These Gluten-Free Vegan Linzer Cookies are light and tender, melt-in-your-mouth buttery and filled with sweet, sticky jam! They’re also refined sugar free, easily customisable, perfect for Christmas cookies and make excellent edible gifts.
What are Linzer Cookies?
Linzer Cookies originate from the city of Linz in Austria. They are light, crisp, buttery shortbread cookies made with ground almonds and flavoured with cinnamon and lemon zest. These are sandwiched together with jam, with a small hole cut out of the top cookie so that you can see a window of jam poking through the top.
They are also known as window cookies and are similar to Jammy Dodgers, but are made with a richer cookie dough.
Linzer Cookies are easily customisable as they can be made with different types of nut flours (such as ground hazelnuts, ground walnuts or ground pecans), and different types of fillings.
What type of jam should you use for Linzer Cookies?
Linzer Cookies are traditionally made with blackcurrant jam, but you can use any type of jam you like.
I recommend something slightly tart such as raspberry jam, apricot jam or strawberry jam. You can also use any other spread you like, such as a vegan chocolate spread, vegan lemon curd or vegan caramel.
Where can you buy brown rice flour?
The brown rice flour is essential in this recipe as it creates a crispy, crunchy texture.
You need to use brown rice flour, not white rice flour, which creates a soft cookie (like my Sugar Cookies) rather than a crunchy one.
If you can’t find brown rice flour in your local supermarket, you’ll be able to find it in local health stores or online.
Adding baking powder makes these Linzer cookies less dense than shortbread cookies, so they have a lighter, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
What shape of cookie cutter should you use for Linzer Cookies?
- You can use any type of you want really! But I recommend using a circular cookie cutter for the base and then a circular one plus a smaller shaped one to cut out the holes in the top ones.
- Common shapes for the holes on the top are circles, flowers, stars, snowflakes, Christmas trees etc.
- You can also buy Linzer cookie cutter sets, which are easier to use and give you lots of different options for the shapes of the windows on top.
How to make this recipe:
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together the ingredients for the cookie dough in a glass mixing bowl.
Tip: If the dough looks too wet: place it in the fridge for an hour to help it firm up. If it looks too dry: add a splash of any type of plant-based milk.
- Lay out a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a counter.
- Use a rolling pin to roll out some of the dough until a little less than ½ cm (¼ inch) thick.
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut 12 circular-shaped cookies out of the dough – you probably have to roll the dough out a few times.
- Transfer the cookies onto a rectangular baking tray.
Tip: Line the baking tray with greased baking paper to make sure the cookies don’t stick.
- Roll out the remaining dough to the same thickness and use the same circular cookie cutter to cut circular shapes out of the dough, and use a smaller circular or any other shape of cookie cutter to cut little holes of dough from the centre of each.
- You will be able to make 12 of these – keep re-rolling the dough until you use it all up.
- Transfer these onto a rectangular baking tray lined with greased baking paper.
- Bake in the oven for around 12 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch – they will firm up more once cooled and out of the oven.
- Leave them to cool completely and firm up before sandwiching them together.
- To sandwich together, turn the circular base cookies upside down and use a knife to spread 1 teaspoon of raspberry jam in the centre.
- Place the cookies with the cut-out holes on top and sandwich together.
How long do these Linzer Cookies keep for?
These Linzer Cookies taste best eaten within the day but keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a few days – they do become softer the longer you leave them, though.
Substitutions you can make to this recipe:
- You can replace the coconut oil with coconut butter or vegetable oil.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- The ground almonds (almond meal) can be replaced with ground walnuts, ground pecans or ground hazelnuts.
- For a nut-free version, use ground sunflower seeds instead of ground almonds and use a nut-free milk. Or use my Coconut Flour Cookies recipe instead.
- For a refined sugar free version, make sure to use a refined sugar free jam or spread.
- You can replace the raspberry jam with any other jam or spread.
- You can omit the cinnamon and/or lemon zest.
- If you want the pretty icing sugar effect but want to keep them refined sugar free, you can dust them with cornflour (cornstarch) instead.
Tip: The brown rice flour CANNOT be replaced with white rice flour or any other gluten-free flour – it is essential for creating a crunchy shortbread texture.
More gluten-free vegan cookie recipes:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Blueberry Breakfast Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Oatmeal Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Cookies
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Millionaire Shortbread
- Pumpkin Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
- Homemade Oreos
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make this recipe:
Gluten-Free Vegan Linzer Cookies
Ingredients
- 30 g (⅛ cup) coconut oil (or sub coconut butter or vegetable oil)
- 7 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other similar sweetener)
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (or sub any other plant-based milk)
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 cup) brown rice flour **
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- Pinch salt
- 14 teaspoons raspberry jam *** (refined sugar free if necessary – or sub any other jam or spread)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (340 degrees Fahrenheit)
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave
- Add the maple syrup, almond milk, ground almonds, brown rice flour, baking powder, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt and mix well – add an extra splash of milk if it’s looking too dry to combine. Or if the dough looks too wet, place it in the fridge for an hour to help it firm up
- Lay out a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a counter and use a rolling pin to roll out some of the dough until it's a little less than ½ cm (¼ inch) thick
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut 12 circular-shaped cookies out of the dough – you probably have to roll the dough out a few times
- Transfer these onto a baking tray lined with greased baking paper
- Roll out the remaining dough to the same thickness and use the same circular cookie cutter to cut circular shapes out of the dough and use a smaller circular or any other shape of cookie cutter to cut little holes of dough from the centre of each
- You will be able to make 12 of these – keep re-rolling the dough until you use it all up
- Transfer these onto a baking tray lined with greased baking paper
- Bake in the oven for around 12 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch (bearing in mind that they will firm up more once cooled and out of the oven)
- Leave them to cool completely and firm up before sandwiching them together
- To sandwich together, turn the circular base cookies upside down and use a knife to spread 1 teaspoon of raspberry jam in the centre
- Place the cookies with the cut-out holes on top and sandwich together
- Dust over some icing sugar to decorate, if desired
- Tastes best when fresh, but keeps in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a few days (they do become softer the longer you leave them)
Video
Notes
- Linzer cookies are traditionally made with blackcurrant jam, but you can use any type of jam you like. I recommend something slightly tart such as raspberry jam, apricot jam or strawberry jam. You can also use any other spread you like, such as a vegan chocolate spread, vegan lemon curd or vegan caramel.
- If you want the pretty icing sugar effect but want to keep them refined sugar free, you can dust them with cornflour (cornstarch) instead.
- The number of cookies this recipe will yield will vary depending on the size and shape of the cookie cutters you use and how thick you roll out the dough.
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