Hazelnut Raspberry Linzer Squares Food

LINZER BARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position the rack in the middle of the oven.
• Spread hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven until golden, about 10 minutes. Turn oven off since you will not need it on again for at least 45 minutes. Empty nuts onto a folded towel, enclosing them between the folds, and rub them to remove their skins. Transfer the nuts to a strainer and carefully discard the skins. Allow nuts to cool to room temperature.
• Put the hazelnuts in a food processor fitted with the stainless-steel blade and pulse a few times. Add cake flour and process until the nuts are finely ground. Set aside.
• In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon zest on medium speed until light and creamy. Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Over medium speed, add the egg and continue mixing for 1 more minute. Reduce the speed to low, add the hazelnut-flour mixture, and continue mixing until well blended into a smooth dough.
• Divide the dough into 2 portions, with 1 portion about 8 ounces or 1/3 of the dough. Transfer to a medium pastry bag fitted with a number 1 plain tip and set aside. With the remaining 2/3 of the dough (about 20 ounces), form into a 1-inch flat disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• With a marking pen, trace a 16 by 13-inch rectangle shape on parchment paper. Place paper, marked side down, onto a baking sheet. With the reserved dough in the pastry bag, pipe straight parallel lines, about 1-inch apart, inside the marked rectangle. Then pipe a second set of parallel lines at a 45 degree angle to the first set of lines to make a trellis shape. Refrigerate until needed (dough should be well chilled before using).
• With more cake flour, lightly dust a pastry board or work surface with flour. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a rectangular shape, about 15 by 12 inches by 1/4-inch thick. Transfer dough to a parchment lined baking sheet and trim any excess dough to make an even rectangle. Bake for 20 minutes, or until dough starts to color. Remove baking sheet from the oven and transfer to a rack. Leave oven on. Allow dough to cool for at least 10 minutes.
• Spread raspberry jam over the entire surface of the cooled dough. Carefully place the refrigerated trellis-shaped dough over the jam. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until crust is golden in color. Allow to cool completely before cutting. Trim edges and then cut into 3 by 1-inch bars. Lightly dust bars with powdered sugar.

RASPBERRY LINZER BARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and lemon zest. In another bowl, mix flour, ground almonds and cinnamon; gradually beat into creamed mixture., Press 2 cups dough onto bottom of a greased 13x9-in. baking pan. Spread with preserves to within 1/2 in. of edges. Crumble remaining dough over preserves., Bake until lightly browned, 35-40 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. If desired, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Cut into bars.

HAZELNUT LINZER BARS

Steps:

• Make Classic Shortbread dough with just 1 cup flour. Add 1 cup ground oats and 3/4 cup finely ground hazelnuts with the flour. Mix one-third of the dough with 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts; freeze tablespoonfuls in clumps for 30 minutes. Press the remaining dough into a buttered 8-inch square pan. Spread with raspberry preserves and top with the frozen clumps. Bake about 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

LINZER COOKIES

Steps:

• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
• Toast hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan until fragrant and skins begin to loosen, about 6 minutes. Rub nuts in a kitchen towel to remove any loose skins (some skins may not come off), then cool to room temperature.
• Pulse nuts and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely ground.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
• Beat together butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer (preferably fitted with paddle) or 6 minutes with a handheld. Add nut mixture and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
• With floured hands, form dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 5-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 2 hours.
• Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
• Roll out 1 disk of dough into an 11-inch round (1/8 inch thick) between 2 sheets of wax paper (keep remaining dough chilled). If dough becomes too soft to roll out, rewrap in plastic and chill until firm. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with larger cookie cutter and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging about 1 inch apart. Using smaller cutters, cut out centers from half of the cookies, reserving centers and rerolling along with scraps (reroll only once). Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies from second disk.
• Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 solid cookie and sandwich jam with flat side of 1 windowed cookie. Sandwich remaining cookies in same manner.

RASPBERRY LINZER BARS

Steps:

• In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and the sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and add honey, zest, cinnamon and spices. Continue mixing for one more minute. Scarpe down the sides and add egg. Mix again until well blended.
• Sift the dry ingredients together. On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture and continue to mix until a dough is formed.
• Remove the dough from the mixer, wrap in plastic film and refridgerate for about 2 hours.
• Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 inches cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with wax or parchment paper. Remove dough from the refridgerator and divide into two. Dredge the work surface with flour and with a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thick, forming a 12 inch circle. This will be for the bottom of the torte. Line the bottom and sides of the prepared cake pan with the circle.
• For the top of the torte, use the second half of dough, roll it to 1/2 inch thick to create a 9 by 12 inch rectangle. Refridgerate both the top and the bottom for about 20 minutes.
• Remove from refridgerator and fill bottom half with raspberry jam.
• Preheat the over to 350°F.
• Create a lattice with the rectangular piece of dough by cutting 12, 9 inch strips (Use a piece of cardbpard to build the lattice to make it easy to slide onto the bottom of the torte). Slide the lattice onto the jam filled bottom. Fold the edges of the dough up and over the top of the torte.
• Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown. For a holiday accent, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

HAZELNUT LINZER COOKIES

Steps:

• Grind hazelnuts with 1/4 cup sugar.
• Stir together Flour, cinnamon, salt. Set aside.
• Cream butter, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks.
• Stir in dry ingredients.
• Pat into rectangle, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Roll out dough on lightly floured surface and cut out with 2" cookie cutter.
• Cut small shape in half of the cookies.
• Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
• Bake at 350 degrees 12- 14 minutes. Cool on rack.
• Heat preserves slightly in saucepan.
• Spoon 1/2 teaspoons preserves onto whole cookie.
• Dust cut-out tops with powdered sugar.
• Place dusted cookies on top of preserve covered cookies.
• Store in tins.