Linzer Sablés (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by noskos of Living the Life: Linzer Sablés. They are buttery, lightly spiced sandwich cookies filled with jam.


They're made with the ground nuts of your choice - I decided to use ground almonds (also called almond meal). You can purchase almond meal from the store, or you can make your own if you have a food processor. If you decide to go the DIY route, make sure you add a teaspoon or two of the flour used in the recipe into the food processor. This will allow you to get a much finer meal, and prevent it from turning into a paste. I also used a fine meshed sieve to sift my almond meal, and then threw the larger bits back into the food processor for another whirl. You can do without the sifting, but you might end up with a grittier texture to your cookies.



I had no problems with this recipe; it was really simple. The dough was extremely easy to work with and rolled out nicely between two sheets of plastic wrap. I think some bakers had problems with the dough warming up too quickly after it was taken out of the refrigerator, making it difficult to create the cut outs. I was in a rush, so I put my dough in the freezer and had no problems at all. It was ready after 45 minutes in the freezer, just as Dorie promised. I made half the cookies with a flower cut out in the middle, and the other half with a round cut out (using the end of a piping tip as Dorie suggests). I'm not sure which one I like better.



The dough is supposed to be rolled out to a 1/4-inch thickness. If you're making single cookies, the 1/4-inch thickness is just fine. If you're going to make the sandwiches, however, I would recommend rolling the dough out just a tad thinner so you don't end up with such a thick sandwich (maybe 1/8-inch?). I'm also not sure how Dorie got 25 sandwiches out of this recipe. I even used a smaller cookie cutter (1.5 inches instead of 2 inches) - and I was only able to get 16.


These were delightful cookies that were surprisingly easy to make. They were slightly nutty, with just a hint of cinnamon and cloves. The burst of flavor from the jam in the middle was wonderful. I filled my cookies with some strawberry guava jam that I recently received from a friend in Hawaii - yum!


Thanks noskos, for choosing the Linzer Sablés. If you would like the recipe, you can find it here. Make sure you visit the TWD Blog Roll to see how everyone else enjoyed these lovely cookies!

* Recipes notes:
- If you don't have cookie cutters, don't let that stop you from making these. You can either use the rim of a glass, or simply cut them into squares or rectangles.
- If you want to make your own almond meal, 7/8 cup (3/4 + 1/8) whole almonds = 1.5 cups ground.
- If you roll the dough out thinner (as recommended above), make sure you also decrease the baking time.
- These cookies puff up slightly in the oven but not very much, so you can place them close together on the baking sheet.
- I used my baking stone for the cookies and did not need any parchment paper.
- I only needed 1/4 cup jam for the 16 sandwiches I was able to get from the recipe. You can just put a small dollop of jam on the cookie and then place the other cookie on top. There is no need to spread the jam first.
- If you're going to dust them with confectioner's sugar, make sure you do so before sandwiching the cookies together; otherwise, you'll end up with confectioner's sugar covering up your pretty jam in the middle.
- These cookies can be frozen for up to 2 months (skip the confectioner's sugar dusting if you're going to freeze them).
- For more recipe tips, click here.