Austrian inspired Linzer Cookie Recipe

December 21, 2023 by tina oblak in All year round recipe, Austrian inspired dishes, baking, biscuits, Central European recipes, Christmas bakes, cookies, dessert, Eastern European recipes, easy baking, Easy recipe, festive bakes, festive sweet things, simple recipe, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things

This incredibly delicious and very pretty in appearance biscuits are made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Almond flour is very often used to give these irresistible cookies a delicate and light texture. They are jammed together with different types of preserves.

Quick and easy to make, this little works of art can be a perfect holiday gift for your foodie friends and family.

Linzer style cookies are very popular type of biscuits and are traditionally prepared around Christmas holidays in all regions of Slovenia but can be eaten any time of the year.

You can buy them in food stores or bakeries, and they are enjoyed all year round. They are often seen sandwiched together by chocolate spread.

These biscuits are Austrian in origin, and are linked to Linzer Cake, a recipe takes us back to 1653, and so it is often called the oldest recipe in the world. There are speculations, guesses and different legends and stories as to where the Linzer cookies come from. It is believed that Linzer biscuits originated in the Austrian city of Linzer by a pastry chef, who mixed the ingredients for the cake but rather than making a cake cut out the cookies instead.

This recipe, like many others, has variations and adaptations, one of which does not include almond flour as an ingredient.

I am sharing here the family top favourite recipe for the festive baking.

Recipe

Ingredients

125g soft butter (at room temperature)
1 egg, small or medium (at room temperature)
75g caster sugar
1 ½ Tbsp vanilla sugar or ¼ Tsp vanilla extract
finely grated lemon zest of ½ lemon
250g plain white (all purpose) flour, plus more for rolling out
2 Tsp baking powder
a pinch of fine sea salt
icing sugar or vanilla icing sugar, to dust the biscuits
a pinch of ground cinnamon, optional
a pinch of ground nutmeg, optional
smooth apricot jam (can use strawberry, raspberry or red currant jam, or any jam of your preference)

Method

Place softened butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.

Add the egg, finely grated lemon zest, vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract), and mix until all the egg is fully incorporated (if you happen to get a bit of “curdled appearance” at this stage do not worry).

Add sifted flour together with the baking powder and mix with the wooden spoon first until all the ingredients are incorporated and the dough comes together in large clumps.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface (or keep the mixture in the bowl) and with your hands gently knead the dough until it becomes soft and smooth (if the dough is too wet to handle add a bit of flour at the time until you get the dough that does not stick to your hands or to the working surface; the wetness of the dough will depend on the size of the egg you are using).

Shape the dough into a disc and wrap it tightly in cling film.

Put the dough in the fridge and let it rest and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Lay a baking tray with baking parchment.

Take the disc of the dough out of the fridge and place it onto a lightly floured working surface.

Lightly flour the rolling pin and gently roll out the dough to the thickness of about 4mm.

Stamp out rounds (circles) using a smooth or crinkle-edged cookie cutter and place on a baking tray.

(I decided to make quite big biscuits and used 9cm, 3 ½ - inch, fluted round cookie cutter).

If the dough sticks to the cookie cutters, deep them into the flour first.

Lift away the excess dough, form a ball and roll it out again.

Cut out as many more biscuits as you can.

Use a small round or select your favourite mini festive cookie cutters (heart, star, Christmas tree, flower for example) to stamp a circle, or other shapes, from the centre of the biscuits.

Remember you need to end up with an even number.

Place on a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C static or equivalent for about 10 minutes or until light golden in colour (the baking time will depend on the size of the cookies).

When baked, leave to cool just for a few minutes on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

When the biscuits are completely cold, they are ready to be sandwiched together.

Turn the whole biscuits upside down.

Spoon on top a bit of jam and spread it over the biscuits.

Dust with icing sugar or vanilla icing sugar the top part of the cookies you cut the shape out of.

Sandwich the biscuits together, use the other half of the biscuits with icing sugar and gently place them on top of the other bottom half of the biscuits.

When freshly baked this Linzer style biscuits are nice and crunchy but will become softer the following day and just melt in your mouth.

Just a thought

You can keep the biscuits in the airtight container for about six days.

