Holiday Bakes: Pecan Linzer Cookies with Blackberry Preserves

My holiday baking has begun, well actually way earlier than today! The fruit cakes are already "aging" well, gloriously happy I assume, soaking in a generous amount of spiced rum everyday. The other holiday cakes will have to be baked as time gets closer but for now, let the holiday cookie bakes begin!


First on my list is traditional Austrian cookie: Linzer Cookies made with ground Pecans and sandwiched with local blackberry preserves. The original Austrian recipe uses toasted almond but nowaday you come across recipes that suggest other nuts like pecans or hazelnut - all equally delicious and adds the great nutty flavor to the cookies. The flavor of Linzer Cookies remind me of my grandma's Peanut Cookies, sans the preserves. I'd have to make peanut cookies and share the recipe here someday.

Here's, again, the adaptation from Martha Stewart's book Cookies which I bought just for the 2009 holiday cookie baking season! By the way, I'm not a fan of Martha's but it does seem like it, doesn't it, especially since my cupcake and cookie bake recipes are from her books? Well, I seem to stumble upon her books quite a lot this year. She does seem to have a compendium of recipes along with great pictures of the recipe results which makes it easy for bakers, not to mention attractive eye candy compared against other books placed beside them. Definitely strategic marketing ploy! I personally think Stewart's a businesswoman first, cook-baker-domestic guru second!

Enough digression. Ah, Pecan Linzers...these are quite good, really!

(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's book: Cookies, page 137. Note: minor adjustments on spices)

Ingredients (for ~ 2 dozen cookies):
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup pecans, toasted
2 tablespoon powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup black berry preserves

Method:
Sift and whisk flour & baking powder.
Pulse toasted pecan, powdered sugar, salt and cinnamon in food processor until finely ground Transfer to bowl of electric mixer.
Add butter and granulated sugar, beat at medium speed until fluffy
Add vanilla and egg; reduce speed to low
Add flour mixture and mix until combined
Halve dough and shape into disks. Wrap each disk in clingwrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
Preheat oven to 355˚F.
Working with one disk at a time, rool out dough on lightly floured surface to ~ 1/8 inch thick
Cut out shapes with cookie cutter (you can use flutted rounds or squares; I used 2" rounds)
Cut out centers of half of the cookies with 1/2 " shaped cutter (hearts, starts, anything your heart desires!)
Space ~ 2" apart on lined baking sheets.
Bake until pale golden, around 11 - 12 minutes
Transfer to racks to cool
Measure and put the blackberry preserves into a microwavable bowl
Microwave at medium heat for ~ 60 seconds
Sprinkle baked cookies with powdered sugar
Spread jam into uncut cookies, then top with cutout ones
Can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 5 days.