These hazelnut linzer cookies feature two soft, classic linzer cookies sandwiching a hazelnut spread filling and a dusting of powdered sugar.
Something about hazelnuts just reminds me of the holidays, whether it be roasted hazelnuts or hazelnut spread. When paired with a classic linzer cookie, it makes the perfect little holiday cookie. I will never say no to a Nutella cookie, especially not if it's a Nutella sandwich cookie. Sandwich cookie means you get two cookies instead of one! What's not to love?
Hazelnut flour is used in this recipe since you can purchase it already finely ground in store. If you don't have hazelnut flour, you can also make your own with whole hazelnuts.
To make your own hazelnut flour, add whole roasted hazelnuts, all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt into a food processor and grind until the nuts are finely ground. Stop grinding just before the it becomes oily or clumpy otherwise you will have hazelnut butter instead.
For the filling, I've used Nutella here as my hazelnut spread of choice but you can use any spread available to you or even make your own. The great thing about a pre-made spread is that it's one less thing you have to worry about so you can focus on making and cutting festive shapes out of the cookies themselves.
Tips for making the best hazelnut linzer cookies
Buttery cookie doughs can be challenging to work with. Here are some tips to make it go smoothly!
- Let your cookie dough sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before rolling it out to prevent cracking edges
- Roll your dough out onto a large cutting board to the correct thickness and pop the whole board into the fridge for 15-30 minutes before cutting out the cookie rounds
- Use an offset spatula to slide under the cookie dough cut outs and lift up to transfer onto your baking sheet to prevent warping the shape
- For the top cookies, transfer the cookie dough rounds to the baking sheet first, THEN cut out out the middle shapes to prevent warping
- Flour your surface, cookie cutters, spatulas, rolling pin, and hands very well to prevent the dough from sticking to things.
- The top cookies will bake faster than the bottom cookies so put them in separate batches as I've denoted in the recipe below
- I like to match up all my top and bottom cookie pairs before filling them to ensure the similarly shaped and sized cookies are paired together
How to store linzer cookies
These cookies keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.
The cookie dough can also be stored in the fridge for 1-3 days before rolling out and cutting.
More holiday cookie recipes to try
- Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Ginger Cream Filling
- Matcha Linzer Cookies
- Fig & Speculoos Cookie Butter Cookies
- Toasted Pistachio Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Easy Gingerbread Cookies
- Butter Cookie Box (10 cookies from 1 dough)
Recipe
Hazelnut Linzer Cookies
Ingredients
- 225 g unsalted butter, softened
- 100 g brown sugar
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100 g hazelnut flour, can sub with almond flour
- 380 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 50 g hazelnut spread
Instructions
Prepare the dough
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and both sugars with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until light and creamy. Add in eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
- In a medium bowl, stir together hazelnut flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Add this to the large mixing bowl of wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined.
- Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and divide the dough in half. Press each half into a flattened disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
For the bottom cookies
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Take one disc of dough out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before rolling out.
- On a floured surface, roll out one disc of dough to ⅛ inch (3mm) thick. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out cookie rounds that will become the bottom cookies.
- Carefully transfer cookies to a baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch in between cookies. Re-roll the scraps and repeat.
- Bake the bottom cookies for 10 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack.
For the top cookies
- Repeat steps 2-4 with the other section of dough as above.
- After transferring the cookie rounds to the baking sheet, With a mini cookie cutter in the shape of your choice, cut out the middle of each cookie round. Lift up the cut out with a toothpick and bake them on the same sheet or re-roll as scraps.
- Bake the top cookies for 9 minutes until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack.
Assemble the cookies
- Invert the bottom cookies and spread 1-2 teaspoons of hazelnut spread onto each cookie.
- With a small sieve, dust the top cookies with powdered sugar. Sandwich a matching top and bottom cookie together and press together gently.
Nicole
Honestly so so good! Went through our first batch so fast I am making another one! They will be a Christmas staple from now on!
Yasi
I love this recipe!! I’ve made it once, and I have some dough chilling in the fridge at this moment. I love that you use hazelnut flour, and not just chopped up hazelnuts. It’s such a perfect hazelnuty cookie. So glad I stumbled upon this recipe. Thank you !