raspberry

The Heartbreak Cookie: Linzer Hearts

February 10, 2018 By Caroline 11 Comments

Slightly softened by their raspberry filling, fragrant with hazelnuts and a touch of cinnamon, Linzer cookies are a special treat. However, these pretty little cookies can be a real pain to make. The dough can be sticky and difficult to handle when you are after perfect scalloped edges and crisp center cutouts. I seem to be cursed every time I make these—from the motor on my food processor giving out in the middle of grinding nuts, to struggling to get the skins off the hazelnuts, to the dough sticking and ruining the shape of my cookies—I’ve experienced pretty much every way these can go wrong! It can be a real heartbreak to watch the shapes all smoosh and fall apart after all the work you’ve put into them. In this post I share the tips and tricks I’ve honed to get these cookies to turn out delicious and pretty with minimal fuss. Read on to learn how!

To start with, buy blanched hazelnuts with the skins already removed. This saves you a lot of tedious work trying to get them off yourself and makes no difference in the final flavour. Do be sure the toast the hazelnuts before grinding them, to bring out the full flavour. Prep the hazelnut and brown sugar, flour with dry ingredients, and whipped butter and brown sugar as shown below:

After fluffing up the butter and brown sugar, blend in the nut mixture, followed by the flour mixture. The dough should have the texture and consistency shown in the photo below:

Divide the cookie dough into two and place each half onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Flatten each ball into a disk, wrap and toss into the fridge to chill for two hours. This will make the dough easier to work with when it’s time to roll it out. Once it’s done chilling, prepare your work surface (this step is very important!) Lay a sheet of wax paper on the countertop (I like to tape the sides down with just a small piece of tape on each edge). If your wax paper is not very large, overlap two pieces. Then, lightly flour this surface (without the flour, the cookies will still stick to the wax paper—little buggers!) Next, remove one cookie dough disc from the fridge, and place onto the prepared work surface. Lightly dust the top with a bit of flour, then add another piece of wax paper on top. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8″, running your hand over the dough to check that it is as even as possible throughout. I used a specific Linzer cookie cutter but found it to be very disappointing. The dough does not stay in the cutter and remains stubbornly on my work surface instead, as shown below.

To get around this, I used a metal offset spatula. First I gently lifted away the excess dough; then very carefully slid the spatula between the cookie and the wax paper to lift it off and transfer it to the waiting cookie sheet, taking care not to stretch the cookie. This was the most delicate part; once the cookie was on the spatula it was easy to flip it off onto the baking sheet. Once you’ve got all the cookies cut out and on the baking sheets, chill the baking sheets in the fridge for about 15 minutes. This is critical to help the cookies keep their shape for the next step: cutting out the centres for the pretty filling reveal.

Count your cookies, ideally you’ll have the same number on each cookie sheet. You need to cut out the centre window shape on half of the cookies. Cut the windows all out on the same baking sheet as they bake a bit faster than the cookie bottoms, if they are together you take them out of the oven a minute or so before the bottoms. Another disappointment with my cookie cutter: it came with an insert to hold the centre in position, however when you press down it leaves a terrible ring around the edge of the cookie. No good! Instead I just free-handed it, placing the hearts in the centre as best I could—most were pretty close.

Rather than discard the centres of the cookies, I bake them into adorable mini-linzers! They look cute when plated together, and are perfect for snacking 🙂

Bake the cookies, removing them from the oven when the edges are lightly golden. Allow to rest for a minute or so (but not much longer) and then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to fully cool. I left the cookies on the baking sheet until they were fully cooled once and guess what, they wanted to stick to the cookie sheet, too! Take all of the bottoms and spread with a generous dollop of raspberry jam, keeping the edges clear so the jam doesn’t smoosh out and make a mess when you put the tops on.

Take the rack of cookie tops, and sift them with icing sugar. I like to use a generous amount. So pretty!

Finally, assemble the tops to the bottoms, being careful not to get any powdered sugar on the jam areas. I found giving the tops a light tap underneath before adding to the cookie bottom helped a bit. Don’t forget to fill your baby-linzers, too. And you’re done! Well almost. You’ve just spent all this time making these beautiful cookies, but how to store them without getting powdered sugar all over the centres? I take a round metal tin, trace the lid onto some wax paper, and cut out perfectly fitted wax paper liners (about 5–6). Line the bottom, place cookies in a single layer, top with a wax paper sheet, and keep layering until your precious cookies are all carefully packaged up.

A pain to make, but so delicious, I love Linzer cookies and wouldn’t have them any other way!

Adapted the Linzer Cookie Recipe at Epicurious.

5 from 2 votes

Linzer cookies

The cookie version of the famous Austrian cake, these lightly spiced cookies with raspberry filling are a delight!

