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| Fantastic linzer cookie tool! |
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| and so many options! |
ITS FREAKEN NOVEMBER!
... can anyone else believe that? As much as it pains to me admit.. i can't believe its November, but my body understands it! Because for the past few days i can think of nothing but baking and listening to Christmas/ Holiday music. So today i have started making Linzer cookies (Ina Garten's Recipe) which i absolutely love. I have been wishing to make them for a couple weeks now and While wandering around Michaels in search of green duct tape (which they did not have) I found a Wilton Linzer cookie cutter! I didn't know these existed! But i was ecstatic to find it! So pulling up my trusty Michaels coupon app (if you have a smart phone you would be stupid not to have this app.) No more fumbling for coupons only to find out your grabbed the wrong one and the one you have in your hand is expired! gah! So! i pulled up my 40% off coupon screen and proudly presented it to the not so impressed cashier who gave me the "are you serious? this is only $5.99" look, and ignored it as he scanned my phone anyway!. So for $3.88 it came home with me! (i will use a coupon to save 3cents if i have to!)
I love that it comes with 3 specifically christmas shapes for the center cut outs and then 3 every day cut outs! I am going to take this opportunity to share Ina Garten's Recipe... you could deffinetely google it to get it. But why make you do any more work than you have to... you ARE already here... :-)
Linzer Cookies
From Ina Garten of the Food Network
3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature (or micro on def for 10 sec intervals until soft not melted!)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or the cheap stuff... like i had :-P )
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup good raspberry preserves (or jelly, jam, any flavor you have on hand)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
For the Cookies: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.
Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll the dough 1/4-inch thick and cut 2 3/4-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With 1/2 of the rounds, cut a hole from the middle of each round with a shaped cutter. Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes. (i'm not going to lie... i didn't do this... and we lived to tell about it :-D )
Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes,(depends on oven) until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread raspberry preserves on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners’ sugar and press the flat sides together, with the raspberry preserves in the middle and the confectioners’ sugar on the top.
AMAZING!
I have a friend who is not able to eat nuts or seeds.. so I found some raspberry SEEDLESS jelly which i will be using today... who knew... they also make strawberry seedless jelly. Your really could use any sort of jam or jelly or preserves you like. I read that someone else even used Nutella.... had i read that prior to my linzer cookie venture that is exactly what I WOULD be doing. And plan on doing in the near future.
Random tips.
1. Always put just as many "top" cookies as you do "bottom cookies" on the same tray. I don't find they cook any different. But this way if you accidentally burn a tray you lose whole cookies and not just all your bottoms!
2. I always have a random small ball of dough left over. I never throw it away until all my cookies are baked and put together. In the event you drop a piece and it smashes into oblivion.... its nice to have that to make a back up piece... or 2 :-)
3. These cookies are very tasty as soon as they are finshed. But this dough does bake up crumbly and crispy. If you like crunch they are awesome. But i MUCH prefer to eat them the next day. After some of the moisture from the filling sort of soaks into the cookies and softens them up just a little bit. Play with them! and always store them in an air tight container!
4. ENJOY!
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.
Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll the dough 1/4-inch thick and cut 2 3/4-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With 1/2 of the rounds, cut a hole from the middle of each round with a shaped cutter. Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes. (i'm not going to lie... i didn't do this... and we lived to tell about it :-D )
Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes,(depends on oven) until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread raspberry preserves on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners’ sugar and press the flat sides together, with the raspberry preserves in the middle and the confectioners’ sugar on the top.
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| Linzer cookies made easy! Thanks Wilton! |
I have a friend who is not able to eat nuts or seeds.. so I found some raspberry SEEDLESS jelly which i will be using today... who knew... they also make strawberry seedless jelly. Your really could use any sort of jam or jelly or preserves you like. I read that someone else even used Nutella.... had i read that prior to my linzer cookie venture that is exactly what I WOULD be doing. And plan on doing in the near future.
Random tips.
1. Always put just as many "top" cookies as you do "bottom cookies" on the same tray. I don't find they cook any different. But this way if you accidentally burn a tray you lose whole cookies and not just all your bottoms!
2. I always have a random small ball of dough left over. I never throw it away until all my cookies are baked and put together. In the event you drop a piece and it smashes into oblivion.... its nice to have that to make a back up piece... or 2 :-)
3. These cookies are very tasty as soon as they are finshed. But this dough does bake up crumbly and crispy. If you like crunch they are awesome. But i MUCH prefer to eat them the next day. After some of the moisture from the filling sort of soaks into the cookies and softens them up just a little bit. Play with them! and always store them in an air tight container!
4. ENJOY!
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| Finished! (sans powdered sugar coating) |
