Buttery, chewy pecan linzer cookies filled with a sweet raspberry jam. The perfect way to spice up your Valentine’s Day this year!
Raspberry-Pecan Linzer Cookies
Let’s be honest here, can you really ever go wrong with a good old-fashioned shortbread cookie on Valentine’s Day??? I think not, which is why I’ve developed this recipe for Raspberry-Pecan Linzer Cookies, aka buttery soft shortbread cookies filled with raspberry jam. Even if you’re not into raspberry jam being sandwiched in between your cookies, the cookie itself is absolutely perfect on its own.
What are Linzer Cookies?
These Viennese delicacies are buttery, jam-filled sandwich cookies based on the classic Linzer torte, a nutty jam-filled pastry with a lattice design on top. Austria definitely knows what its doing when it comes to cookies 🙂 Although the cookies are not technically shortbread, they’re pretty dang similar in taste and texture. They’re typically made with finely ground almonds and almond extract incorporated into the dough and filled with an apricot or raspberry jam. They’re almost always topped off with a dusting of powdered sugar, which makes for the perfect bite all the way around.
While they’re typically made during the holidays, I’ve put my spin on these cookies by doing a Valentine’s edition. And while I do love baking with almonds, I couldn’t help but swap out the almonds for pecans – I am from the South lol.
Ingredients for Raspberry-Pecan Linzer Cookies
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Pecans – the pecans need to be finely ground for this recipe, which I do in my food processor. I’ve found that’s the easiest.
- Egg yolks
- Kosher salt – I always use Diamond crystal kosher salt, it’s my favorite!
- Ground cinnamon
- Vanilla bean paste
- Lemon juice
- All-purpose flour
- Raspberry jam – my favorite is and always will be Bonne Maman jams, especially their raspberry.
Equipment I’d Recommend:
- Scalloped cookie cutters: I love the way scalloped edges look on these cookies, and I used these cookie cutters.
- Heart-shaped cookie cutters: everyone needs some heart-shaped cookie cutters, and these are great because you need a really small heart for this recipe – but it’s always good to have other sizes on hand as well.
- Offset spatula: one of my favorite kitchen gadgets, perfect for spreading the jam onto the cookies.
- Parchment paper sheets: a must-have for any baker. I can’t stand the rolls of parchment paper because they roll up on themselves when you’re trying to put things on it! These parchment sheets are your new best friend. I’ll never go back to the rolls!
- Fine-mesh sieve: another must-have for any baker, but we’re using this to dust powdered sugar on the cookies.
Tips for Making Raspberry-Pecan Cookies
- Use room temperature ingredients. As with almost any other cookie recipe, it’s important that your ingredients be room temperature. Quick tip: the fastest way I’ve found to soften butter is to put it in the waistband of your pants. Seems crazy, I know, but it works – and it’s fast!!
- Make sure your pecans are finely ground. No one wants large chunks of nuts in their cookies, and the best way to avoid that is to make sure you’re grinding them finely in your food processor.
- The dough will be quite dry, but stay the course! A dry dough can sometimes be a pain to deal with, but the fact that it’s dry only helps to reduce the spreading of the cookie. I love the look of the scalloped edges – which is why I developed the dough to be more on the dry side.
- Do NOT overbake these cookies! If they’re beginning to brown along the edges, they’re overbaked. 🙁 With most cookie recipes (like my chocolate chip cookie recipe), you do want the edges to brown a bit, but not here!
- Only spread a thin layer of jam in between the cookies. It was soooo tempting for me to spread a thick layer of jam because I love raspberry jam, but these cookies taste the best – and look the best – when there’s only a thin layer of jam between the cookies.
Can you spot Louie’s nose in the above picture?? If you follow me on Instagram (@sarahsdayoff), you know that Louie loves to hang around while I’m doing photoshoots (I wonder why lol). He’ll occasionally sniff my treats but I think I put the fear of God in him once when he took a bite out of a brownie!! I do love my photo buddy though 🙂
If you bake these cookies for your valentine, be sure to tag me @sarahsdayoff so I can see them!! Much love and happy baking!!
Love,
Sarah
“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life…Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.” -Proverbs 4:23, 25-
Raspberry-Pecan Linzer Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup finely ground pecans
- 2 large egg yolks at room temperature
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or use pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- Raspberry jam
- Powdered sugar
Instructions
- Beat butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Beat in sugar and pecan grounds until smooth. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in lemon juice, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla on medium speed until combined. Beat in flour on low speed until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out disk on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Use a scalloped circular cookie cutter to cut out cookies, then use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out hearts in the center of only half of the circles.
- Place cookies on prepared baking sheets; bake 8 to 10 minutes or until tops are no longer glossy and edges are set. Immediately transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
- Spread jam on the cookies without the heart-shaped cutouts. Dust the cookies with heart-shaped cutouts with powdered sugar. Sandwich a non-heart cookie and a heart cookie together.
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