Linzer Cookies

These are the best linzer cookies you’ll ever have! A soft, tender almond cookie sandwiched with raspberry jam and topped with confectioners’ sugar.

These gorgeous almond cookies have a soft, tender texture. Flavored with brown sugar, almond, and a hint of cinnamon, they are perfectly complemented by raspberry preserves. The cookies themselves are not overly sweet, so the preserves and powdered sugar add a welcome sweetness, which helps soften the cookies perfectly. 

Not only are Linzers a striking and beautiful cookie, but they are also delicious, making them excellent gifts. I often give them alongside soft gingerbread cookies, cherry cookies, and this soft sugar cookie recipe. I have also made tens of thousands of these cookies for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, for giveaways at the restaurants, and for our bakery’s Christmas Cookie Tins.

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Almonds: I used blanched, whole almonds in this recipe, but it is also good (and easier!) with almond meal. Whatever you have, that is what you should use!
• Light Brown Sugar: Using light brown sugar adds sweetness along with a bit of moisture. This will keep the cookies softer. You can use dark brown sugar. 
• All-purpose flour
• Baking Powder
• Kosher Salt
• Cinnamon
• Butter
• Whole Egg: The egg is here to add leavening and fat. Large egg yolks add fat, while egg whites add moisture. They also emulsify the batter, keeping everything texturally perfect.
• Vanilla Extract
• Powdered Sugar: The confectioners’ sugar coating adds a touch of additional sweetness and helps keep the cookies moist during extended storage.
• Seedless Preserves: I prefer to make these with seedless raspberry preserves, but any jam would be delightful, just like with these thumbprint cookies.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations for Linzer Cookies

• Different shapes & sizes! Linzer cookies are incredibly versatile! Use any cookie cutter that you enjoy. Hearts are lovely for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, and snowflakes or trees are great for Christmas. Make them as big or small as you’d like. You don’t need a special cookie-cutter set to make them. Just use what you have and play around.
• Use a mix of jams or spreads. Try raspberry, apricot, this easy strawberry jam recipe, or peach preserves. You can use Nutella in recipes like these: chocolate-Nutella linzer cookies, easy lemon curd, cookie butter, or salted caramel sauce. Please note that items like lemon curd require refrigeration.  
• Change the flavor of the dough. I have made this same recipe with almond extract, hazelnut flour, and almond flour. Adding orange zest or lemon zest to the sugar before mixing will lightly flavor the dough. You can also change up the spices in these cookies!
• Top with a glaze instead. I made so many linzer cookies at the restaurants and for Cookies for Kids Cancer that people started calling them “Lindsey’s Linzers.” One year, I made them “lemon poppy seed” themed. I flavored the dough with lemon zest, glazed the tops with a simple powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze, and then sprinkled poppy seeds on top. Try the same with orange juice or even passionfruit juice!

Professional Tips

• Chill the cut cookie dough before baking. Once all your dough is cut, you can opt to chill the cookies again before baking them. Place them in the refrigerator until they are firm to the touch, which will take about 20-25 minutes. You can also freeze them to bake at a later date. I recommend this step because it will keep the cookies from spreading.
• Bake the tops & bottoms on separate baking sheets. The tops of these cut-out cookies bake considerably faster than the bottoms, and you don’t want to have to choose between overbaked tops or underbaked bottoms! 
• Don’t overfill the cookies. It is tempting to use a lot of jam, but it will actually make them less wonderful. The tops will slip off or the jam will ooze out the sides, and the flavors won’t be balanced.

How to Make This Linzer Cookie Recipe

Use these instructions to make the perfect Austrian linzer cookies every time! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below!

Make cookie dough:

Step 1: Whisk dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside.

Step 2: Grind almonds with sugar. In a medium bowl, mix the almond meal with ¼ cup of the brown sugar. Be sure to break up any clumps.

If using whole almonds, process them and ¼ cup of the brown sugar in a food processor until they are finely ground. Be sure to pulse, so you don’t end up with almond butter. 

Step 3: Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in a bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and the remaining ¼ cup of brown sugar until incorporated. This mixture won’t get light and fluffy, there is too much butter to sugar. 

Step 4: Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until well incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything is fully incorporated. 

Step 5: Incorporate almond mixture. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the ground almond mixture until fully incorporated. 

Step 6: Finish dough gently. Next, add the flour mixture in several additions. Mix until just combined, and be careful not to overmix. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl so everything is incorporated (photo 1)!

I have tested this same recipe without dividing the brown sugar between the butter and the almonds. The dough does not mix as easily, nor does it result in as tender a cookie. If using whole almonds, the sugar helps ensure the almonds grind as fine as possible.

Chill the dough: 

Step 7: Chill until firm. Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a disk and wrap it securely in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm (photo 2), which will take at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Alternately, you can roll the freshly made dough between two pieces of parchment paper to 1/8th inch thick. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. This allows the gluten to relax and the butter to re-solidify.

Roll, Cut, and Bake:

Step 8: Prep to roll. Preheat the oven to 350°F conventional and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Allow the disks to warm up on the counter until they are still firm but not soft. If you rolled the dough between parchment, you can skip to step 10!

Step 9: Roll out dough. Dust your work surface lightly with bench flour. Roll out each piece of dough to as close to a ⅛-inch thickness as possible. Rolling the dough too thin will result in crunchy cookies that don’t soften nicely once assembled (photos 3 & 4). 

Step 10: Cut the dough with your cookie cutter of choice, and place on a prepared baking sheet (photos 5, 6, & 7). Space the cut pieces of dough one inch apart. Use a smaller cookie cutter, or a paring knife to cut out the centers of half the pieces. Keep your scraps, because you can (and should) re-roll them!

If you used parchment paper, remove it from both sides, but leave it in place to cut. Releasing the dough from the parchment will make the cutting and transferring easier, especially once the dough warms up.

Step 11: Bake the cookies in the preheated oven, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through. You want to bake until the edges begin to brown, the centers puff slightly, and have small cracks on the surface. For me, this was 8-10 minutes for the bottoms and 6-8 minutes for the tops (photo 8)

Step 12: Cool the cookies slightly on the cookie sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Assemble and enjoy:

Step 13: Dust with sugar. When the tops (the ones with holes) have cooled, dust them generously with powdered sugar. 

Step 14: Spread preserves. Spread about ¾ teaspoon of preserves on the flat side of each bottom (the cookies without holes). You can use a little more if you like, but I didn’t want the raspberry flavor to overpower the almond flavor. Spread the preserves until they almost reach the edges (photos 9 & 10)! 

Step 15: Sandwich cookies. Place a powdered top on each bottom and press gently to stick them together. You can begin enjoying them immediately, but they continue to improve with time (photos 11 & 12).  

Recipe FAQs

Before You Go!

I hope you enjoyed this professional chef tested recipe. Check out our other delicious, chef-developed cookie recipes like these chocolate chip shortbread cookies, or all of our Christmas cookie recipes!