Biccie anyone? Random Linzer Cookies

 

I don't really make biscuits - I don't really eat them either unless I am desperately hungry and there is nothing else or else there is a cup of tea involved and it is the end of the school day and I am sat in a meeting or something. Then biscuits seem right somehow. I maybe should mention at this point 'Jaffa Cakes' which I can consume at speed without them touching the sides and I mention them because they happen to be on the biscuit aisle, but they're CAKES and maybe that is why I like them so much.

 

Anyway, this month's Random Recipe Challenge hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen was 'your go to' cookbook. In desperate (and indeed, non desperate) times I am a Barefoot Contessa disciple, for I know that her recipes turn out completely as they should for I believe they have been tested to within an inch of their lives in that amazing barn kitchen of hers (not in the least bit envious...) and within the cookbook there will be something that you can just hurl together emergency style, for sometimes slaving over the stove is not my bag and frankly, I just want to eat.

 

Ten seconds was just enough time to find my well battered 'The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook' which is in a pretty poor state due to massive usage over the years. This is her first cookbook and contains some spectacularly amazing recipes, and has been well cooked from, so finding a recipe that had not been used was a bit of a challenge, until I came across these:

 

Linzer cookies.

 

My only tweak of the original recipe was I decided to sandwich some of these cookies with Nutella. Because I can. And should. And it allows me to do this:

Straight from the jar... a spoonful just for me.

 

Linzer Cookies taken from 'The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook' or from here

 

Makes loads!

 

Ingredients:

 

3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose (plain)flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup good raspberry preserves (or Nutella!)
Confectioners’ (icing) sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


Method:

 



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 23/4-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With half of the rounds, cut a circle out of the middle with a 1-inch cutter. Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, 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. Or you could get creative with Nutella!