Made with buttery, melt in your mouth pistachio cookies sandwiched together with a sweet and slightly tangy raspberry jam, each bite of these raspberry pistachio cookies is filled with absolute deliciousness!Â
Author:Winnie Reeves
Prep Time:60 Minutes (Not Including Refrigeration Time)
Cook Time:18 Minutes
Total Time:1 hour 18 minutes
Yield:20 Large/16 Mini Cookies 1x
Ingredients
Scale
2 1/2 Cups (325g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, Spooned and Leveled
1 Cup (120g) Pistachio Flour, Spooned and Leveled
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2/3 Cup (132g) Dark or Light Brown Sugar
1 Large Egg, Room Temperature
1 Cup (226g) Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
1 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup (164g) Raspberry Jam
Confectioners’ (Powdered) Sugar
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, pistachio flour and salt. With a stand or hand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar together at medium high speed for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture appears smooth and fluffy.
Beat the vanilla extract into the butter mixture followed by the egg at medium high speed. Stop the mixer and use a silicone spatula to scrape the sides and base of the mixing bowl.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet batter at low speed just until cookie dough comes together and starts to form into a ball. Take care to not overmix.
Transfer the cookie dough to a lightly floured work surface and divide the dough into equal portions. Shape each portion into a flat disk.
Wrap both disks of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight. If disks of dough are chilled for more than 3 hours, allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 10-12 minutes to soften up a little before rolling and cutting into shapes.
Line (2) large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Working with one disk of dough at a time, lightly flour a work surface and roll the cookie dough into a large circle about 1/4 inch thick.
Using a 3 inch star cookie cutter lightly dipped in flour, cut out cookie dough pieces and transfer to the prepared baking sheet(s) placing each piece of dough 1 inch apart.
Re-roll the cookie dough scraps and cut as many star shapes as you can. Repeat the process with the remaining disk of linzer cookie dough. You should end up with 40 cookie dough pieces divided between the two baking sheets.
Using a 1 1/2 inch star cutter lightly dipped in flour, cut out the centers of 20 of the cookie dough pieces (Open cookies with cutouts should be on the same baking sheet as the bake time will be less than the bake time for the full cookies without cutouts.)
Preheat the oven to 350F(175C). Place cookie dough cutouts in the freezer for 15 minutes or in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking. This will allow the butter in the dough to firm back up and prevent the cookies from overspreading and losing its shape once baked.
Bake the full cookies (without cutout) for 10-11 minutes and the open cookies (with cutouts) for 8-9 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through bake time. Cookies are ready when the edges appear crisp and golden brown. For the full cookies, the centers will not appear wet once baked through.
Cool the cookies on the baking sheet(s) for 5-6 minutes before transferring to cooling racks to cool completely to room temperature.
Sprinkle powdered sugar either lightly or generously on the tops of the open cookies with star cutouts. Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam (about 1 teaspoon) on the bottom of full cookies without star cutouts.
Place the cookies with star cutouts on top of the cookies with raspberry jam sandwiching them together for a total of 20 sandwich (linzer) cookies.
Notes
Linzer cookies are best eaten the day it is baked. To preserve soft texture, cookies should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. Alternatively cookies may be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for 4-5 days.
If you find that the cookie cutter is sticking to the cookie dough, lightly dip the ends in flour to cut out evenly shaped cookies pieces.
Any remaining cookie dough straps may be used to make additional linzer cookies or mini star shaped cookies. I was able to make 16 mini star cookies with the cookie dough straps. Mini star cookies should be baked for 6-7 minutes or until the edges appears crisp.
In place of pistachio flour, cookies may be made with almond, pecan, hazelnut or walnut flour. To make nut flour from scratch, simply grind the nuts in a food processor until you have fine crumbs.