This Austrian cake is a combination of a short nutty pastry and tart jam and such a perfect union of subtle flavours that again proves that those old traditional bakes stick around for a reason.
I chose to use walnut together with almond meal in mine - it adds a delicate softness to the pastry, though hazelnut and almond meal can also be used. The jam is up to you though I like raspberry and blackcurrant particularly.
The recipe is enough for one cake, or several small tarts. It can also be converted to linzer biscuits - which is a great use of any left over bits and pieces.
The cake pictured above is a star version - perfect for Xmas and much easier to create than a lattice - its just a matter of stamping out the star shapes and laying the pastry disk on top.
Star cutouts form the border - and voila it’s ‘Christmassy’

*adapted from ‘Backen Macht Freude’

Ingredients

200g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a good pinch of salt
125g raw caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg white
125g unsalted butter (cubed)
80g ground walnuts
80g almond meal

For the egg wash:
1 egg yolk
40ml milk - mixed together to make and egg wash.

1 cup jam (such as blackcurrant, raspberry, plum, berry or strawberry)

Method:

Preheat an oven to 170 deg C, fan forced.

Place the flour and baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk until well combined.

Whisk in the spices, followed by the nut meals and sugar. Add the vanilla bean paste, the egg white and the cubed butter. Mix using the beater attachment of a stand mixer until you have a smooth combined dough. The dough will be quite soft.

Alternatively , the dough can be mixed in a food processor.

Wrap the dough and chill for 60 minutes to overnight to help it to firm up.

To assemble the cake -

Divide the dough into two parts.

For the Star Linzer Torte:

Grease a cm 24cm tart tin. (ideally with a removable base)

Roll out half of the dough to cover the base, pressing it into the corners and slightly over the edge. Trim to neaten. Chill the base in the fridge.

Roll out the rest of the dough on a piece of baking paper to make a circle, trimmed to the same size as the diameter of the tart tin.

Use different sized star cutters to cut out a star pattern into the circle. Chill until firm then lift out the pastry inside the cut out starts. Chill again, but this time in the freezer until firm.

Gather any left over pastry and stars from the cutout and press into a ball. Roll out on a piece of baking paper and cut small stars to edge the tart. Chill.

Take out the base and brush the edges with egg yolk wash. Spread jam in the middle.

Take out the lid which should be firm and a little more stable. Flip it over onto the tart and peel off the baking paper carefully. Press gently onto the edges to seal.

Brush the edge with egg wash and arrange the pasty stars around the tart. I like to add a few odd ones in the middle as well.

Brush the whole tart with egg wash and bake for 20-25 minutes until crisp and golden.

Allow to cool before removing from the tart tin and serving.

To make linzer biscuits:

Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of around 4mm

Cut out circles and then cut a shape such as a heart of star out of the centre of half the circles.

Chill the cut of pastry in the fridge until firm.

Brush a little egg wash around the perimeter of the pastry rounds without the cut out, add a teaspoon of jam to the centre and spread slightly then top with the round which as a cut out in the centre.

Brush with egg wash.

Chill again for 20 minutes, then bake for 10-15 minutes until golden.

For lInzer tartlets:

Grease line the base of the tartlet tins with the nut pastry. Fill with jam. Brush egg wash around the edges. Cut out strips for the lattice and chill the dough to prevent it crumbling before decorating the tartlets with a lattice top. Brush with egg wash and bake for 15-20 minutes until crisp.