Valentine's Day Linzer Cookies - West of the Loop (2024)

More homemade Valentine’s Day love, today in the form of a heart-shaped Linzer cookie filled with scarlet-hued raspberry jam. I’d been meaning to make this traditional Linzer cookie recipe since before Christmas, but I ran out of time amidst all the holiday craziness. Luckily, by making my cut-out design a heart, these Linzer cookies work just as well for Valentine’s Day.

Most people think of Linzer cookies as German or Austrian, which they are. (Yay! You’re right.) Linz is, after all, the third largest city in Austria. (You knew that too, I’m sure.)

Perhaps the most famous dessert from the city of Linz is the Linzer Torte, which is a layered torte consisting of a layer of crumbly dough, usually studded with nuts or made with nut flour, topped with jam, perhaps raspberry or plum, and then finished with a lattice top. Some people say the Linzer Torte is the oldest cake in the world. It’s certainly iconic.

Linzer cookies follow the same idea. A bottom layer of cookie, a middle layer of jam and a top layer of cookie with a pretty cut-out design (through which one can see the jam) all dusted with frosty powdered sugar. With their delicate, crumbly texture and jammy center, Linzer cookies are pretty enough to grace an elegant tea table, yet simple and homey enough to please all palates.

Anyone who make his or her own jam loves a recipe that calls for jam and I am no exception. Thumbprint cookies, Linzer cookies, rugelach — I’ll make anything that lets me finish off a half-full jar of jam. But most Linzer cookie recipes call for almond flour and with my daughter’s nut allergy, almond flour is pretty much a no-go in this house. Hence, I had never attempted Linzer cookies.

So when my Czech cleaning lady, Máša (pronounced “Masha”), who is very special and has been with our family for overtwelve years, handed me a nut-free recipe for Linzer cookies this fall and explained that these were her family’s preferred holiday cookie, I knew that I had to make them. Sure, I didn’t get around to it before Christmas, but I think Valentine’s Day may be an even better occasion for these delicate treats.

(Wait, you’re saying, didn’t you just explain that Linzer cookies are Austrian? Why are you now claiming that these cookies are Czech? Check the map, people! Austria, the Czech Republic — they’re right next to each other. Moreover, Linz is in northern Austria, quite close to the Czech border. So, for our purposes, these Linzer cookies are Czech. In Czech, they’re calledLinecké Cukroví.)

I was intrigued byMáša’s recipe for a few reasons. One, it calls for powdered, not granulated sugar, which, as it turns out, gives the cookies an especially melt-in-your-mouth, crumbly texture. Second, Máša instructed me to dust my cutting board and rolling pin with powdered sugar, not flour, when rolling out the cookie dough.

That was a new one on me. I think the benefit of using powdered sugar for dusting is that, one, it sweetens the not-particularly-sweet dough and two, the dough does not take on any additional flour, which might make the cookies tougher. I was a little skeptical at first, but the powdered sugar, in fact, prevented the dough from sticking and the cookie is incredibly flaky and tender. So color me convinced.

These Linzer cookies or Linecké Cukrovíare the best I’ve ever had. Personally, I don’t miss the almond flavor at all. (Not a fan!) And I know I keep coming back to the texture, but honestly, these cookies are the antithesis of a dry, tasteless butter cookie. They are so buttery, so crumbly, so meltingly tender that you won’t be able to stop eating them.

Without the almond flour, though, the lemon zest takes on added importance. You can definitely taste it and the bright lemon flavor contrasts nicely with all that powdered sugar.I recommend using a tart jam for the same reason. I used some of my homemade raspberry-red currant jam — the recipe for which will be in my new cookbook The Joys of Jewish Preserving out June 1 — whichMáša approved as a traditional choice. Plain raspberry would work well too, but strawberry might be cloying. Strawberry rhubarb, on the other hand, could be lovely. If you don’t have homemade, use any good-quality jam. I promise your Valentine will feel the love.