Best Honey Vanilla Linzer Cookies Recipes

HONEY-VANILLA SABLé COOKIE DOUGH RECIPE

Steps:

• Whisk flour, cardamom, and salt in a medium bowl to combine. Place sugar in a large bowl and scrape in vanilla seeds; save pods for another use. Massage mixture with your fingers until sugar looks like wet sand. Add butter and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Add egg yolk and honey; beat to combine. Reduce speed to low; add dry ingredients in 2 additions, mixing well after each addition. Knead dough a couple of times to incorporate any dry bits in the bottom of the bowl.
• Divide dough in half and pat into two 9"-long logs. Wrap each log in parchment paper, then wrap tightly in plastic. Roll each log across work surface to make as round and regular as possible, then chill until firm, about 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Gently scatter half of sanding sugar over a small portion of work surface. Unwrap 1 log of dough and roll log in sugar, applying a bit of pressure to help it stick, until evenly coated. Slice dough into 1/4"-1/2"-thick rounds, rolling log every few slices to avoid creating a flat surface. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing about 2" apart, and chill. Scatter remaining sanding sugar on surface and repeat with remaining log of dough.
• Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets top to bottom and back to front halfway through, until cookies are golden around the edges but still pale in the center, 13-18 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.
• Dough can be made 1 month ahead; freeze instead of chilling. Thaw in refrigerator overnight before using. Cookies can be baked 3 days ahead; store airtight at room temperature.

SOFT HONEY COOKIES

Steps:

• In a small bowl, beat sugar and oil until blended. Beat in egg; beat in honey and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to sugar mixture and mix well (dough will be stiff). Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours., Preheat oven to 350°. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake until bottoms are lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Cool for 1 minute before removing from pan to a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

HONEY COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine ingredients in this order: Cream the margarine and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs, 6 tablespoons of honey, and 1 teaspoon vanilla and blend until smooth with the mixer. Into this mixture, add flour and baking soda. Mix into a thick dough. Chill dough until firm, preferably in freezer, approximately 2 hours. Pull off small pieces and roll into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

LINZER COOKIES

Steps:

• Pulse together flour and almonds in a food processor until the almonds are very finely ground. Add cinnamon, baking powder and salt, and pulse to blend. (Alternatively, whisk together flour, ground almonds or almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.)
• Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together on medium-high until the mixture is light, fluffy and pale, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, and beat until everything is well combined, again stopping to scrape down bowl as necessary.
• Add in dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed, just until incorporated.
• Divide dough in 2 equal pieces, and wrap each piece in cling film, patting into a 1-inch-thick disk. Chill at least 2 hours, up to 5 days ahead.
• Heat oven to 325 degrees. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper so it's about 1/8 inch thick. (Because of the almonds, the dough may crack in places while you're rolling it out. This is O.K., just patch it up with scraps.)
• Using a round cookie cutter 2 1/2 inches in diameter, cut out as many circles as possible. Take half of these circles and cut out a 1-inch circle from the interior of the larger circles, creating a doughnut shape that will become the top of the cookie. If at any point the dough becomes too soft to cut and cleanly remove from parchment paper, slide it onto a cookie sheet and chill for a few minutes in the freezer or refrigerator. Gather any scraps of dough, combine them and roll them out, chilling as necessary. Transfer dough circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet spaced 1 inch apart and bake until the edges are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.
• To assemble the linzer cookies, spread about a teaspoon of raspberry jam onto the flat sides of the larger circles. Dust the tops of the cutout circles with powdered sugar and place on top of raspberry jam.