Blackberry Linzer Tarts Recipes

Steps:

• In a food processor, combine 1/2 cup flour and almonds; pulse until almonds are finely ground. Add cardamom, salt and remaining flour; pulse until combined., In a large bowl, cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Divide dough in half. Shape each into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm enough to roll., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-in. round cookie cutter. Using a floured 1-in. round cookie cutter, cut out the centers of half of the cookies. Place solid and window cookies 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets., Bake 10-12 minutes or until light brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely., In a small bowl, mix spreadable fruit, lemon juice and remaining sugar. Spread filling on bottoms of solid cookies; top with window cookies. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Steps:

• Beat butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in 1/2 cup flour, the ground almonds, and cinnamon. Mix in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the mixture becomes a slightly stiff dough.
• Shape the dough into a ball; divide it in half. Wrap both halves in wax paper or plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about one hour.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough into a sheet 1/8 inch thick. With a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter, cut as many circles from the sheet as you can. Knead the leftover scraps of dough into a ball and roll it out again into a 1/8 inch sheet. Cut out more circles. You should now have about 12 circles.
• Arrange cookies on prepared baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch of space between them. Refrigerate while working with remaining dough.
• Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the other half of the dough, but after placing the second batch on the baking sheet, cut out the center of each circle with a 1/2 inch cookie cutter.
• Bake cookies in preheated oven until light brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes.
• Spread a thin coating of jam on each of the cookie rounds. Set a cutout cookie on top of each, pressing the two together so they make a sandwich. Spoon a dab of jam into the opening of each tart and sprinkle the tops with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and lemon zest; mix well. Place almonds in a blender, cover and process until ground. Combine the almonds, flour, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture until well blended. Remove 1/3 cup of dough. Roll between two sheets of waxed paper to 1/8-in. thickness. Freeze for 8-10 minutes or until firm., Press remaining dough evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 11-in. fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Spread raspberry preserves over crust. Remove remaining dough from freezer; using small cookie cutters, cut out desired shapes. Place over preserves., Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes. Loosen sides of pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. Remove sides of pan.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Combine flour and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Divide dough in thirds. Shape each into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll one portion of dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with floured 2-1/2-in. holiday cookie cutters. Using floured 1-in. shaped cookie cutters, cut out the centers of half of the cookies., Place solid and window cookies 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Repeat with remaining portions of dough. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool completely., Sprinkle window cookies with additional confectioners' sugar. Spread 1 teaspoon Nutella on the bottom of each solid cookie; place window cookies over filling.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place tart shells on a baking sheet.
• Mash blackberries and lemon zest together lightly in a small bowl. Divide blackberry mixture evenly into the bottom of tart shells.
• Whisk brown sugar, honey, egg, butter, vanilla extract, and salt together in a bowl; spoon mixture evenly over blackberries in shells.
• Bake in the preheated oven until filling is bubbly and shells are golden, 22 to 27 minutes.

Steps:

• Place the sugar and pistachios in a food processor. Process until the pistachios are finely chopped.
• Add the egg yolks, butter and cinnamon and process until smooth. Add a fifth of the flour and process with short pulses until mixed. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the remaining flour, stirring with a wooden spoon until the flour is combined.
• Gather up the dough into a compact ball. Place on a piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk shape. Wrap in the plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
• Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is 1/4-inch thick. (This dough is very fragile. It may be easier to place the dough directly on the cookie sheet and, with a sheet of plastic wrap between the dough and the rolling pin, roll it out.) Cut the dough into 5-inch circles, gather up the dough and reroll it for the remaining circles. Transfer the circles to the baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until browned. Allow to cool before removing from the baking sheet.
• Place the figs in a food processor and process until chopped. With the processor running, add the water and process until smooth. Spread the fig puree over the baked circles.
• Arrange the blackberries, standing up, over the fig puree. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and transfer to dessert plates.

Steps:

• For crust:
• Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and egg in medium bowl until creamy. Add flour, almonds, cinnamon, baking powder and salt; beat just until well blended. Measure 3/4 cup of dough; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill. Using floured fingertips, press remaining dough over bottom and up sides of 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Pierce dough in several places with fork. Chill at least 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.)
• Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake crust until light golden, piercing with toothpick if crust bubbles, about 15 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool. Maintain oven temperature.
• Roll out chilled dough disk on generously floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut dough into stars, using 2-inch and 3-inch star cookie cutters. Transfer cookies to baking sheet. Bake until cookies are light golden, about 6 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool. Maintain oven temperature.
• For Filling:
• Melt chocolate chips in top of double boiler set over simmering water, stirring until smooth. Cool 5 minutes. Spread chocolate over bottom of crust. Arrange berries over chocolate, spacing evenly. Stir jam in heavy small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Spoon jam over raspberries.
• Bake tart until crust is golden brown, about 35 minutes (filling will still appear slightly liquid but will set up as tart cools.) Transfer tart to rack and cool. Arrange stars atop tart, overlapping points. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve with whipped cream.

Steps:

• For the Dough: cream softened butter with powdered sugar until well blended.
• Add the orange extract to the butter mixture and stir well to incorporate.
• Stir in the sifted flour one cup at a time, mixing well.
• Chill dough 2 or more hours before rolling.
• Fill with raspberry or apricot preserves or a mixture of the two.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Roll out dough on lightly floured board with floured rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick.
• Cut with 2 inch round cutter (scalloped cutter is nice) and place on ungreased baking sheet.
• Cut out small center circle with 1 inch or smaller cutter in 1/2 of the cookies.
• (Reroll scraps as you go).
• Bake at 350°F for about 12 minutes, until pale golden and edges are starting to brown.
• Cool completely on a wire rack at least 1/2 hour.
• Place all the tops (with the inner circles cut out) close together on a sheet of waxed paper.
• Dust sifted powdered sugar thickly over the tops.
• Place the bottoms on another sheet of waxed paper.
• Spread 2 teaspoons preserves very carefully on each bottom cookie.
• Spread evenly leaving 1/4 inch rim without preserves around the edge.
• Spread the preserves without picking up the cookie; use a flat knife and work right on the waxed paper covered surface.
• Top each preserve covered bottom cookie with a sugared top cookie, lightly holding it at the edges.
• Carefully transfer to a serving plate.
• Do not try to stack or store these very long.
• The basic cookies could be packed and frozen, but the assembled cookies should be made the day they are to be served.
• PS the original recipe gave the above warning about stacking and storing, but I have made them at Christmas and stacked them between sheets of waxed paper in a tin with no problem.

Steps:

• Cream butter, add sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
• Add dry ingredients and blend thoroughly.
• Chill for about 1/2 an hour.
• Roll out dough between 1/8 and 1/4 inch on a lightly floured surface.
• Cut half of the dough with flower cookie cutter, and the other half with the same cutter, but with centers removed.
• Bake each batch 6-10 minutes at 400 degrees, or until just golden brown.
• Spread preserves on whole cookies (bottoms), and top with cutouts.
• Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar until covered.