Linzer Cookies with Raspberry Chia Jam
These Linzer Cookies are the sweetest, cutest cookies, and while they are fiddly if you do the cutouts, they are so incredibly satisfying when completed. We’ve used 3 different cutter shapes; love hearts, daisy flowers and circles. And then as a bonus, you can bake the cutouts themselves and sandwich those with the jam too, for some super cute mini cookies. Just a whole bunch of cuteness all around really!
These gorgeous biscuits originate in Austria and Germany and refer to a biscuit that is sandwiched and has a cut out that exposes a preserve. In our version, we have used the traditional shortbread and made a delightful homemade chia jam using nothing but raspberries, chia seeds and sweetener. These would be also really good with gingerbread and a marmalade filling, or even as a chocolate shortbread with a cherry jam. Gosh, there are so many options and variations you can try!
Sweeteners
The shortbread uses maple syrup as the sweetener, but you could use any granulated sugar and most definitely could use xylitol too. I would avoid erythritol as it doesn’t cook so well with a butter-based biscuit and tends not to crisp well. In the jam, we took advantage of reducing the sugar content by using erythritol as a sweetener, which works really well in any fruit jam being a water-based recipe. You will find that this then eliminates the cooling effect when eating it for that reason. You can read more about the cooling effect of erythritol here.
Cutting and assembling the cookies
We will simply say, these lovely morsels are very fragile, so work and handle with care. Enjoy the process, get zen with it. Practice conscious presence and savour the attention to detail. That’s what will infuse these biscuits with the wonderful taste that simply doesn’t exist if you rush it. You can skip the window cutouts to make the process simpler. They won’t’ be quite as pretty but they will still taste amazing.
So! Enjoy the recipe and don’t forget to share your creations on our Facebook page or Instagram.
