12 Days of Cookies: Baking Bandits’ Raspberry Linzer Cookies

This year, we found the best cookies on the web for our 12 Days of Cookies, with today’s cookie being Baking Bandits’ Raspberry Linzer Cookies.

 

The Baker: Birmingham, Alabama-based pastry chef, entrepreneur, and co-owner of The Essential, a cafe in Birmingham, Kristen Hall is a tour de force, bringing drool-worthy baking inspiration to her Instagram account, @baking bandits. 

 

Why We Love It: Kristen’s Raspberry Linzer Cookies are refreshingly simple, with only six ingredients and salt being one of them. Pro Tip: Use the best quality of raspberry preserves you can find since it will be the star here.

 

Raspberry Linzer Cookies

 

Ingredients

 

• 24 Tbs. (3 sticks) (12 oz./375 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup (4 oz./125 g) confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting
• 1 Tbs. vanilla bean paste
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups (13 oz./405 g) all-purpose flour
• Raspberry preserves for assembling the cookies

Directions

 

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat together the butter and confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla bean paste and salt and beat until combined. Slowly add the flour and beat until a soft dough forms.

 

2. Divide the dough in half and roll each half evenly between 2 sheets of parchment paper or waxed paper to about 1/4 inch 6 mm) thickness. Refrigerate the dough until firm, 1 to 2 hours.

 

3. Preheat an oven to 350°F (180°C).

 

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the top piece of paper from the dough and, using a round fluted cookie cutter about 2 1/2 inches (6 cm) in diameter, or your favorite cookie cutter of a similar size, cut out cookies. Using a smaller round cookie cutter, about 1 1/4 inches (3 m) in diameter, cut a hole in the center of half of the cookies (these will form the top layers of the cookies). Reroll the the scraps to cut out more cookies. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and freeze for 1 hour.

 

5. Bake the cookies until lightly golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely. Sift confectioners’ sugar over the cookie tops. Spoon 1 to 2 tsp. raspberry preserves on the cookie bases, then gently cover with the cookie tops. Makes about 24 cookies.

Follow along on our blog for 12 days of Christmas cookies, and head to our Holiday Headquarters for more recipes, gift ideas, and supplies for all your holiday entertaining needs.