Tuesdays with Dorie: Linzer Sables

       This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, is Linzer Sables, can be found on page 134-136, and was chosen by Noskos of Living the Life.  If you would like to try the recipe before buying the book, click on Noskos' site above and he will have it posted today.  Noskos is from the Netherlands, but his TWD blog is published in English.  (His barbecue blog is published in Dutch if you want to check that out also).   

      All my life I have seen pictures of these cookies, seen them on cookie trays, etc., but never tasted one.  They look pretty.  I just always thought they might be a bit messy to eat, so haven't ever ventured forth.   I was excited to see this recipe chosen so that I could make them myself. 

      The dough is very easy and quick.  I love to put things in the food processor to whirl them about until they become dust, so that was my favorite part:  grinding up all the almonds.  It all smells great while you are combining all the regular cookie-type ingredients:  butter, flour, egg, sugar, etc. and then you get to add cinnamon and ground cloves and the finely ground almonds, and it smells even better.  Okay, I admit, I tasted, it too...I had just a tad dribbled on my fingers and licked it off...so good!   

      The chilled dough rolled out nicely, and I even had the cookie cutter Dorie specified, so that was lucky, no last minute dashes to sur la you-know-where to pick one up. 

      I used strawberry preserves for the filling as Mark is not a big fan of the raspberry ones that Dorie suggested.  The strawberry was excellent with the cinnamon and clove flavors in the cookies. 

      I baked, spread the jam on the cookie, dusted the top with powdered sugar, sandwiched them together, and voila...yum!  The cookie flavorings with the jam is delicious.  Are they messy to eat?  A bit...two layers with jam between...well, not exactly white glove dainties, but I wasn't wearing white gloves, so I enjoyed mine immensely.   

      And the guys?  They haven't had any yet...photo is of Matt grabbing one cookie without the jam or powdered sugar on his way out the door for school this morning, pronouncing them "absolutely great with nothing on or in them!"  

     I am sneaking these into the freezer for Christmas cookie trays, so they have been squirreled away in boxes marked "Chicken parts" in the freezer.  (It's my way of hiding things in the freezer...the guys don't want to take any chances in looking inside boxes marked "Chicken parts," so I think they might be safe.  Might.) 

      Next week's recipe was chosen by my friend Ulrike of

Küchenlatein, is Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies, and can be found on pages 146-147.  

Click here and then click on individual bakers' blogs at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways people interpreted their quest.  It is too late to join the online TWD baking blog, but you can always join us in spirit as the recipes for upcoming weeks are posted on the site and you can bake along in your own kitchen.  See you there!

Comments

[chocolatechic]

I loved these cookies.

I used pecans.

I didn't get very many of them though.

I also had a tastie of the dough...great dough.

[Cathy]

They look beautiful! I'm glad they were a hit even with nothing on them or in them! And I am stealing your idea of marking the cookies "chicken parts." Smart, smart, smart!

[Caitlin]

Hiding them as chicken parts - devious! My boyfriend also had one without anything in or on it and loved it, but I was a fan of the ones with raspberry in them and powdered sugar on them. Gilding the lily? Maybe, but oh-so-tasty. Quite the perfect cookie for the Christmas cookie tray.

[Michelle]

Wonderful, sorry I missed another TWD!

[Katie]

They look good, Kayte. I don't have a food processor and I don't know if I can get the almonds small enough with a food chopper.

Need any of my odd cookie cutters for the next recipe? Santa and an ax, anyone? I have bought a turtle cookie cutter for R's stocking (hush, don't tell.)

[Kelly D]

Chicken parts?! I love it! And I am stealing it! Your cookies are beautiful.

[pinkstripes]

Your cookies look perfect. Great job!

[Vibi]

LOL LOL You kill me Kathryn! Chicken parts! LOL LOL
Beautiful cookies, for beautiful boy... I must admit!
I do have to also say, I'm crazy in love with that green dish of yours! Do you have a set or just this one? Is it old or do you think I would still be able to find some on the market? Do you have any idea where? LOL LOL Okay, okay, I hear ya... CUT IT OUT!!! LOL

[Ulrike]

Yours look great! Chicken parts, ts, ts, ts ... I guess your boys don't read your blog? Mine do, so it won't help if I mark them fish fillets ;-)

[kim]

they look beautiful! glad they were a hit. you may need to come up with something new now that your "chicken parts" secret is out ;) or maybe put actual chicken parts in there next time!

[Anne]

I love the bit about the chicken parts- hilarious! Those look wonderful and the shape is just perfect. Nice job!

[Katrina]

Your cookies look just as good as the picture in Dorie's book! The dough was de-lish and the cookies even better.

[Jules]

Chicken parts! Hahahahahaha. I'm really looking forward to making these cookies now. I think I'll be a little less lazy this weekend. Nice cookies!

[Sihan]

strawberry jam? wow.. and you shldn't have ever been intimidated by these. Yours look close to perfection!

[Di]

"Chicken parts," huh? That's one I haven't heard. So they're safe as long as none of your guys read your blog, right? =) We used to hide Christmas cookies from my dad by putting the tins in the dryer. He never thought to look there.

[CB]

LOL @ chicken parts! Thats hilarious. I'll have to remember that trick when I start xmas cookie baking. What a great review from Matt. I thought the dough and naked cookie were good too. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

[Madam Chow]

Chicken parts? Once again, you have me laughing! Your cookies turned out beautifully, by the way.

[Rebecca]

Chicken parts! I use the big empty veggie bags. Jeff's not about to reach for the broccoli florets.

[Nancy (n.o.e.)]

Wow, your cookies are so lovely and dainty with the doily and the gorgeous green plate! And then there are the boys, right? I'm glad you tried them and that they were a hit. Strawberry jam sounds delicious. I don't have a jar of that either (just a little travel container). Weird.
Nancy

[rainbowbrown]

Nice. A box marked "chicken parts." Nice. It's so slapstick, it's perfect.

[Christine]

The cookies are the cutest! Perfect with strawberry preserves. Love the plate!

[Shari]

They look perfect! I love your idea of labeling the boxes chicken parts! ;)

[Heather Peskin]

Beautiful cookies! They look so grand on the pretty Christmassy plate too.

[Shelley]

I think these would be so yummy with fig preserves -- I am a major fan of the fig -- but you wouldn't get the pretty red color that goes so nicely with the festive green plate!

But fig...mmmmmmm......