Dried Fig and Walnut Bread Istrian Recipe

Beans and Srdines

December 21, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, All year round recipe, Appetizers, baking, breakfast, brunch, Canapés, child friendly dish, child friendly meal, Christmas bakes, dessert, easy baking, Enriched dough, festive bakes, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, Rustic dish, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Small bites, Snacks, Starters, sweet finger food, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things

This rustic, rich and dense loaf filled with dried figs and walnuts, will be a fantastic addition to your cheese platter, it is delicious toasted and buttered for breakfast, makes a nice foodie gift, and it is a great snack. Dried figs give a light sweetness to the bread while the walnuts add a very pleasant crunchy texture. If you are intimidated by bread making, I can assure you, this a foolproof recipe, there is nothing complicated about it!

My 96 year old nona told me that in Slovenian Istra, when she was small, the children were given a slice of this bread as a snack for a special treat. The locals call it in the dialect Pan de Fighi, and it was bought in bakeries, and not usually baked in the household, as one might think. Ripe fresh figs, when in full season at the end of the summer were sold in the Farmer's market which provided an extra income for the family.

Nowadays in Slovenian Istra, this bread is not commonly found in bakeries and supermarkets.

I am sharing here my nona's recipe for this super delicious, enriched, special bread.

Recipe

Ingredients

500g white all purpose (plain) flour, plus extra for dusting and coating
30g caster sugar
10g (2Tsp) instant dried yeast
260ml lukewarm milk or water (or half and half)
60g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 Tsp sea salt
150g dried figs, roughly chopped
100g walnut kernels, roughly chopped

Method

With the knife roughly chop the walnuts.

Remove the hard stem from the figs, if there are any, and chop into smaller pieces.

Place the flour, sugar, yeast, milk (water or half and half) and butter in a large bowl. Stir with a fork or a wooden spoon to combine the ingredients then bring together with your hands.

Tip onto a lightly floured work surface, add sea salt and knead for about 10 minutes, pulling and stretching the dough, until it becomes smooth, elastic, and no longer sticks to your fingers or the surface.

Roll the dough, or press out to flatten slightly into a roughly rectangular or oval shape.

Top with chopped figs and walnuts.

Knead back into the dough.

Place the dough in a slightly oiled big bowl, cover with cling film (I use plastic shower cap) and leave it to rest in a warm, draught-free room for about 1 hour, or until the dough doubles in size.

Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knock the air out and shape it into a loaf, oval shape.

Put the loaf onto a baking tray, previously lined with baking parchment, cover with clean tea towel and leave to rest and prove for further 30 minutes, or until risen slightly.

Preheat the oven to 180C static or equivalent.

Sprinkle the top with a little extra flour.

Using a very sharp knife, make a shallow cut along the length of the loaf.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown in colour.

If it browning too much tent the loaf with some aluminium foil.

When baked, the loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the base.

Almond Brittle Istrian Recipe

Beans and Sardines

December 19, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, bite-sized nibbles, celebratory desserts, Celebratory dish, Central European recipes, Christmas bakes, Christmas dish, dessert, Easy recipe, festive dessert, Festive dish, festive sweet things, Finger food, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy

This crunchy brittle, packed with delicious roasted almonds, is a classic festive sweet treat, and together with candied almonds, are a very common sight at Christmas markets.

Handcrafted almond brittle is a very old recipe, very easy to make, using just a few basic ingredients, and it can make a lovely homemade gift for your foodie friends and family. Small brittle pieces can be served with coffee at the end of a meal, and it is great for topping the desserts since it makes them a little bit extra special.

Almond brittle is worth having in a pantry during a holiday season together with some good quality vanilla ice cream or gelato. Just put some brittle in a food processor and pulse it to the desired consistency. Sprinkle and scatter over the ice cream, and this humble and rustic brittle will turn your ice cream into a very elegant and festive dessert.

The coast of Slovenian Istra, where I come from, is blessed with a Mediterranean climate that allows almond trees to thrive and they are commonly found in people's gardens.

Almonds get harvested in autumn, then stored and used during winter month and especially during the holiday season. In fact, my 96 year old nona tod me that when she was a child, almond brittle and sugar coated almonds were a very special treats children were given during the festive season, in particular on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day.

I am sharing here a basic and most traditional recipe for almond brittle, how my nona's mother used to make, just using sugar and a bit of lemon juice.

