Jam filled vegan Linzer cookies are a holiday favourite. They’re so much fun to bake! Plus they are an absolute eye catcher on the cookie platter, while also delighting with a lovely flavour and beautiful light, crumbly texture.
We’ve been baking a lot of cookies over the last month.
Paul’s mum gave us her favourite Austrian Christmas cookie recipes (typed out on a typewriter back in the 80s!) and we’ve been having fun adapting them into vegan recipes.
So far we’ve shared these delectable Vanillekipferl Crescent Cookies and these moreish Hazelnut Cookies. And now it’s time for another absolute classic from Austria, the Linzer Cookie.
Linzer cookies take their name from Linz, Austria’s third largest city.
They are a shortbread-like sandwich cookie, with a layer of jam in the middle, which is revealed by a cutout window.
You’ll find Linzer cookies in different shapes.
Round cookies with three small circles arranged in a triangle are traditional and often known as Linzer Augen, meaning Linzer eyes.
Star forms are also popular, especially around Christmas, and are called Linzer Sterne.
There’s also a fun name from Switzerland and parts of Austria and Germany - Spitzbuben, which roughly translates as naughty boys or rascals.
I don’t know how they came to have this name, but I can certainly imagine a cheeky little boy might like these cookies so much that they magically disappear!
If you are familiar with Jammie Dodgers, then you might recognise that they too are a type of Linzer cookie!
Ingredient tips
To make the dough you’ll need some plain or all purpose flour, sugar, vegan butter, soy milk and ground almonds. Here’s our tips:
Ground almonds - We use organic almonds which we grind ourselves by pulsing in a food processor until fine.
Blanched or peeled almonds will give you the lightest colour cookies. But you can also grind raw almonds which still have their skin, and have a more brown coloured cookie.
Vegan butter - We’d recommend a block of vegan butter designed for baking, rather than a dairy free margarine or spread. We like Naturli or Flora Plant Butter. Miyokos or Earth Balance is also a good option in the US.
Jam - You can use your favorite type of jam, or use a variety. Seedless jam or jelly works well.
A traditional filling for Linzer cookies is redcurrant jam. Homemade apricot jam is one of our favourites, too. Raspberry or other red berry jam is typically used as well.
Icing sugar/powdered sugar - This dusts the cookies after they are baked.
Just be sure to use vegan icing sugar, as some may contain egg white, or (in the US) use bone char in the processing.
You can also easily make your own powdered sugar at home by grinding granulated sugar in a spice grinder or food processor.
Step by step
Here's a visual guide to baking these cookies. You'll find the full recipe in the card at the end of the post.
Step 1 - Combine the dry ingredients - the flour, ground almonds and sugar, and then rub in the diced vegan butter.
Step 2 - Add the soy milk and bring it together into a dough.
Step 3 - On a lightly floured board, roll the dough to a thickness of 3mm or ⅛inch.
Step 4 - Cut out cookie shapes using a cookie cutter (see tips below!). Use a small cutter to cut holes in the center of half of the cut-out shapes to make the cookie tops. Remaining dough can be rolled out again until you have used it all.
Step 5 - Transfer the shapes onto a lined baking tray and bake at 180C food 10-12 minutes, until they are lightly browned along the edges. Let them cool on the tray for a bit to firm up.
Step 6 - Assemble the cookies: Spread a small spoonful of jam on the base, then place a cookie with a cutout on top to create a sandwich. Try not to use too much jam, or it will spill out when you press them together!
Step 7 - As a final touch, dust the cookies with icing sugar.
Cookie cutter tips
One of my favourite things about making these Linzer cookies is cutting them out and making different shapes!
For the base you’ll want to use a cutter of around 5cm diameter. Fluted edges, heart shapes, and stars are all good.
And for the small cutout you’ll want a tiny cutter of about 1.5-2cm diameter.
If you don’t have a small enough cutter you can also improvise by using the reverse of a metal piping nozzle or just carefully cutting a window with a knife. The nozzle of a funnel might work too!
You can also get cookie cutter sets designed specifically to make Linzer cookies, which is really handy if you are baking a lot of them.
If you want your baked cookies to spread less or have sharper definition, you can chill the cut out cookies on before baking.
Enjoying and storing
Linzer cookies are popular at all times of the year! They are enjoyed especially in the run-up time before Christmas, as well as eating them up in the weeks after.
Plate them up and serve beside tea or coffee, particularly liked by visitors! Linzer cookies are also a perfect little sweet treat after dinner.
In Austria, people exchange whole tins of cookies, and Linzer are never missing!
A small tin of Linzer cookies is also perfect for bringing with you when visiting a friend or treating colleagues at the office.
Stored in a cookie tin, Linzer cookies can be good to enjoy even for several months! That said, they are still best when you eat them within two weeks - if you can resist them that long!
