Spiced Plum Linzer

These sandwich cookies from Christina Wood at Temple Pastries are a traditional German holiday cookie that are typically spiced with warming spices and filled with raspberry jam.  This version modernizes the spice blend a little to include coriander and orange zest, and uses plum jam in place of raspberry. Feel free to use whatever jam you like best, or a variety of jams for different colored centers in the cookies. Orange marmalade is a good choice for flavor and visual appeal. Christina used a triangle shaped cutter for these cookies, but you can use whatever shape you like. But try to keep the shape simple, as more complex shapes will be difficult to cut the center out of.

320g all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

144g almond flour or almond meal

340g unsalted butter, at room temperature

180g granulated sugar

2 teaspoons orange zest

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup plum jam

Powdered sugar, for dusting

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cardamom, salt, cloves, coriander and almond flour together.  Set aside. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and orange zest on medium speed until no lumps of butter remain, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Add the egg yolks and vanilla and mix until combined, making sure to scrape up the bottom of the bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

Turn dough out onto parchment paper.  Put another piece of parchment on top and press the dough out flat.  With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to ¼ inch thickness. Place the dough on a sheet pan in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and up to overnight, to firm up. 

Once the dough has chilled, use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes from the dough. In half of the cutouts, cut another smaller shape out of the center. These will be the top halves of the sandwich cookie. Make sure there are an even amount of tops and bottoms. Reroll any scraps of dough left over and repeat cutting out shapes, chilling the dough as necessary if it warms too quickly. Chill the cutouts on a sheet pan for another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place the cold cookie cutouts on a sheet pan or cookie sheet, leaving about 1-inch of space between them. Place in preheated oven and bake for 12-13 minutes, or until golden around the edges. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Once cool, dab about 1 teaspoon of plum jam onto the center of each base cookie.  Use a small offset spatula or a spoon to spread the jam evenly on the cookie.  Place the top cookie over the jam. Dust generously with powdered sugar for serving.