Like most of the traditional recipes, this one has many variations, and you can “modernize” it and give a little twist, by adding ground cinnamon, orange juice instead of lemon juice, lemon or orange zest and a bit of honey.

Recipe

Ingredients

250g peeled or unpeeled almonds or a mixture of both (you can use any other type of nuts you like or a combination of them according to your preference)
250g caster sugar
1Tbsp lemon juice
2Tbsp water

Method

Before you start with the recipe I suggest you have all the ingredients and the tools ready. Once the sugar mixture turns into a caramel, you need to be very fast as the caramel hardens quite quickly and becomes difficult to work with.

Toast the nuts first for a few minutes either in a non stick frying pan or in the oven at 160C static or equivalent for about 10 minutes, by arranging the nuts in a single layer on a baking tray.

When lightly toasted, cool the nuts down a bit and set aside.

While the nuts are toasting prepare the surface where you are going to transfer your caramel almond mixture later on.

Brush with oil either a marble slab (marble kitchen top) or a piece of parchment paper.

Put the caster sugar, lemon juice and water in a non stick pan. Let the sugar melt into a syrup, do not stir, but you can give the pot a very gentle shake once the sugar starts to melt. When it reaches the amber colour (light golden brown) your caramel is ready.

For the following stage you need to work fast, as the caramel cools down very quickly and therefore hardens.

Add the nuts to the caramel, stir and mix quickly so all the nuts are well coated.As soon as the nuts are fully coated, remove immediately from the heat, this process should be fairly fast. Do not leave on the stove for too long, to the point of the sugar getting too dark, burning it could potentially result in a slight bitter aftertaste when eating the brittle.

Tip the coated nuts either on a lightly oiled marble work top (if you have it), non stick baking tray or on an oiled sheet of baking parchment.

Level and compact the brittle with oiled back of a ladle, big serving spoon or similar.

Let it cool a bit and then cut or break into pieces.

Just a thought

You can prepare almond brittle days in advance and keep it in an airtight container in a cool, dark and dry place. You can place layers of baking parchment between the brittle to avoid sticking.

To clean the pan with the solidified caramel, just add the water and bring to boil, the sugar will just simply melt in no time.

Vanillekipferl – Austrian Vanilla Crescent Biscuits Recipe

Beans and Sardines

December 13, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, All year round recipe, Austrian inspired dishes, Autumnal recipe, baking, biscuits, bite-sized nibbles, Central European recipes, Christmas bakes, cookies, dessert, easy baking, Easy recipe, festive bakes, festive dessert, fancy biscuits, festive sweet things, Finger food, home baking, Istrian cuisine, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, Mitteleuropean cuisine, Mitteleuropean food, Mitteleuropean recipes, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, sweet finger food, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things

Vanillekipferl are one of the favourite, and by far the most famous Christmas shortbread biscuits that just melt in your mouth. They are delicately crumbly, buttery, generously and luxuriously coated in vanilla flavoured icing sugar which makes them seriously delicious and are a fantastic addition to any biscuit platter during the holiday season.

There is a reason why some recipes come into fashion and then go out of fashion, and why other ones get passed on through the generations. The recipe for Vannilkipfel most defiantly falls into a latter category, and that is why they have been baked in my family for generations, and this is also the reason I make them every Christmas, and not only then!

This biscuits have been popular in most of central and Eastern European countries, where they are also easily found in bigger supermarkets, but nothing can compare to when they are homemade. They originated in Vienna, Austria, and it is believed that they were created about 400 years ago, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire celebrated its victory over the Ottoman Turks. Apparently, the locals created this pastry in the shape of crescent moon (kipferl) as seen on the Turkish banner. Austrians have created quite a variety of crescent shaped goodies, being sweet or savoury, like potato gnocchi crescents.

For me, they bring back wonderful memories during the festive period. My maternal grandmother would make a seriously big amount of them. I very vividly remember her making them ahead for the Christmas season and storing them on the small kitchen table in a long hallway, that was not heated (which led to the toilet). Somehow, we children increased the frequency of needing the toilet, and the pile of the biscuits would slowly go down. My grandmother never said anything, in fact, she got great pleasure knowing that we loved her baking, and this is what baking and cooking for others can do. It can create pleasure and memories that sometimes stay with you forever. Well, this type of festive biscuits certainly did just this for me.

