Teatime Linzer Cookies

A new "toy" has arrived, and although I haven't quite mastered it yet, I can't wait any longer and simply must share! You see, I always liked the idea of making those cute Linzer cookies with cutouts that let you see the jam, but the tea-themed cookie cutters I have are so large you'd have to make a plate-sized cookie for it to be large enough to contain a regular cookie-sized cutout. Then last week, I discovered some tea and coffee themed Linzer cookie cutters and placed an order. (I got mine here, and they're available from a variety of vendors on the internet.)

Are you interested in the history of Linzer cookies? OK, good! Linzer torte, the famous pastry in which the pretty fruit filling peeks through a lattice crust, hails from Linz, a town in Austria. The Linzer cookie, with its fruit filling peeking through the top cookie with a cutout design, is a variation on that idea.

The recipe printed on the back of the cookie cutter box did not work for me. The cookies had too much butter in them and were swimming on the cookie sheet by the end of baking time. So, I returned to a never-fail sugar cookie recipe I've been using (from the marvelous book "Cookie Craft"). It worked perfectly. I baked bottoms first, then the fun part, the cutouts. The tiny (less than one inch) impressions lock into place on the cookie cutter and pop out with a spring mechanism. There were no instructions, but it was pretty easy to figure out. I used seedless raspberry jam on the bottom cookies, then added the tops which I had dusted with powdered sugar (sifted through a tea strainer!) and yum -- Teatime Linzer Cookies! DH and I both thought they were really good.

Happily, the cookie cutters all cleaned up easily in hot soap and water. I think I need to perfect my technique so as to get a "crisper" design in the middle, but for my first effort I'm pretty pleased!