Delicious Nutella Linzer Cookies – Tender and buttery chocolate shortbread cookies glazed with an easy pink royal icing and filled with creamy Nutella! With cute little heart cutouts, it makes for the perfect treat to share with your Valentine!
WHAT IS A LINZER COOKIE?
Linzer cookies originally hail from the country of Austria and are usually served around Christmas time! Traditionally, linzer cookies feature a sandwich of buttery shortbread cookies made with almond flour, and are then filled with jam. Nowadays, linzer cookies can be eaten anytime of the year and are made with different kinds of nuts and various fillings. Our cookies are filled with Nutella!
Nutella Linzer Cookies Ingredients
Nutella Linzer Cookies
- All-Purpose Flour - Use a high quality flour, such as King Arthur for best results.
- Almond Flour - Adds nuttiness to the cookies.
- Cocoa Powder - Use black cocoa powder or Dutch process cocoa powder for intense chocolate flavor.
- Salt - Use fine salt for best results.
- Unsalted Butter - Make sure your butter is at room temperature butter, which is around 68ºF (20ºC). You can quickly bring butter to room temp by cutting into small cubes and leaving on the counter.
- Confectioners' Sugar - The key to soft, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies is using confectioners’ sugar.
- Vanilla - Adds extra flavor.
- Nutella - Nutella is one of my favorite spreads, but you can use any filling.
Royal Icing (optional)
The royal icing is entirely optional. Alternatively, you can leave them plain, dip in chocolate glaze or dust with powdered sugar.
- Confectioners Sugar
- Meringue Powder - Meringue powder is made of pasteurized, dried egg whites. It creates a stable and sturdy icing that dries hard on top of your cookies.
- Warm Water - Thins out the icing.
- Gel Food Coloring - I tend to use gel food coloring. My favorite brand is AmeriColor. I ended up using the color "dusty pink."
Nutella Linzer Cookies Instructions
Step 1 – With a hand-held mixer or in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix room temperature butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. About 2 minutes on medium. Then add sifted confectioners’ sugar and mix until incorporated.
Step 2 – Next, sift in flour, almond flour, cocoa powder and salt. On the lowest setting, mix until just combined.
Step 3 – Divide the dough into 2 and transfer to cling wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. I like to shape the dough into a rectangle, about ½ inch (1.27 cm) thickness to make it easier to roll out later.
Step 4 – Sprinkle cocoa powder onto your work surface and roll your dough out to about a little over ⅛ inch (3.1 mm) thickness. Lightly dip your cookie cutter into cocoa powder and cut out your cookies. With a metal spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to a parchment lined baking tray, placing them 1 inch apart. Gather the scraps, reroll and cut out more cookies. I used a 2.5 inch (6.3 cm) cookie cutter and got 40 cookies. It may vary for you depending on how thick or thin you roll out your dough and the size of your cutter. If at any point the dough gets too warm from handling, don’t fret, pop it back in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to firm up!
Step 5 - With a 1-inch (2.5 cm) heart cutter, punch a hole in the center of 20 cookies, while leaving the other 20 whole. Place the trays of cookies in the freezer for 20 minutes before baking. This is a very important step and cannot be skipped.
Step 6 – Bake at 350ºF (176ºC) for 10 to 14 minutes (depending on thickness). Allow to sit on the tray for several minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 7 - This next step is optional. Make your royal icing by whisking together, sifted confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and warm water. If the icing that drips off your whisk disappears into the bowl of icing within 5-10 seconds, then it's the right consistency. If it’s too thick, whisk in more water 1 tablespoon at a time. Add your food coloring of your choice and whisk until combined. For gel food coloring, you don't need much. Alternatively, you can leave them plain, dip in chocolate glaze or dust with powdered sugar.
Step 8 - Dip your top cookies (with the heart cutout) into the glaze and set on a rack to completely dry. About 1 hour.
Step 9 - Flip the bottom cookies over and spread about 1 ½ teaspoons of the Nutella, stopping ⅛ inch from the edge. Place the cookie (with the heart cutout) on top of the Nutella and press down lightly. Serve and Enjoy!!
Expert Tips
Use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients - For best results, I highly recommend weighing the ingredients with a kitchen scale, as it’s the most accurate way to bake. You can read more about this below!
If you do not have a kitchen scale, measure your flour correctly by fluffing and aerating it first, then spoon into your measuring cup and finally level off with the back of a butter knife. Do not pack it in as it will add too much flour.
Chill, chill and chill! The best part about shortbread cookies is that it’s full of butter. To prevent the cookies from spreading and losing its beautiful shape, we will need to chill the dough several times.
If at any point the dough gets too soft, pop it back in the fridge to firm up.
When cutting the cookies, you can also dip the cutter into cocoa powder to help them release easier.
You can make the dough 5 days in advanced. Just wrap tightly in cling wrap and store in the fridge. When you are ready to roll out your dough, allow to sit on the counter to soften a bit before rolling out.
Do not underbake these cookies. They should be cooked through and somewhat crisp.
You can get pretty creative with linzer cookies. Use any cookie cutter shape and size and have fun with the center cutout of the top cookie. Hearts, stars, holiday shapes and more! Keep in mind that if your cookie is larger, they may take longer to cook then specified in the recipe card..
You May Also Like
Did you try this recipe? Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review below and tag me on Instagram @shortstackkitchen. This provides helpful feedback to myself and other readers. Thank you so much!
📖 Recipe
Nutella Linzer Cookies
- Total Time: 20 Mins Prep + 1.5 Hr Chill + 30 Mins Bake
- Yield: 20 Sandwiches
Description
Delicious Nutella Linzer Cookies – Tender and buttery chocolate shortbread cookies glazed with an easy pink royal icing and filled with creamy Nutella!
Ingredients
Nutella Linzer Cookies
- 1 ½ Cups (180g) All-Purpose Flour, sifted
- 1 Cup (96g) Almond Flour
- ½ Cup (42g) Cocoa Powder, sifted
- ½ Tsp Fine Salt
- 1 Cup (198g or 2 Sticks) Unsalted Butter, room temp
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Paste or Extract
- ¾ Cup + 1 tablespoon (92g) Confectioners’ Sugar, sifted
- ½ Cup (128g) Nutella
Easy Royal Icing (optional)
- 1 Cup (113g) Confectioners' Sugar, sifted
- 2 Tsp Meringue Powder
- 2 Tbsp Warm Water
- Gel Food Coloring
Instructions
-
With a hand-held mixer or in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix room temperature butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. About 2 minutes on medium. Then add sifted confectioners’ sugar and mix until incorporated.
-
Next, sift in flour, almond flour, cocoa powder and salt. On the lowest setting, mix until just combined.
-
Divide the dough into 2 and transfer to cling wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. I like to shape the dough into a rectangle, about ½ inch (1.27 cm) thickness to make it easier to roll out later.
-
Sprinkle cocoa powder onto your work surface and roll your dough out to about a little over ⅛ inch (3.1 mm) thickness. Lightly dip your cookie cutter into cocoa powder and cut out your cookies. With a metal spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to a parchment lined baking tray, placing them 1 inch apart. Gather the scraps, reroll and cut out more cookies. I used a 2.5 inch (6.3 cm) cookie cutter and got 40 cookies. It may vary for you depending on how thick or thin you roll out your dough and the size of your cutter. If at any point the dough gets too warm from handling, don’t fret, pop it back in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to firm up!
-
With a 1-inch (2.5 cm) heart cutter, punch a hole in the center of 20 cookies, while leaving the other 20 whole. Place the trays of cookies in the freezer for 20 minutes before baking. This is a very important step and cannot be skipped.
-
Bake at 350ºF (176ºC) for 10 to 14 minutes (depending on thickness). Allow to sit on the tray for several minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
-
This next step is optional. Make your royal icing by whisking together, sifted confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and warm water. If the icing that drips off your whisk disappears into the bowl of icing within 5-10 seconds, then it's the right consistency. If it’s too thick, whisk in more water 1 tablespoon at a time. Add your food coloring of your choice and whisk until combined. For gel food coloring, you don't need much. Alternatively, you can leave them plain, dip in chocolate glaze or dust with powdered sugar.
-
Dip your top cookies (with the heart cutout) into the glaze and set on a rack to completely dry. About 1 hour.
-
Flip the bottom cookies over and spread about 1 ½ teaspoons of the Nutella, stopping ⅛ inch from the edge. Place the cookie (with the heart cutout) on top of the Nutella and press down lightly. Serve and Enjoy!!
Notes
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature and enjoy for up to 7 days!
Stacey says
These cookies were easy to make and SO delicious! You can change the cookie shape and color to fit any occasion. Love it! I will definitely be making these again soon!
Lisa says
Yes, Linzer cookies are so versatile. Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m SO happy you enjoyed them!