Nope, we did not just fast forward to Christmas. These are *not* Christmas Cookies, though I guess they could be. They are “summer flavored” (with lemon and lingonberries) and while that does look like *snow*, it’s just powdered sugar. It is, after all, still a little too early for Christmas (tell that to the shops though!). At any rate, summertime Linzers, delicious any time of year.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup lingonberry jelly*
confectioners sugar, for dusting
You will also need: a linzer cookie cutter, or two cutters of the same size, one with a shaped hole
Directions
In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Add in lemon juice, lemon zest and lemon extract. Finally, mix in the flour, baking powder and salt until smooth and well combined. Chill in refrigerator 2-3 hours or until firm enough to be rolled.
Preheat over to 400F. Prepare cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
Roll out half of the dough on a well-floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness (be careful to get the surface even, otherwise you will have oddly-browned cookies. Also, do not roll the dough too thin, otherwise you will have hard cookies when they come out of the oven). Cut out an equal number of square cookies and square cookies with holes variously spaced and of varying number. Repeat this with other half of the dough.
Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown at the edges. Cool on wire rack. Once completely cooled, use the lingonberry jelly to sandwich together two cookies to make a linzer cookie. Repeat until all cookies are used. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
*You can actually use any fruit jam or jelly for this, but I was aiming for red and a little tart, so that meant lingonberry, red currant, raspberry or possibly strawberry.
