Linzer Torte Bar Cookies
Linzer torte bar cookies are quick, easy cookies that offer flavors reminiscent of the famous Linzer torte, but with much less work.
Total Time
60 minutes
Servings
32 bar cookies
Butter, slightly softened 1½ cup (3 sticks) 340 g
White granulated sugar 2 cups 400 g
Unsweetened cocoa 4 tsp (20 ml) 7 g
Salt ¼ tsp (2.5 ml)
Ground cloves ¼ tsp (1.25 ml)
Ground cinnamon 2 tsp (10 ml)
Whole eggs 3
Hazelnut flour (ground whole hazelnuts/filberts) 3 cups 250 g
All-purpose flour 2½ cups 300 g
Fruit preserves, preferably raspberry or apricot 1 cup 300 g
Preheat oven to 350 °F (175°C, gas mark 4—moderate).
Put the butter in a large mixing bowl, and beat it with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Alternatively, beat it with a wooden spoon until soft.
30 seconds
Beat in the sugar, cocoa, salt, cloves, and cinnamon, scraping the bowl as needed, until you have a smooth, dark mixture.
Beat in the eggs.
Stir in the flour and hazelnut flour. If the butter was cold when you started, this step may be difficult.
Spread about three-quarters of the cookie dough in the baking pan, reserving the remaining quarter for the topping.
Spread the fruit preserves evenly over the raw dough in the baking pan.
Drop the remaining cookie dough by spoonfuls on top of the fruit preserves. If desired, these can be flattened using the back of a spoon, wet fingers, or the waxed paper wrappers from the butter.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes, until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.
35 minutes
Cool in the pan. Cut into 32 bars (4x8 grid).
- •You can use gluten-free flour substitutes. Avoid high-gluten bread flours.
- •You can replace up to half the sugar with a sugar substitute.
- •You can substitute other kinds of nut flours/nut meal.
- •If you halve the recipe, use one whole egg and one egg yolk. Bake in a 7x11-inch pan, an 8x8-inch square pan, or a 9-inch round pan.
- •If desired, the bars can be decorated by sifting a small amount of powdered sugar over the pan just before cutting them.
- •Store at room temperature or in the refrigerator for a few days. Freeze for longer periods.