One hundred years ago, Slovakia still belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the second largest country in Europe (squeezed in between the Russian and German Empire). This post is not intended to lecture you in history, but simply to show the huge gastronomic influence the country had on traditional Slovak cuisine (that is Czech, Hungarian and Austrian, so to speak).
Linzer Cookies are one of the most traditional Slovak Christmas cookies you can imagine, fancy little cookies of various shapes, named after the famous Austrian City - Linz. By rule, they are round-shaped filled with raspberry marmalade sandwiched in between the circular shapes, the top one with cut hearts or other shapes in the middle.
This year, we have experimented a bit with shapes, as well as the color. As a result, we ended up with happy pinkish batch of:
RASPBERRY LINZER COOKIES:
(Linecké koláčiky)
makes: 50 cookies
- 400 g plain flour
- 1 package (40 g) powdered vanilla pudding
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 150 g sugar
- pinch of salt
- several drops of rum aroma
- 150 g butter
- 150 g raspberry marmalade
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 1-2 tbsp raspberry juice
Wrap in a foil and chill for an hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Roll the dough out to 1/2 cm thick and with the help of a cookie cutter, cut out various shapes. Traditionally you would make 50 circles and the same amount of "fancy cuts"
Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until light brown.
Meantime whisk the sugar together with the raspberry juice (omit this step if you are making the traditional version. Once the cookies are baked (while still hot), spread a teaspoon of the marmalade on top of each round and pour the raspberry juice mixture onto the fancy cuts. Combine the circles with the fancy shapes, like this:
