Rick Rodgers

Linzer “Eyes”

Linzer Augen

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Preparation info

  • Makes about

    30

    large cookies

    • Difficulty

      Medium

Appears in

Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague

Kaffeehaus

By Rick Rodgers

Published 2002

  • About

Many bakers use spicy, nutty Linzertorte dough to make preserve-filled ring-shaped cookies that look like big eyes. You’ll need two round cookie cutters, 2½ inches and 1 inch, to cut out the cookies.

Ingredients

  • Linzer Dough
  • ⅔ cup raspberry or black currant preserves
  • Confectioners’ sugar, for garnish

    Method

    1. Position racks in the top third and center of the oven and heat to 350°F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
    2. Place one half of the dough on a well-floured surface and dust the top with flour. Roll out into a ¼-inch-thick sheet, being sure the dough doesn’t stick to the surface (slide a long metal spatula under the dough to check, dusting the work surface and top of the dough with additional flour as needed). Using a 2½-inch round fluted cookie cutter, cut out rounds of dough and place ½ inch apart on a cookie sheet. Knead the scraps together, and roll out more cookies until the dough is used up. Repeat the procedure with the other portion of dough. Using a ½-inch round fluted cookie cutter, cut holes from the centers of half the rounds. If the dough softens, making it difficult to cut out the holes, refrigerate it briefly.
    3. Bake, switching the positions of the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking, until the cookies are barely beginning to brown on the edges, about 12 minutes. Cool completely on the sheets.
    4. Stir the preserves to loosen them. For each cookie, spoon about 1 teaspoon of preserves into the center of an uncut cookie round and top with a ring-shaped round. Sift confectioners’ sugar over the cookies.