bowl or with an electric mixer. Add the powdered honey to the egg mixture and gradually add melted oil or butter and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves. Juice and zest your lemon. Add the lemon juice zest mixture alternating with the dry ingredients mixture to the wet mixture until all are incorporated together. Cover the dough and place in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes to an hour.
Remove from the refrigerator and preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Knead the dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface. The dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into strips about 1 1/2 inches wide, and cut into diagonals for diagonal shaped cookies. Or use cookie cutters to create your desired cookie shape. Make a groove in the center of the cookie to place the jam. Fill each groove with your seedless jam. We like boysenberry, mixed berry or raspberry jam. Place on cookie sheets and bake for 10-14 minutes.
For the glaze – Beat the egg white, vanilla and xylitol together with lemon juice until well combined. Drizzle the mixture over warm cookies when out of oven. Put back in the oven for an extra minute to cook the egg white glaze mixture. You can omit this step for a soft glaze if you’d like, but beware of the raw egg white. Enjoy!
No-Bake Chocolate Raspberry Brownie Bites
Banana-Nut Spice Muffins
Lemon Meringue Tartlets
Healthy Rhubarb Crisp for Two
Healthy Teriyaki Pasta Salad
Jennie says
I wonder what you would use in place of the eggs? I eat a plant-based diet but would really like to try these!!
Natural Sweet Recipes says
Unfortunately we haven’t tried this recipe without egg! The sugar coating on top uses egg whites as well. We’ll have to start experimenting to see if we can make these cookies vegan. Thanks for the suggestion!