Another one of my mother’s recipes, the Linzer Torte is a torte that has its origins in Austria but is made in all neighbouring countries in various styles. The major differences are in the nuts ( hazelnuts, walnuts or almonds) and the filling used (redcurrant jam, raspberry jam, apricot jam, or even plum butter). My recipe uses filberts (the closest thing to hazelnuts we get in local supermarkets) and raspberry jam (because that’s what my mother used and she went to cooking school ;-). In reality, pretty much any kind of jam can be used, even marmalade, but tradition sort of calls for raspberry or redcurrant.
Linzer Torte
This is a pretty rich and filling torte. Servings should be fairly small slices. You can always get a second helping.
Ingredients
- 200 g Flour
- 200 g Sugar
- 200 g Hazelnuts or Filberts ground
- 150 g Butter
- 1 tbsp “Birnenbrot” spice baking spice
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 2 Eggs
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 500 g Raspberry jam
Instructions
- Add flour to a large bowl
- Cut butter into small cubes and toss into the flour
- Using your hands, mix the flour and the butter into a nice crumbly texture
- Add the sugar, grated nuts, baking powder, lemon zest and mix thoroughly
- Beat the eggs and add along with the lemon juice
- Knead the dough thoroughly. then let it rest for at least 30 minutes in the fridge
- Divide the dough into thirds
- Roll out the first third into a spring form bottom and set up the form
- Take the second third and roll it into a sausage long enough to go around the inside rim and press it into the side of the form
- Using a fork, puncture the bottom evenly all accross, then set the whole thing aside in the fridge
- Taking the last third of the dough, roll it out into a rectangle big enough to make the lattices
- Here comes one of Chef's tricks
- Put this rolled out dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and stick it into the freezer for 20 minutes; it will make it a whole lot easier to make and handle the lattice work.
- Remove the spring form from the fridge and cover the bottom with the raspberry jam
- Take the lattice dough and cut it into strips
- Place a series of strips across the torte spacing them the witdth of the strips and trimming them as necessary
- Fold back every other strip in such a way that you can place the first opposing strip at an angle of about 60
- Fold the folded back strips back to where they belong and fold back their countereparts
- Repeat the above steps until you have completed the lattice work across the torte
- Bake the torte in the oven, preheated to 180 – 200 °C, until you get a nice golden brown
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