Linzer biscuits

I went through 5 years worth of my Super Food Ideas magazine collection and ripped out the recipes I wanted to keep, organised and filed them; and while doing so came across a recipe for Linzer biscuits.  Given that I had a) lots of time, b) had no inspiration to make anything else and c) love sandwiched goodies ... melting moments, macaroons, oreos and the humble sandwich itself, I decided to give these a go.

Mum goes to me as I was rolling out dough for the 3rd time, "Don't you find it time consuming ... having to knead, then roll, chill the dough, cut out the cookies, chill it again before you actually bake it?", and looks at me strangely when I reply to her, "That's why I'm doing these!".  When my mum bakes, she prefers things that are quick, easy and require minimal fuss; these however need time and patience, but of course is perfect for taking my mind off things for an hour or two.  The dough rolled out beautifully without cracking and after freezing it for a bit, was lovely to work with -- as all the offcuts would come off without a hassle.

I had a taste test of them and they turned out really good!  They were crisp and the biscuits themselves weren't too sweet so to allow for the jam to make up for it.  Will definitely make them again!  And invest in a proper Linzer cutter (I spent a while hunting around the kitchen for something just the right size for that hold in the middle).  I made a couple of them with holes for it to actually look like the real thing -- but my brother has a particular palate so I left most of them as they were as they came out of the oven.  Of course, one could substitute anything for jam .. nutella, peanut butter, frosting even.

Linzer Biscuits
(Recipe adapted from Super Food Ideas)
The amount varies depending on how big your cutters are.  I used 4cm cutters and got a good 30-odd prior to being sandwiched.

Ingredients

• 100g butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional) - I didn't add any and it tasted fine
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 2/3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Jam or spread of your liking

Method

1. Beat butter, vanilla and sugar with electric mixer until well combined.  Add egg and mix well.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon over butter mixture.  Stir until mixture forms a dough (may take a bit of time).  Knead gently to bring together
3. Divide dough into 2 and place between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until 3-5 mm thick (but really just so long it's not a centimeter, anything will do).  Place in freezer for a few minutes or until firm.  Preheat oven to 180oC
4. Using a biscuit cutter, cut as many as you can and arrange them on lined trays.  With a couple of them, find a smaller cutter and cut out holes -- the original recipe said to freeze them first before cutting the holes but I found that this caused the actual biscuit to crack so it's best to do it all in 1 hit
5. Freeze for another few minutes until firm to cut
6. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until lightly golden.  Allow biscuits to cool on tray for 5 minutes before transferring them onto a wirerack.
7. Before serviing, spread jam over whole biscuits and pop sandwich cut-out biscuits on top.