Tuesday, December 2, 2008

{TWD} Linzer Sablé Cookies

The TWD bakers have received a wonderful Christmas gift: three of the five December recipes are cookies, and fairly straightforward ones at that. I mean, when the hottest issue in the week's P&Q is how many cookies the recipe yields, and how thin to roll the dough, you know it's a breeze! Thanks to Dennis from Living The Life for choosing this festive and delicious (and easy!) recipe.

Linzer tortes are typically made with raspberries, and they're really delicious. I was excited about making these. So I marshaled my collection of jams:

Hard to believe, there was not a jar of red raspberry anywhere in the lot. Dorie says apricot is an alternative, but I have no apricot jam either, a fact which led me to use grapefruit marmalade in the rugelach a few weeks ago. (By the way, see S-dog in the background? Doesn't he look like he's up to no good?)

Lacking Dorie's preferred jam varieties, I chose three substitute jams for my cookies: Seedless Black Raspberry, Cloudberry (a distant cousin of raspberry apparently)[edit: I bought the Cloudberry Preserves at IKEA], and a little bit of Four Fruit that was left in the jar when I finished making the Buttery Jam Cookies (which will be the subject of a TWD post coming in a week or two. Yes, it was a little confusing making, photographing, and taking notes on two kinds of jam-related cookies at the same time.)

These vintage aspic and hors d'oeuvres cutters are from the 50's or 60's, when people ate aspic regularly, and I guess cut it into tiny decorative pieces.

I had visions of using these mini-cutters for decorative windows in the middles of plain circular cookies. But my 1980's biscuit cutter set (from my early matrimony days) is missing the 2" cutter. So instead I used a 2" star cutter and a slightly larger scallop cutter.


I also used my 2.5" biscuit cutter and tiny angel and star cutters for the windows (those cookies are the ones at the beginning of this post).

cook's notes

- the dough warms up very fast. Especially if you forget to cut out the middles until your cookies are already in the oven.

- I rolled the dough slightly thicker than 1/8". After rerolling the scraps, I ended up with 20 or 21 sandwiches and the little cut out middles as tiny cookies.

- My cookies were done around 7 minutes.

- You can successfully cut window in the cookies right after you take them out of the oven, in case you forgot one.

- The longer you boil your jam, the thicker it will end up when cooled (even 30 more seconds in the microwave will make a huge difference.)

the verdict:

These cookies are really delicious. The almond-y dough is perfect with jam. A.L.E. and I enjoyed sampling the various jam and shape combinations. They're all quite good, I'm happy to report! The rest are going into the freezer for Christmas uses.

The tiny cutout cookies were perfect for a doll's tea party. I thought I'd treat Mr. Teddy, who always sits patiently in the room next to the kitchen.

I'll bet you can guess what happened right after I took this photo! Luckily, Mr. Teddy didn't mind sharing his cookies with S-dog.

If you want to bake these for youself, you can find the recipe on Dennis' post, or on page 134 of Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours. For further baking fun, check out the Tuesdays With Dorie blogroll and click on the blogs of 359 other bakers to see what they're baking up.

{Note: I'm celebrating my first 100 blog posts with a cookbook giveaway - to enter, go here and leave a comment before December 3}

35 comments:

Engineer Baker said...

What cute little angel cutouts! I'm in awe of your jam collection - I think I just have two kinds in my fridge :)

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

I love the little angel cutouts! What fun! Isn't it funny the things we keep buying and collecting that end up in our fridges? Thanks for showing your jam collections. Cute pictures too!

What's for Supper? said...

I love all your cookie cutters. Taht is a very good picture. I really liked these cookies too. I plan to make more soon to freeze and give away.

Anonymous said...

I am jealous of the jam collection. It is hard to believe there was no raspberry...

The cookies are beautiful.

Anonymous said...

I love the cutouts and that last picture is too cute. Your cookies look perfect. I'm glad you liked them.

Di said...

Wow. My jam collection pales beside yours (I only have 5 or 6 kinds in my fridge). =) I love the cutouts, and the teddy bear pictures.

Cathy said...

