Beaune: Speculoos Linzer Cookies

For the rest of our trip, we rented a car so that we could drive down “The Boot” that is Italy. Along the way, we spent a night in Beaune, France. We only had one meal (dinner) there, but honestly the food was memorable because it wasn’t very good. Nonetheless, the pastries were better and besides I’ve been wanting to make Linzer Cookies since last Christmas so here goes!

Our super cute hotel in Beaune, France

The Linzer Torte (or Linzertorte) is an Austrian torte with a lattice design on top of the pastry. It is named after the city of Linz, Austria.

Linzer Torte is a holiday classic in the Austrian, Hungarian, Swiss, German, and Tirolean traditions, often eaten at Christmas. Linzer Torte is often made like small tarts or cookies in North American bakeries.

Linzer sablés (German: Linzer Augen, “Linzer eyes”) are a cookie-sized version, made by cutting a circle of a similar dough, covering it with jam, placing a donut-like circle with a hole in the center piece of dough on top, and dusting with confectioner’s sugar.

– Wikipedia

Speculoos Linzer Cookies

Makes 12 bite-sized cookies (major scaling down of this recipe)

Ingredients

1 tsp ground flaxseeed + 1 tbsp water (to substitute for a fraction of an egg)
1 1/2 tbsp almond flour
1/2 tbsp + 1/2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white wheat flour
A dash of baking powder
A pinch of kosher salt
A dash of ground cinnamon
2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/6 tsp pure vanilla extract
Powdered sugar to sprinkle on top
Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie & Cocoa Swirl

Directions

Mix together ground flaxseed and water. Let stand for 5 minutes or until mixture develops a gelatinous texture resembling that of an egg.
In a separate bowl, mix together almond flour and 1/2 tbsp brown sugar.
In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and the other 1/2 tbsp brown sugar on high speed until fluffy. Beat in the flaxseed “egg” and vanilla.
Reduce speed to low and gradually add the almond mixture, followed by the flour mixture. Because the quantities are so small, you may need to finish the mixing with chopsticks, followed by hand. The dough may seem crumbly at first, but it should be able to be shaped into a ball.
On a floured surface, shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight so the dough can really bind together.
Before use the next day, leave the dough out at room temperature for around 30 minutes or until it feels just soft enough to be rolled out.
Preheat oven to 350 F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to an 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 1.5 inch cookie cutter, cut the dough into rounds, using the larger end of a piping tip to cut out the centers from half the cookies. Re-roll and cut the scraps as necessary.

Experimented with two different sizes. I ended up liking the ones with the bigger cutout better, but Felicia actually preferred the other.

Bake for 8 minutes or until the edges of the cookies have browned, rotating the baking sheet halfway through. Let cool.
Sprinkle powdered sugar on the half of the cookies with holes. Spread some cocoa Speculoos on the remaining cookies and top with the sugared cookies.