Linzer cookies are the best classic Christmas cookies you can prepare. They are so elegant, fine, beautiful and tasty that every minute in their preparation is worth it.
You can use whatever pastry cutters you like. To keep the classic look you should use two pastry cutters, different in size – big and small. The small one is used to cut the form in the middle of the upper cookie. Another thing you could experiment with is the jam you use. Make the cookies with your favourite jam. Mine is definitely raspberry jam. What is more you could replace almonds with hazelnuts. You could also use almond flour instead of ground almonds but I like tasting the nuts.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 tea cup butter at room temperature (250 g)
- 1 egg
- 2/3 tea cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tea cups flour (I used spelt flour)
- 2/3 tea cup ground almonds
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- raspberry jam for sticking together
INSTRUCTIONS FOR LINZER COOKIES
- Mix up the soft butter and the sugar with a mixer
- Add the egg and the vanilla extract
- In another bowl mix the flour, ground almonds, salt and cinnamon
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir with a spatula
- Split the mixture in two. Spread it with fingers, cover it with a cling film and put it in the fridge for about two hours
- Roll out one of the halves with 4-5mm thickness and cut the shape you like (if the pastry is too soft and sticky, leave it in the freezer for 10 minutes) I rolled it out between two sheets of baking paper.
- Put the shaped cookies in a large tin on baking paper and leave them in the fridge for 30 more minutes to keep their shape.
- Bake them for 10-12 minutes in preheated oven at 170°C.
- Leave them to cool after baking and then take them out of the tin.
- Dust the upper linzer cookies with powdered sugar and spread jam on the rest. Then stick them together
Food Photography
These beautiful cookies inspired me to make a lot of photos. Below you may find details about the composition I’ve used for photographing.
The Golden Ratio
One of the secrets of the good photograph is the composition. With the right composition your photo will be well-balanced. Everyone likes good balance, don’t they? In this photograph I’ve used the Golden ratio. It is a mathematical formula but I am not going to talk about mathematics because I never liked it nor understood it. By an irony of fate though I work with vector programs and I successfully use the Golden ratio in photos. Due to its perfect balance it is transferred from mathematics to art.
How Golden Ratio Works
If you put your point of interest on the smallest part of a spiral the eye will naturally go through the rest of the image. The spiral’s direction is not significant. What is important here is the line the objects form and the balance between them and the empty space in the photograph.
How to Use the Golden Ratio
Imagine Fibonacci spiral over your photo composition. Reorganize the composition if needed and then take the photo. Take a look at the photo and if you don’t like something move it and take the photo again. For one successful shot I make between 5 and 10 photos. You don’t need to have objects over the whole spiral as in my case. It is just a good example.
Try it and tag me in Instagram in your photos to see how you’ve used the Golden ratio.
Here you may read more about food photography.