Course Dessert

Cuisine Austrian

Prep Time 3 hours

Cook Time 12 minutes

Total Time 3 hours 12 minutes

Servings 24 cookies

Ingredients

2/3 cup hazelnuts, blanched (skins removed) (3 oz)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar, divided
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
250 ml seedless raspberry jam (approx 8 oz)
1/2 cup icing sugar

Instructions

Toast hazelnuts in a preheated 350° oven for 6–8 minutes. Allow to cool, then pulse in a food processor with 1/4 cup of brown sugar until finely ground.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
In a large bowl beat 1/4 cup brown sugar and butter with a hand-mixer until pale and fluffy, about 6 minutes. (About half that amount of time if using a stand-mixer) Add nut mixture and beat until well combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture until partly combined, then beat on low speed to fully combine. Divide dough into 2 and form each half into a flat disk on plastic wrap. Wrap and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
Prepare a clean counter surface with a large sheet of wax paper, using a small piece of tape on each side to help hold it in place. Sprinkle with flour. Remove one disk of dough from the fridge and place onto prepared surface. very lightly flour the top of the dough and add an additional piece of wax paper on top. Roll out the dough to 1/8" thick, and remove the top layer of wax paper.
Have two cookie sheets ready beside your work area. Using cookie cutter, cut cookies as close together as possible to maximize the dough. If the cookies don't stay in your cutter to transfer onto the cookie sheet and remain on the wax paper instead, gently lift away the excess dough using an offset metal spatula until the edges of the first row of cookies are exposed. Gently slide the offset spatula between the cookie and the wax paper layer, lifting the cookie being careful not to allow it to warp or stretch to maintain the shape. Transfer to cookie sheet, leaving 1" between each cookie. Repeat with remaining dough until your two cookie sheets are full. Transfer the cookie sheets to the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°. Once chilled, remove cookies from fridge and using the smaller heart cutter, cut out the centres from half of the cookies. Gently remove the centres, (I found a toothpick worked well to flick them out while preserving their shape). Drop the small cutouts onto the baking sheet in the spaces between the cookies, distributing on the two sheets if needed. Place in preheated oven and bake for 10 – 12 minutes, until edges are lightly golden. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer carefully to a wire rack, keeping the tops separate from the bottoms (and mini-hearts will be too small for the rack, they can cool on a plate).
Asses your dough scraps, press together into a disk and transfer to the fridge to chill. Dough can be re-rolled once or twice max in this manner. Complete cookie cutting and baking process until all cookies are baked and ready.
Once cool, take the wire racks with the top halves with the cutouts and place on a baking sheet. Sift icing sugar on top and set aside.
Spread jam onto the bottom layers, using a generous amount and keeping it in the centre with a 1/8" clear area around the edges of the cookies. As the jam squishes out when you add the tops, this will keep them neat and prevent the jam from oozing out the sides. Carefully add the pretty dusted tops. I like filling the baby heart cookies with jam as well, without any sugar on top.
These cookies are best stored in a tin so they can breathe. Cut 5 or so sheets of wax paper to the size of your tin (I trace the lid as a guide). Line the bottom, add the first row of cookies carefully in a single layer; top with a fitted wax paper sheet, layer on the next row of cookies, and so on, until the tin is full. Sprinkle in the baby hearts as you go (if you don't snack on them all first!)

Peach Raspberry Pie

September 5, 2017 By Caroline 2 Comments

It’s hard to believe the CNE is over, the Labour Day weekend has just passed, and everyone is “back to school”. But don’t fret, technically summer is still here until September 22, peaches are still plentiful, and now is the perfect time to bake up the best pie you’ll ever eat! So many people are afraid to make their own pie crust, and I have to admit it is almost magical how butter and flour can turn into something so flaky and delicious. But honestly, it’s not hard and the ingredients are so simple. You can totally do this, I have all the instructions and even some video to show you how it’s done.

One key thing to remember is the importance of keeping your pastry cold. The butter has to be cold right from the start, and you can’t skip the various stages of putting the dough in the fridge when directed.

To begin, combine flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut up two sticks of butter (keep them in the fridge right until you are ready to cut them) into cubes and cut the butter into the flour mixture. I like to use a pastry cutter, shown below, as it does a quick job of working the butter in. You can also use two knives. Some people use a food processor for this step, but I don’t actually own one that’s big enough, and I’d rather not clean all the food processor parts afterwards anyways 🙂

Keep working the butter into the dough until the texture is a coarse, crumbly mix with even, peppercorn sized lumps of butter throughout. Add ice water (again, very cold water is key, I set aside a small bowl with cold water and add ice cubes, and measure out from there), a little at a time, mixing with a fork and adding only what you need for the dough to hold together. When you think it’s ready, take some in your hand and press it together. If it holds together and looks roughly like the photo below, it’s ready to be kneaded together.

Knead the dough together until all of the crumbs are well combined into a nice, smooth (but somewhat craiggy) ball. While you don’t want to over-work the dough here and risk the butter getting too warm, you also don’t want to under-do it and end up with crumbly dough that won’t roll out nicely. I usually knead until it’s holding together well, then knead a few more times just to really combine everything well.

Divide your ball of dough in half, and then press each half onto a sheet of plastic wrap, forming each into a flattened disk about 1″ thick. I press them out with my palm and press the sides in to shape them as shown below. Then wrap them up and place into the fridge for about 50 minutes.

Meanwhile you can work on your filling. Peel and slice your peaches (fastest method: cut around the circumference of your peach to the pit, twist peach in half. Then slice peach into quarters. Hold a peach quarter in your hand, peach skin facing you. Slide your knife under the top corner of the skin, and in a single motion pull the skin off from top to bottom using the knife.) Another real time saver is to use frozen peaches (if you can find them—I get mine at MacMillan Orchards in Ajax) as they come already peeled and sliced. (Also this allows you to enjoy this pie all year round!) Mix the peaches with sugar and flour, and then add the raspberries.

By now your pie crusts should be done chilling. Prepare your work area with flour and roll out the bottom crust. Once you’ve draped it over the pie plate, get it back in the fridge for a good 30 minutes. During this time you can make your Egg Wash and cut up the final two tablespoons of butter.

Here’s a video covering the next few steps:

Next roll out your top pie crust, and then add the filling to your lower crust. Dot with that butter, and brush the pastry edges with Egg Wash. Roll your top crust onto the bottom and trim the excess pastry from the edges of the pie plate. Crimp the edges together, and back in the fridge it goes for another 20 minutes or so, to allow the top crust to chill.

Finally, cut vents into the top crust, brush with Egg Wash all over, and sprinkle with coarse sugar. I love to get decorative with my pie crusts and make leaf shaped vents, and add extra leaves on top (“glued” with egg wash) to make the prettiest pie. You just can’t buy a pie that looks like this at the store (and the crusts on those don’t even come close to the flakiness level of this one!) Bake at high heat to brown the crust, then turn down the heat for the final phase to finish the pie and bake the fruit. I love to serve with vanilla ice cream on the side. Once you’ve had homemade pie like this, you’ll never want to go back to store-bought!

Pie fresh out of the oven, photographed from above. Crust has vents shaped like leaves, with additional dough leaves creating a circular pattern on the crust.

5 from 1 vote

Peach Raspberry Pie

My favourite pie, hands down, is this peach raspberry double-crust.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar
2 sticks Cold , unsalted butter (1 cup)
5–7 tbsp Ice water

Filling

4 lbs Peaches (about 8 medium) Peeled and sliced
1/2 pint Raspberries
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup All-purpose flour
2 tbsp Cold, unsalted butter cut into pieces

Egg Wash

1 egg
2–3 tbsp milk

Instructions

Make pie crust: Place flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl; stir to combine. Cut butter into small cubes and add to the flour mixture. Cut butter into flour using a pastry cutter or two knives, until the butter is broken down into tiny but discernible lumps with the flour.
Mix in ice water with a fork until dough just comes together. Press some of the dough between your fingers to check the consistency, it should hold together well. Lightly knead the dough until all crumbs are incorporated into a craggy ball of dough. Don't over-knead at this point, but under-kneading will make fora crumbly dough when you go to roll it out, so aim for fairly smooth ball.
Divide the ball of dough into two, and press each half into a flat disk onto a piece of plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for about 50 minutes. (If you forget it in there for longer than that, you'll just need to let it rest a bit when you remove it from the fridge before rolling it out)
Lightly flour your work surface, and roll out your first dough half to approximately 1/8" thick. I always take my pie plate and hold it over the dough to see if it's been rolled out large enough. Use the rolling pin to lift the dough by gently rolling the dough onto the pin, starting from one of the edges. Drape the pastry over the pie plate, adjust to fit evenly over the dish and resist the temptation to fuss with it or press it down into the dish. Transfer to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
Make the filling: Combine the peaches, sugar and flour, stir to combine. Add the raspberries last and combine gently to keep them intact as much as possible.
Make Egg Wash: beat egg and milk together in a small bowl. Have a small brush ready. Cut up the final two tablespoons of butter and set aside. Roll out your second pie crust.
Grab the bottom crust out of the fridge and add the fruit filling—if the mixture is looking really juicy sprinkle with a few more tablespoons of flour. Dot with butter. Grab the reserved Egg Wash and brush it onto the edges of the bottom pie crust. Use your rolling pin to pick up the top crust and place on top. Using a knife, trim the excess dough from the sides of the pie dish. Go around the edges of the dough crimping the top and bottom crust together by placing your index finger under the crust and pushing up while pressing down on either side with your other index finger and thumb. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes or so.
Heat oven to 425°
Remove pie from fridge and cut vents in the top crust. You can either cut simple slits on top of your crust or get creative with them. I like to cut out leaf shapes in the centre. Then I take some of the extra dough, cut it into more leaves as needed, and use Egg Wash to "glue" the pastry leaves onto the top crust to make a decorative pattern.
Last step before baking: brush the entire top crust and edges with Egg Wash, and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°, and bake for 30 – 40 minutes more until the fruit is bubbling and the crust is golden. Resist slicing the pie for about 20 minutes or so to allow the filling time to thicken up slightly. I like to serve with some vanilla bean ice cream on the side.