These days, in order to make these biscuits, you just go to the food store and buy already milled walnuts and almonds (the most frequently used nuts for this recipe) but this was not quite the case when I was little.

Making Vanillekipferl was a huge deal, my paternal grandparents had a very big walnut and almond tree in the front garden, they had to harvest the nuts in the Autumn, dry them, clean them, crack the shells and remove the kernels, then mill them with mouli grater - quite a job I would say, no wonder they were so special and appreciated!

I am sharing here my maternal grandmother Iva's recipe for these heavenly delicious festive biscuits. If you try to make them this festive season, I will not be surprised if you will continue to pull the recipe out every holiday or Christmas season from now on. I am baking them every year and making sure the traditions stays alive...

Recipe

Ingredients

250g plain white flour, sifted
200g unsalted butter, very cold or frozen
80g caster sugar
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
120g ground walnuts (hazelnut or almonds or any combination you like)
pinch of sea salt
1 ½ Tsp vanilla extract
vanilla flavoured icing sugar

Method

Put the walnuts into a small food processor or mini food chopper and pulse until finely ground. (the texture is really up to your liking, you can pulse and mix the nuts to a finely ground consistency, or leave them to be more coarsely grounded, I prefer the latter). You can also use store bought already ground almond flour.

Put the sifted flour into a food processor or a mixing bowl. Add cold butter cut into small pieces or coarsely grate it, if using frozen butter.

If using a food processor, pulse and mix, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Alternatively, if not using a food processor, rub in the butter together with four fingertips.

Add caster sugar, lightly beaten egg yolks, vanilla extract, ground walnuts and a pinch of sea salt. Stir with the fork first to combine all the ingredients and allow them to bind together.

Knead lightly until the mixture forms a smooth dough. You can do this in a bowl or transfer onto a working surface.

Wrap the dough in a cling film, put it in a fridge and let it chill and rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C static or equivalent.

Cut the chilled dough into quarters. Take one quarter and wrap the rest of the dough in cling film and put it back in the fridge, so the dough stays nice and cold.

Pinch a small piece of the dough, roughly the size of a small walnut (if you want to weight, 14g will give you biscuits that are not too small nor too big)

Roll each piece of pastry into a small strip (sausage) and twist it into a crescent or horse shoe shape. Do not use any flour on the working surface when rolling and shaping the crescents (if the dough is quite wet and sticky use tiny amounts of flour).

Arrange crescents on a baking sheet or tray previously lined with baking parchment (do not grease or flour the baking sheet) leaving some space apart, as they will rise a bit during the baking.

Bake until lightly golden in colour, about 15 minutes.

Leave them on the tray for about a minute or so, and let them cool ever so slightly, but you want the biscuits to be still fairly warm for coating them with sugar (the sugar will stick best, when the biscuits are still warm at the moment of rolling them into vanilla flavoured icing sugar).

Put the vanilla floured icing sugar in shallow dish or bowl.

Put warm walnut crescents, one by one, into the icing sugar and coat them completely. Handle the biscuits very gently, they are fragile and break easily.

Place the coated crescents onto a plate or a tray.

Leave to cool and store in an airtight container or a cookie box.

Potica – traditional Slovenian festive nut roll Recipe

Beans and Sardines

December 20, 2021 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, Autumnal dish, Autumnal recipe, baked dish, baking, breakfast, celebratory desserts, Celebratory dish, Christmas dish, dessert, Easter dish, Easter treats, Enriched dough, festive dessert, Festive dish, festive sweet things, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Sweet bread, sweet course, sweet finger food, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things, Vegetarian, Winter dish, Winter recipe, festive bakes, Christmas bakes

Potica – traditional Slovenian festive nut roll Recipe

Potica is a light brioche like roll filled with rich and very tasty walnut filling, it is the most famous Slovenian dessert and the queen of festive sweet treats.

This cake is traditionally prepared and eaten around Christmas and Easter or other special and festive occasions like the weddings, Christening, family celebrations like birthdays and the birth of a new baby, but these days potica is available to buy in bakeries and supermarkets all year round.

Most loved and well-known is walnut potica, with or without raisins, but other regional sweet and savoury varieties are also very popular, where fillings are most commonly made with poppy seeds, pork crackling, cottage cheese and tarragon. They are all super delicious and recipes for potica are proudly passed from generation to generation.

