Turn crispy almond cookies filled with raspberry jam or lemon curd into beautiful flowers with colorful petals. These delicate Linzer Cookie Daisies will make wonderful treats for Mother's Day, a bridal shower, an afternoon tea, or a birthday party.
It's wonderful to create a special treat for someone who truly appreciates it. These beautiful daisy-shaped Linzer Cookies were made for my mom's birthday celebration and she thought they were fabulous. She liked them so much that she took all the leftovers home to enjoy. I love that!
It makes me feel good when someone enjoys my homemade treats enough to want to hoard them. That's the highest compliment I can get.
What's not to love about these crisp daisy-shaped almond cookies that are speckled with lemon zest and sandwiched with a layer of sweet raspberry jam or tart lemon curd and sprinkled with powdered sugar?
They are my mom's absolute favorite cookies and she loved that I cut them into daisies.
I've seen Linzer Cookie Daisies with a whole cut in the middle so it looks like they have a yellow center. I thought the daisies would look prettier if the color was in the petals so I made the cuts around the petals. I love how the color of the filling shows through and hope you do too.
Let's make some daisy cookies.
Ingredients
- butter - Use softened unsalted butter to make this dough. Set the butter out on your counter about an hour before you plan to make the dough or cut it into small pieces and place the pieces into your mixing bowl about 30 minutes before you plan to make the dough.
- sugar - This will add sweetness and structure to your cookies.
- egg yolks - Egg yolks add richness and will help to tenderize the cookie dough so that these crispy cookies aren't dry and hard.
- vanilla - Use pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
- blanched almond slivers - Almonds add a nutty flavor and nice crunch to these cookies.
- flour - Use all-purpose flour for structure.
- salt - Table salt balances the sweetness.
- lemon zest - Use a Microplane grate to zest a lemon, grating just the bright yellow peel, avoiding the bitter white pith.
- powdered sugar - Dust the tops of your Linzer Cookies with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. This looks pretty and adds a little sweetness.
- seedless raspberry jam or lemon curd - These make delicious fillings that will add nice color to your cookies.
Supplies
You can find the supplies needed to make these cookies at Amazon.com. I earn a small commission when you use affiliate links at NO extra cost to you.
Wilton Series Cookie-Cutter...Shop on Amazon Ateco Rectangle Pastry Flut...Shop on Amazon Wilton Easy Flex Silicone 1...Shop on Amazon Nordic Ware Natural Aluminu...Shop on Amazon
Instructions
Roast and grind the almonds.
- Roast 1 cup of blanched almond slivers (blanched nuts have their skins removed) in a 350-degree F (177° C) oven for about 5-6 minutes (or in a skillet set over medium-low heat). Be sure to keep an eye on the almonds as they can burn quickly. Once you start to smell the nutty aroma, remove them from the oven or skillet.
- Allow them to cool completely.
- Then, grind them in a food processor with ¼ cup of granulated sugar until they become fine crumbs.
Make the Linzer cookie dough.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Then add the egg yolks and vanilla.
- Add the almond/sugar mixture and stir just to combine.
- Whisk together a tablespoon of fresh lemon zest, ½ teaspoon of salt, and 2 cups of all-purpose flour, then stir it into the dough just until it's combined.
Cut out the daisy cookies and bake.
- Roll the cookie dough out onto a silicone baking mat or flour-dusted cutting board.
- Cut using a large daisy cookie cutter.
- Cut teardrop-shaped holes into half of the cookie creating the petals.
- Bake.
Note: If it is warm in your kitchen and your dough feels to soft, you may want to chill the dough for about 30 minutes before cutting out your cookies.
Fill and dust with powdered sugar.
- Dust the cookies with the teardrop-shaped holes cut out with powdered sugar.
- Spread preserves, jam, jelly, or lemon curd over the whole daisy cookies.
- Top each of those cookies with one that's been dusted with powdered sugar so the color shows through.
Tips
- Linzer cookies are crisp and have a slightly sandy texture.
- These cookies will soften once sandwiched with the filling.
- To ensure crisp cookies, fill them about an hour before serving. Of course, they are darn good once they soften up too.
- The Linzer cookies will keep for up to a week if stored in the refrigerator.
