Linzer Cookies

Happy New Year folks! hope you had a wonderful holiday season with your family. After a long gap of two months, I am here to share a new recipe. The last couple of months I was busy as my parents came to visit us for the first time. We spent quality time together and created lots of nice memories that will bring smiles for a long while. As my culinary journey started from US, I never got an opportunity to cook for them in my own kitchen. This time I fulfilled my long-cherished wish to serve my father, who is a big time foodie and he always appreciates whatever I cook for him. Anyway, once they have returned back to India, slowly I am getting back to the blog.  Like every year, during Christmas time, I made some cookies and Fruit Cakes. This year we baked Linzer cookies for Santa, who came on time, ate and left the gift for my 9-years old :-) Good to see that he still believes in Santa.

Christmas Baking 2016 

I got attracted to these beautiful looking cookies as soon as I saw their pictures on a social media site. Not only I am happy with how they came out but loved the photography part too, as they are very photogenic. I did not need to spend much time to get some decent photos. In Linzer cookies, two almond flavored cookies are sandwiched together with a layer of jam. The top cookie is dusted with a thin white coating of powdered sugar. 

The name of Linzer cookies seems to have come from the city of Linz, Austria. Any flavor of jam or preserves can be used to sandwich the cookies together, though traditionally black currant preserves were used as a filling.  Here I used raspberry jam, bought from the store. The baked cookies are quite crisp, but once they are filled with the jam they start to soften. If you want to keep the cookies crisp, fill them with the jam only on the day of serving. So turn on your oven and make some cookies. Whether it’s Christmas or not, winter is the best time for baking, a lovely way to make your home warm. 

Linzer Cookies

Ingredients:

Almond Flour: 1 cup 
All Purpose Flour: 2 cup 
Ground Cinnamon: 1/2 teaspoon 
Unsalted Butter: 2 sticks, at room temperature 
Granulated white sugar: 3/4 cup
Egg yolks: 2 large 
Vanilla extract: 1 teaspoon 
Salt: a pinch 

Toppings:

Icing sugar: 
Raspberry jam: 1/2 cup 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C. 

2. whisk all-purpose flour, cinnamon, and salt. Set it aside. 

3. In the bowl of the electric mixture or with a hand mixture beat the butter and sugar, until it is light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and egg yolks. Beat it well. Beat in the ground almond and finally add the flour mixture. 

4. Make a dough. Divide the dough in half, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until it is chill.  

5. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove one of half dough from the refrigerator and roll out on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured 3-inch cookie cutter. Place the cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Use a smaller cookie cutter and cut out the centers of the half of the cookies. If you want, you can buy a Linzer cookie cutter set. I have used those. 

6. Chill, reroll the scraps and cut out the cookies until you are done. Repeat it with the second half of dough. The dough will make 24 to 26 3-inch cookies. If it makes 24 cookies, you have to make 12 full cookies and 12 cutout cookies. 

7. Put the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill it. Bake cookies for about 10 minutes to 12 minutes or until the edges are brown. Remove from the oven and let cookies cool. 

8. Lightly dust the tops of the cutout cookies with powdered sugar. Spread a teaspoon of jam on the bottom surface of the full cookie. Now place the cut-out cookie on top and gently sandwich them together, 

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Light Fruit Cake

I hope everybody is enjoying the best time of the year in US. I love the way Christmas is celebrated here. All the neighborhoods are so well decorated with lights and Christmas trees. People are visiting friends’ or relative’s places with pack of gifts. Kids are taking snaps with Santa Claus and waiting for surprise gifts from their parents!  And last but not the least is Christmas Special Cakes are being made at every home.

Today I will share the recipe of Light Fruit Cake that I am baking on Christmas Day for last couple of years. From the start of this month, I received many requests from my friends to upload this recipe. Though I was busy planning for a short trip to spend some quality time with family, I made this cake in hurry on their request. This is the easiest fruit cake, a perfect recipe for the beginners. It is light and free of alcohol. This is not the proper British Fruit Cake but easily can compete with the same in taste. 

This Light Fruit Cake is the combination of candied mixed peel and candied cherries. The best part is that it has lots of candied fruits and delicate almond flavor. And good thing is that, you do not have to wait to enjoy this Christmas Cake, as it can be eaten the same day it is baked!  If you like your fruit cakes to have a boozy flavor, you can mix the candied fruit and raisins with a little alcohol and let it soak for a day or two. In that case, rum, brandy or sherry is the good option in alcohol. You need to soak it at least for one day and give stirs a few times during the day. Ground Almonds are used in the cake batter. It’s not necessary to buy it from stores because you can make your own at home by grinding blanched almonds or natural almonds. If you like dried fruits, you can add them more instead of candied fruit and raisins by reducing candied fruits.

Since this Fruit Cake is so easy to make and needs only few ingredients, you don’t need to wait for special festival like Christmas, rather you can make them throughout the year. When you have guests at home, they will love it along with tea or coffee. One last thing to note that though you can serve the cake on the same day it is baked, it would be better to store it for a day or two before serving. Because it helps to mingle the flavors.

Recipe of Light Fruit Cake ( alcohol free ) : for a 9 by 5 by 3 pan 

Ingredients : Flour / all purpose flour : 1 1/2 cups Ground Almonds : 1/2 cup Baking Powder : 1 teaspoon Salt : 1/4 teaspoon Zest of one small lemon ( outer skin ) Candied mixed peel ( optional ) : 1/2 cup Candied red and green cherries ( cut into quarters ) / Fruit Cake mix / Tutti Frutti : 3/4 cup Raisin ( preferably dark colored ) : 1/3 cup Unsalted butter : 1/2 cup or 1 stick White sugar : 3/4 cup Large eggs : 3 Pure Vanilla extract : 1/2 teaspoon Milk : 1/2 cup Sliced / flake almonds : handful for decorating ( optional ) Method : 1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter or spray a 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf pan with a nonstick vegetable spray. 2. In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt and lemon zest together. Set it aside. 3. In the bowl of your electric mixer or with a hand mixer beat the butter and sugar until it is fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. 4. Add the vanilla extract, add the candied fruit, dried fruits and mixed peel (optional). Beat them nicely until they are well combined. 5. Add half of the flour mixture to the bowl and beat until incorporated. Add the milk and the remaining flour mixture and mix again it well. 6. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pan and decorate the top with almonds. Bake for about 60 to 80 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 7. Remove from the oven and let it cool down on a wire rack. Once it is at room temperature remove from it from the pan and cut it into pieces.  Note :   If you like your fruit cakes to have a boozy flavor, you can mix the candied fruit and raisins with a little alcohol and let it soak for a day or two and give stirs a few time during the day. You can serve the cake the day it is baked, better it is stored a day or two before serving, it helps to mingle the flavors. You can cover and store this cake for about one week at room temperature.

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