S-dog is totally eyeing your (impressive, might I add) jam collection. Rivaled, perhaps, only by your cookie cutter collection. And I better not show the picture of your doll tea party to my daughter or she'll want to come over. I'm so glad you all enjoyed these linzer sables as much as we did! Yours are beyond gorgeous! I am making the buttery jam cookies now and trying to decide whether to make some "double jam" cookies with extra jam in thumbprints. Gotta love these December TWD decisions!

Fit Chick said...

Yummie looking cookies! I really like your little angel.I making mine this week and will post next Tuesday.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

Cathy, go for the thumbprint variation! The double jam would be amazing. Would you like to borrow a cup (or twelve) of jam?
Nancy

kimberly salem said...

your cookies are so pretty! and so is your jam collection :) hehe. aspic really creeps me out, but i like those tiny cutters :)

Maria said...

I love your jam collection! Super cute pictures too! The cookies looks awesome!

Tammy said...

your cookies look lovely! i love the different cut outs.

Carol Peterman/TableFare said...

These cookies are perfect for a teddy bear tea party! It looks like Teddy didn't really have a chance against S-dog though. I have never heard of Cloudberries and will pick up some jam if I ever run across it. You can never have too much jam!

Anonymous said...

These are really beautiful. I love all your ideas and explanations...such fun. S-dog looks like he is sizing up Teddy to see if he needs to wait until Teddy's back is turned or if he can just grab and go...LOL. Our dogs loved these cookies, too. They each had one bite and then another, and then what the heck...another...LOL.

Audrey said...

I love the angels! I hope you made some angel cookies with the Cloudberry jam. How funny about your vintage cutters, too. I also love the hint about cutting out the centers later...I thought I had counted properly, but alas no.
Audrey

Shelby said...

Great post and I LOVE your cutouts!

The Food Librarian said...

In case of emergency, I'm running to your house to have jam! :) Great cookies and wonderful collection of cutters.

Peggy said...

I'm so impressed as always. I love your jam collection. Love the angel cutouts. Isn't December just the funnest month ever? I am so overwhelmed already. But the baking is the fun part! That is one lucky teddy bear!

Pamela said...

Wow...that's a lot of jam. These look great, though. I'm glad S-dog got a little treat. Looking forward to your post on the buttery jam cookies.

Anne said...

I love your cutters, shapes, and jam collection- wow! Nice job!

CB said...

Wow! That's alot of jam! Love all your cookie cutouts! S-dog is so adorable.
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

Mary Ann said...

I love your jam collection- I would like to come over and just sample all of those. I haven't ever even heard of cloudberry. The angel is super cute. That's funny that you took a pic of the 50's cutters. When we were cleaning out my grandmom-in-laws things we found all sorts of fascinating kitchen items and those were one of the finds. Pretty fun. Your cookies turned out fabulously!

natalia said...

oh Nancy ! The Teddy and his little desk !it's so sweet almost as nice as your cookies !!

ostwestwind said...

Your cookies look very pretty and festive. Happy Advent Seasons, so we say in Germany.

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Lisa magicsprinkles said...

Hahaha. Forgetting to cut out the centers sounds like something I would do, and yes, I would imagine that the dough warms up once you put it in the oven. :)

NKP said...

I love your little aspic cutter set! Your cookies are too cute - I am so happy mr bear got some.

Cristine said...

Your cookies look great! I love the pic of the dog!

Danielle said...

Your cookies came out perfect!
I need in invest in some good cookie cutters!

AmyRuth said...

Gee....I almost thought of PBJ after seeing all the lovely jam jars you have around. Seriously, I wonder if any other PBJ lovers thought of putting a little dab in there. Your story is delightful and the photos are a great memory for your girlies. What a legacy for them to have, yea!
Happy Baking
AmyRuth

Annette said...

Your cookies are beautiful! I loved these. I'm excited about all of the cookie recipes this month too.

Kristin said...

So I guess the dog did not have to eat the crumbs this time, huh? He knew if he hung around long enough he'd get a whole cookie! Beautiful cookies!!

Anonymous said...

I am very jealous of your jam collection! I love that you shared with your S-Dog.

Katrina said...

Way cute cutters, I just bought some tiny ones yesterday and am excited to use them. The cookies are de-lish. I'm going to make more for an ornament party Sat.

Jules Someone said...

That's quite a jam collection! Those cookies look delicious. I love your cookie cutters.

noskos said...

Great looking cookies!