- Fill your Linzer cookie daisies with raspberry jam or lemon curd. Other jams, preserves, jellies, and spreads will work well too.
- Be sure to dust your cookies with powdered sugar before you sandwich them together so the jam or curd really shows through.
- If you want to freeze them, place the plain cookies in an airtight container and freeze for up to a month then remove them and fill them before serving.
Variations
You can also cut Linzer Cookies into other shapes.
Make traditional Linzer Cookies using small cut-outs in the middle of round or flower-shaped cookies.
Cut out large heart-shaped Linzer Cookies and add a sweet message like "I (heart) Mom".
Video
Be sure to watch the video to see how to make these cute daisy cookies.
Recipe
- 1 cup blanched almond slivers*
- ¾ cup granulated sugar, divided
- 2 cups all purpose flour (260 grams)
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large egg yolks
- powdered sugar, to dust over cookies
- ½ cup raspberry jam or lemon curd, plus more if needed
- You can use 4 ounces of almond meal in place of the slivered almonds. Toasting the almond meal will bring out the flavor but processing it in the food processor is unnecessary.If you use the almond meal, simply cream all of the sugar with the butter.
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Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Spread almonds out on a baking sheet, and toast for about 5 minutes, until golden brown.
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Remove and pour nuts into the bowl of a food processor and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
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Add ¼ cup of the sugar and pulse until the nuts become finely ground.
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Whisk flour, salt, and lemon zest together.
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Cream butter and ½ cup sugar together just until it becomes pale yellow.
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Stir in vanilla then egg yolks and mix until combined.
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Mix in the ground almonds.
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Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
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Remove dough from bowl, divide in half, then flatten into two discs.
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Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.
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Dust a silicone mat or cutting board with flour.
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Roll 1 disc of cookie dough out to ⅛ inch thickness.
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Cut 12 daisies using a 4 inch daisy shaped cookie cutter.
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Remove excess dough and freeze daisies for 5 minutes until firm.
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Move cookies to a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 12-16 minutes until lightly golden brown.
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Roll the remaining dough and cut 9 or 10 daisies.
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Use 1 ¼ inch tear drop cookie cutter to cut out holes in each petal, leaving a small border around the edge of the cookie.
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Remove excess dough.
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Re-roll dough until you get 3 more daisies with holes in the petals.
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Freeze the 12 cut-out daisies for 10 minutes then move to parchment paper lined baking sheet.
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Bake for about 12-14 minutes until lightly golden brown.
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Allow the cookies to cool completely, then dust with powdered sugar.
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Spread raspberry jam or lemon curd on the whole daisy cookies.
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Place one cut-out cookie on top of the jam and gently sandwich the cookies together.
If you like this Linzer Cookie Daisies recipe, you might also like these other pretty daisy-themed food crafts...
Decorated Daisy Cheesecake • Mini Daisy Cakes
Easy Daisy Pastries • Biscuit Daisy BBQ Sandwiches
Daisy Appetizers • Daisy Cheese Ball Wedding Cake
Deviled Egg Daisy • Stamped Daisy Biscuits
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Karen @ Sugartown Sweets
I have always wanted to try making Linzer cookies-have no idea why i haven't yet-and you have created, as your Mom said, fabulous ones! These really are beautiful and I can see why she wanted to take all the left overs home! 🙂
Beth
I made Linzer cookies for the first time last year, and wondered why I had waited so long to try them too. They are highly requested by my family, so I've made them several times since. I hope you give them a try. I'm sure you'll love them.
The Partiologist
I haven't made linzer cookies for such a long time I need to get busy making them again, your flowers look like the kind I could grow! They are so pretty, I love the see through petals!
Beth
My family loves linzer cookies so much. They love it when I make them for them. They are pretty easy to grow too! LOL!
Kathy C
Your family STILL love these cookies! Delicious with raspberry or lemon. Yumm.
Beth
I'm glad you love them!
Marcia Chocinsky
I've always made my version with raspberry jam. What a great idea to use the lemon curd. Can't wait to try these!
Beth
Hi Marcia, it's nice to see a comment from you!
I love them with raspberry jam too, but my husband thought the lemon curd cookies were amazing. Next time I'm going to try some fig jam that I have in my cupboard to see if we like those too.