Raspberry Shortbread Linzer Cookies

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These raspberry shortbread linzer cookies are buttery, melt in your mouth, shortbread cookies filled with a layer of raspberry jam and will dazzle at your next holiday celebration! These cookies are delicate, buttery, crisp, and perfect for Valentine’s Day celebrations! They are fun to make and delicious to eat. Despite the long process of chilling and rolling out the dough, these cookies are surprisingly easy to make and only require 10 ingredients. Make these for a special occasion and enjoy with friends and family during any season!

Shortbread linzer cookies on a parchment paper with heart shaped cutots and filled with raspberry jam

INGREDIENTS YOU’LL NEED:

Unsalted Butter: Since butter is a main flavor here, I would really recommend springing for a higher-quality brand. It is very important to have your butter at room temperature. You can ensure this by lightly pressing your finger on the block of butter. It should slightly leave an imprint. I also prefer to use unsalted butter because salted butters have varying amounts of salt content in them and it is always a good idea to add it on your own and avoid your bakes from being too salty.
Granulated Sugar: Sugar acts as a binding agent to your muffins along with adding sweetness. You can use either granulated sugar, powdered sugar or caster sugar to make these cookies. Make sure you only use superfine sugar to get that melt in your mouth texture.
Almond Extract: You must use a high quality pure almond extract in your recipes. This helps to add a rich flavor to your baked goods. This enhances the flavour of all ingredients and you should never leave it out. You can alternatively swap it with vanilla extract. Pure vanilla extracts are typically dark brown in color.
All purpose flour: I highly recommend weighing all your ingredients using a kitchen scale for accurate recipe results. If you’re using cups, don’t scoop your cup into the flour. Spoon the flour into your cup and level it off with the back of a knife. You can also use a mix of all purpose and almond flour alternatively.
Kosher Salt: Adding a pinch of salt helps to balance out the flavours in the cookies. I have added sea salt for a little extra flavour however you can use normal iodised salt too.
Powdered Sugar: You will need powdered of confectioners’ sugar to dust on top of cutout cookies.
Raspberry Jam: You can use any jam alternatively or even make one at home. You can also fill these cookies with chocolate ganache or Nutella instead.

FAQ

How to make raspberry shortbread linzer cookies:

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients to make the shortbread linzer cookie dough using a hand mixer, stand mixer or a food processor.
2. Chill it in the fridge for at least one hour or up to a few days.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disk of dough to ⅛” in thickness. Use a 2 ½” fluted round cutter and a 1″ heart linzer cookie cutter or alternatively a round piping tip. Cut out an even number of solid cookies and cookies with a heart shaped cutout.
3. Place all cutout cookie dough on baking sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes. Place the scrap cookie dough back in the fridge for about 15 minutes before re-rolling.
4. Bake the frozen cutout cookies at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Bake the tiny hearts for about 8 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet.
5. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.

How to ensure linzer cookies keep their shape when they bake:

To ensure that the linzer cookies maintain their shape in the oven, chill the cookie dough for at least one hour, then freeze the cutout dough for 10 minutes.

How to store raspberry linzer cookies:

Since linzer cookies are meant to be crisp, store them at room temperature covered loosely with aluminum foil.

How to make homemade raspberry jam?

Add the raspberries, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla to a small heavy bottomed saucepan.
Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until berries start to break down.
Turn the heat down to low, and let the mixture simmer for another 5 minutes.
Add in the cornstarch and salt and stir it continuously for about 1-2 minutes with a wooden spatula until thickened.
Transfer to a mason jar and then place in the refrigerator until cool and ready to use.

TIPS TO MAKE THE PRETTIEST LINZER SANDWICH COOKIES:

Do not over mix the dough. Because we do not want to incorporate much air into the dough, be sure to mix the butter and sugars together on low speed. Mixing at a higher speed for too long will aerate the dough and leave you with cookies that spread too much in the oven.
Roll the dough before chilling. For best results I like to roll the dough as soon as it’s ready. Roll the dough to 3/8 inch thick between two pieces of parchment paper and then pop it in the freezer for at least 15 minutes before cutting the shapes. Once the shapes are cut, place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and return them to the freezer for 10 minutes before baking them in a preheated oven. The extra chill time will help to prevent any spreading in the oven.
Do not over bake. For those soft, buttery, melt in your mouth cookies be sure to pull them from the oven when the edges are set and lightly golden brown and the center of the cookie is puffed and pale. The middle of the cookies might seem slightly under baked but the residual heat from the pan will continue to bake the cookies once they are removed from the oven.
Cool the cookies completely. Be sure to let the cookies cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets once removed from the oven. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, dust the tops only with confectioner’s sugar before adding the raspberry jam to the center of the bottom cookies. Then carefully place the top cookie over the jam cookie, being careful not to smudge the sugar dusting.

HOW TO GET THE BEST RESULTS FROM THIS RECIPE?

All of the recipes on the blog are thoroughly tested multiple times and carefully designed so that anyone can reproduce these delicious baked good in their own kitchen and enjoy them to the fullest. The only way to make this possible is when anyone can exactly replicate the measurements and temperatures.

In order to standardise the way ingredients are measured, I highly recommend that you weigh them in grams. Volume measurements are nearly not as accurate and have a lot of scope for errors. To precisely be able to replicate the recipes, all you will need is a kitchen scale!
Every oven heats up differently. Your oven might be over heating or under heating by around 50 degrees or more and you might not even know. In order to ensure that you are baking at the right temperatures, I highly recommend investing in an oven thermometer!

If you would still like to bake using volume measurements, I mentioned those below. However, I primarily test my recipes in grams and cannot promise the best results if you do so. Trust me, once you’ll start using these tools you’d never want to go back!

I hope you’ll enjoy these Raspberry Shortbread Linzer Cookies this Christmas and don’t forget to bookmark this recipe for the holidays. These scrumptious cookies are perfect to celebrate any occasion with friends and family!

Happy baking! x