We hope that you enjoy these vegan Linzer cookies as much as we do! Here’s some more festive recipes for you to try:
Some yummy Vegan Rum Truffles
This fun to make Chocolate Salami
And these really easy, and very quick to disappear, Sweet & Spicy Nuts!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Linzer Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups (280 g / 10 oz) plain flour all purpose
- ⅓ cup (70 g / 2.5 oz) sugar granulated or caster
- ¼ cup (25 g / 1 oz) ground almonds
- ⅝ cup (140 g / 5 oz) vegan butter
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) soy milk
Filling and dusting
- ¼ cup (70 g) jam redcurrant, raspberry, apricot...
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
Instructions
- For the dough, first combine the dry ingredients: Flour, sugar, ground almonds.2 ¼ cups (280 g / 10 oz) plain flour, ⅓ cup (70 g / 2.5 oz) sugar, ¼ cup (25 g / 1 oz) ground almonds
- Rub in the vegan butter using your hands. You can start this off using a fork or spatula.⅝ cup (140 g / 5 oz) vegan butter
- Add the soy milk and knead into a smooth dough.3 tbsp (45 ml) soy milk
- Use a rolling pin to roll out a portion of cookie dough 3 mm thick (⅛ inch). Keep lightly flouring the rolling pin and surface to keep it from sticking.
- Cut out shapes using a cookie cutter (about 5 cm / 2 inch wide). For the cookie tops, cut a small opening right in the center of half the cookies using small cutter or other suitable tool. See cookie cutter tips in the post above!Leftover cuttings of dough can simply be gathered and rolled out again to cut out more cookies.
- Transfer the shapes to a lined baking tray and bake in a pre-heated fan oven at 180°C for 10-12 minutes, until just starting to brown around the edges. Let the cookies cool down to firm up for a few minutes.
- Spread small spoonfuls of jam on each cookie base, then place a cookie with cut-out on top to make a sandwich and gently press down. Try not to use too much jam or it might spill out from the sides!¼ cup (70 g) jam
- As a final touch, dust the cookies with icing sugar.1 tbsp icing sugar
Notes
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
Friederike says
I just made these, and they turned out great! I used a scale for all ingredients. Also, I used almond flour and it worked just fine. Will definitely make again.
Sophie and Paul says
Thanks so much for your feedback Friederike! So happy to hear you loved our vegan linzer cookie recipe! 🙂
Angie says
I can not use any nuts in recipe can you do without the nuts
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Angie,
the nuts add a lot of flavour and richness to the cookies. Leaving them out might also affect the overall success. We haven't tried the recipe without the nuts, so if you want to make sure they work, we suggest you find another true-and-tested recipe without nuts, or something like basic shortbread dough to make the cookies.
Good luck, Paul
Barbara says
Does it have to be soya milk or is Oat milk ok?
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Barbara, Soya milk is our favourite to use in baking as it is higher in protein than other non-dairy milks, and this helps to bind and produce a better structure in baked goods. However, I think you'd be fine to use oat milk in these cookies! Happy baking 🙂
Andrea says
I LOVE the cookies, but I had to make some changes. I added about a total of 9 tablespoons of soy milk. The bake time was 15 min, and prep time was way more than 30 minutes. Seriously, by the time all the cookies were baked, it was about 5 hours. (I did put dough in fridge for an hour) Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the time making them, but I waited until the next morning to do the jelly and powdered sugar. I am trying to figure out how to keep the powdered sugar from getting in the “window,” and going to find a YouTube video. All in all, the product is amazing, and I will absolutely make them again.
I have mastered the French macrons so figured this would be the same caliber of recipe. It was. The macrons, btw, weren’t vegan. I tried, but the aqua faba (chickpea juice from can) just didn’t whip up like egg whites. Maybe if i buy dried and cooked them, it would work better.
Again, though, excellent recipe. Everyone who has tasted them loves them. So do I.
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Andrea, So glad you love the cookies! Did you measure your ingredients with a weighing scales? We highly recommend weighing for best results. If not then it's very easy to overmeasure flour when using cups, which could be the reason you needed more liquid. Flour absorbency of liquid does also vary depending on brand and weather so it can be tricky! Timewise I personally find it much quicker and easier to work with the dough without chilling it, as it's softer. I'm sure you'll be much quicker next time!
With regards to macarons, I've heard great things about this recipe, which you might like to look at. I've found with aquafaba that the thickest, gloopiest aquafaba whips up best. Adding cream of tartar also helps. Thanks for your comment and we hope you enjoy the cookies again soon 🙂
Andrea Steindorf says
Thank you. I used a scale for the butter, but not the dry ingredients. I have no way, by any means, given up. I am going to get it perfect if it takes one time or a 100! I added cream of tartar to the aquafaba, but it wasn’t like the egg whites. I will definitely try yours. Thank you so very much for sharing your recipes. It so greatly appreciated.
Brooke says
Can almond flour be used instead of ground almonds? Sorry if that’s a dumb question, I’n new to vegan baking!
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Brooke! That's a great question. I think almond flour should work fine in these cookies. If the dough seems a little crumbly, just add a tiny bit more plant milk. The main difference with ground almonds (aka almond meal) is that almond flour is more finely ground and is usually made from blanched and peeled almonds, rather than whole almonds. Hope that helps and happy baking!