Author Notes
A unique and delicious combination of flavors with hazelnuts, saffron, and passion fruit jam dressing up a traditional linzer cookie. Other jams would also work (mango is great in these), but I particularly like the tang of the passion fruit along with the sweetness of the cookie. —Kat Suletzki
Test Kitchen Notes
This cookie includes a variety of ingredients that don't seem to normally appear together. I blitzed hazelnuts in a food processor to get the hazelnut meal, and it lends a really pleasant holiday component to the cookies. The saffron imparts a really pretty color to the cookie, and is its surprising and interesting main note. I could not find passionfruit jam, but did find apricot hibiscus jam in hopes that tropical flavors would be similar. The baking time was surprisingly accurate—I was fearful of underbaked or over baked cookies, but they came out just right. —Emily Weinberger
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Ingredients
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1
very large pinch saffron threads
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2 cups
all-purpose flour
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1/2 cup
hazelnut meal / flour (ground hazelnuts)
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1/2 teaspoon
baking powder
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1/2 teaspoon
salt
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1 cup
unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
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1 cup
granulated sugar
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1
egg
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1 teaspoon
hazelnut extract (substitute vanilla extract)
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1/2 cup
passion fruit jam or curd
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1/4 cup
confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Directions
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In a tiny bowl, pour 2 tablespoons of boiling water over the saffron and let steep for 5 to 10 minutes.
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In a bowl, whisk together the flour, hazelnut meal, baking powder, and salt.
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In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar, and egg until light and fluffy. Add in hazelnut extract and saffron (along with the steeping water). Finally, mix in the dry ingredients until smooth and well combined. Chill in refrigerator 2 to 3 hours or until firm enough to be rolled.
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Preheat oven to 400° F. Prepare cookie sheets with Silpat or parchment paper.
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Roll out half of the dough on a well floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Be careful to get the surface even, otherwise you will have oddly-browned cookies. Also, do not roll the dough too thin, otherwise you will have hard cookies when they come out of the oven. Cut out an equal number of circle cookies and circle cookies with a flower or heart or snowflake cut out of the middle. Repeat this with other half of the dough. Transfer cookies to the prepared sheets.
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Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown at the edges. Cool completely on wire rack.
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Once completely cooled, spoon some passion fruit on the whole cookies and sandwich with the decorated cookie. Repeat until all cookies are used. Using a small sieve or shaker, dust with confectioners' sugar.
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