By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes, plus chilling
- Rating
- 4(117)
- Notes
- Read community notes
These are linzer cookies — with a twist. Pistachios replace almonds, and orange blossom water accentuates the flavor of the pistachios and orange marmalade. They're much tangier and a bit less sweet than the traditional ones, but just as buttery, rich and compelling.
Featured in: A Good Appetite: Experimenting With a Holiday Favorite
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Ingredients
Yield:About 18 large cookies and 9 small cookies
- 2cups raw pistachios (285 grams)
- 1½cups (339 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1¾cups confectioners’ sugar (128 grams)
- 1large egg
- 1teaspoon orange-blossom water
- 2cups all-purpose flour (276 grams)
- 1cup cornstarch (152 grams)
- 1½teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1teaspoon orange zest
- ½teaspoon grated nutmeg
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅛teaspoon ground clove
- 1cup orange marmalade
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (18 servings)
388 calories; 23 grams fat; 11 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 19 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 82 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
In a food processor, finely grind the pistachios. Add the butter and 1 cup sugar and pulse to combine. Pulse in the egg and orange-blossom water.
Step
2
In a small bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, orange zest, nutmeg, salt and clove. Add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture forms a moist dough. Divide dough in half and flatten each half into a disk. Wrap tightly with plastic and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours.
Step
3
Place parchment paper on three large baking sheets. (If you don’t have three, roll out the dough in smaller batches and keep the rest refrigerated.) Take one disk of dough and roll it out on a floured surface to ¼-inch thickness. Cut into 3-inch rounds, and transfer to a prepared baking sheet. Use a 1½-inch cutter to stamp out a hole from the center of half (not all) of the cookies (this will form the “window” for the cookies). Transfer the smaller cookies to a prepared sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. Gently combine and reroll any scraps. You will have three shapes of cookies on the cookie sheets: rings, large round cookies and small round cookies. Wrap each tray with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Step
4
Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake cookies until just golden, about 15 minutes for the small rounds, and 18 to 22 minutes for the larger cookies. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Step
5
Put the marmalade in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave for 20 seconds and stir, until it's warm and easier to spread. Or heat slowly in a small pot over low heat. Spread each large round cookie with marmalade. Top with a large ring-shaped cookie. Spread half the small round cookies with marmalade and top with the remaining small round cookies. Generously dust all cookies with the rest of the confectioners' sugar.
Ratings
4
out of 5
117
user ratings
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Cooking Notes
kmg
I've been making this recipe since it was originally published. Very exotic flavor; I recommend using bitter orange marmalade which offsets the sweetness of the cookie. The recipe takes a long time to make but well worth the effort. Excellent gift cookie. Yields more than the 27 cookies listed here.
Keiko
The best! I use rhubarb jam and it's great with pistachio.
Paul Palazzo
This is a great recipe but I find the orange marmalade to be lacking, which may account for some of the non favorable reviews. I made the cookies much smaller, about 1 3/4 inch and 1/8 inch thick, added 1/4 tsp of ground cardamom, reduced the bake time to 10min. I filled some with the orange marmalade and some with the more traditional raspberry jam. The raspberry filling provided the perfect foil for the cookie and heightened all the flavors. Go raspberry.
Ana
I loved these except for the work I put into them I wish i got more cookies. I would consider making these smaller and making more of them. Even the small cookies without the filling were great!
Adela
I accidentally put granulated sugar in the cookie recipe instead of powdered sugar and somehow it still turned out great. I used a 2.5 inch cookie cutter and only need to bake for 16-17 minutes
Conner
Good but time-consuming! Heads up that the weight of the confectioners’ sugar is incorrect (1 cup = 120 g), and that for ideal presentation only dust the tops before forming cookie sandwich (as was done in the photo).
Jennie
OK, so I made this and the only appropriate cutters I had were English muffin rings, so these are HUGE. Each cookie is a serious commitment. They were a project and a half! And they're so gigantic I'm put off eating them. I'm going to have to find reasons to give them away. I used up an entire jar of marmalade plus finished up a strawberry jam and dipped into some cherry as well--all lovely with the pistachio dough. It was very fragile, sticky dough to work with. Unusual, elegant, and special.
Adela
I accidentally put granulated sugar in the cookie recipe instead of powdered sugar and somehow it still turned out great. I used a 2.5 inch cookie cutter and only need to bake for 16-17 minutes
Frances Kuffel
LOVE this. Simple, exotic, pie-like.
Conner
Good but time-consuming! Heads up that the weight of the confectioners’ sugar is incorrect (1 cup = 120 g), and that for ideal presentation only dust the tops before forming cookie sandwich (as was done in the photo).
Frances Kuffel
This is a very subtle cookie. Let cookies sit in a sealed container for about 6 hours. The marmalade will be less intense & won't "drool" when you eat them.This will be easier if you have a larger chopper than my basic Cuisinart. You'll have to do the last mixing of flower by hand.Cut the butter into very small pieces. You'll have to scrape the butter in the way of the nuts often.Flour & re-flour your work surface and rolling pin.
Paul Palazzo
This is a great recipe but I find the orange marmalade to be lacking, which may account for some of the non favorable reviews. I made the cookies much smaller, about 1 3/4 inch and 1/8 inch thick, added 1/4 tsp of ground cardamom, reduced the bake time to 10min. I filled some with the orange marmalade and some with the more traditional raspberry jam. The raspberry filling provided the perfect foil for the cookie and heightened all the flavors. Go raspberry.
SharonATX
We really wanted to love this recipe, but have to agree with some other reviewers that the results are not worth the time and effort invested. The flavor combinations here are a winner (and we even used homemade orange marmalade!), but the cookies themselves were a bit lackluster. It seems like the same dough would work for a tart crust, which might be a better use of it.
CGWH
Do I really use 1 cup of cornstarch?
CSN
Wet dough made anything but rounds impossible to work with. I tried angels but that didn’t work. Had to grounds the nuts very finely and add lots of flour while rolling out to make it workable. Also thought 1/4” thick made cookies too large. Lots of work without the ooomph I hoped for.
Ana
I loved these except for the work I put into them I wish i got more cookies. I would consider making these smaller and making more of them. Even the small cookies without the filling were great!
kmg
I've been making this recipe since it was originally published. Very exotic flavor; I recommend using bitter orange marmalade which offsets the sweetness of the cookie. The recipe takes a long time to make but well worth the effort. Excellent gift cookie. Yields more than the 27 cookies listed here.
Keiko
The best! I use rhubarb jam and it's great with pistachio.
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