The name "potica" derives from a Slovenian word “poviti” which means to roll up or to wrap and goes back as far as 16th century when it was baked in Slovenian monasteries.

In Slovenia, potica is traditionally baked in “potičnik” which is a round bundt-style baking dish made from ceramic, but it is also very commonly baked in a simple bundt cake tin, loaf tin or cake pan.

Potica, this Slovenian national treasure, has been registered as a Traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) in the European Union since April 2001.

A slice of potica can be a great choice for breakfast, is ideal as an afternoon treat with coffee or tea, or like me, you will find any excuse, or none at all, to eat it.

I am sharing here the recipe of my nona's grandmother that made the filling for potica using a mixture of walnuts and almonds, the latter being widely available in Istria.

The mild Mediterranean climate makes almond trees a very common sight. My nona told me that the filling for potica was made with a mixture of those nuts that were most readily available, and sometimes raisins and a little bit of grated apple were also added to the nut mixture, and very rarely, a piece of a chocolate bar (not the whole bar), might be grated into the mixture, which then made the potica particularly luxurious. She reminded me that in the olden days, when she was small, (in the 30s and 40s) seasonal and home grown produce were used to create a wonderful array of dishes, shopping lists, as we know them today, just simply did not exist...

Ingredients for the dough

500g all purpose flour or 00 type flour
20g of fresh yeast or 7g fast-action dried yeast (also called instant yeast)
100g unsalted butter, melted
80g caster sugar
250ml lukewarm full fat or semi skimmed milk
2 eggs, separated (egg yolks slightly beaten, keep the whites for brushing potica just before putting in the oven)
1 Tbsp dark rum
grated lemon zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
pinch of sea salt

Ingredients for the filling

250g walnuts
250g almonds (skin on or peeled)
200ml single cream (can use semi skimmed or full fat milk instead)
100g caster sugar
1Tbsp dark rum
2Tbsp of honey (about 50g)
2 eggs, separated (egg yolks slightly beaten and egg whites whisked to soft peaks)
finely grated lemon zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
icing sugar for dusting

Method

The dough

In a fairly large bowl, sift the flour, make a little well in the centre and add instant yeast, melted butter, caster sugar, lightly beaten egg yolks, grated lemon zest, dark rum and a pinch of sea salt. Mix and combine well all the ingredients.

(If using fresh yeast, slightly brake it down into smaller pieces with your fingers and place it into a small bowl. Add few tablespoons of tepid milk, ¼ Tsp of sugar, gently stir and leave for about 15-20 minutes or until gentle bubbles form on the surface).

Transfer the mixture onto a well floured working surface and start kneading, for about ten minutes, adding a little flour at a time if the mixture is too wet and sticky.

Alternatively, use a mixer fitted with a dough hook and leave running for about 5 minutes.

The dough is ready when it ends up being really smooth and elastic. It should not stick to your hands or working surface and should leave the bowl clean if using a mixer.

Transfer the dough back into a very lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film or clean kitchen towel.

Put the bowl in a warm room free of drafts for at least one hour and leave the dough to rest and rise, the dough should double in size.

While the dough is resting and rising start preparing the filling.

The filling

Place walnuts and almonds in a food processor and mix to a coarse consistency.

Transfer ground walnuts and almonds into a bowl, pour over lukewarm single cream and mix well.

Add caster sugar, dark rum, honey, 2 lightly beaten egg yolks and 2 egg whites (previously whisked to soft peaks and not too stiff) and grated lemon zest. Mix all the ingredient until very well combined and set aside.

Flour well your working surface and rolling pin. Put your dough onto a working surface and roll it out to a more or less rectangular shape (40cmx50cm) to the thickness of about not more than 1cm.

Take the walnut-almond mixture and spread it evenly on the rolled dough but leave some space around the edge so the filling does not come out when rolling the dough.

Gently roll the filled dough quite tightly into a log.

Cut off or tuck well in the edges.

Prepare the bundt pan (for the quantities in this recipe I use a 24cm round bundt cake tin).

Grease it very well with butter, make sure you reach all the nooks and crannies and coat it well with the flour. Shake the excessive flour out of the bundt tin.

If you do not have a bundt pan you can use:

loaf tins (cut the roll into two or three parts, depending on the size of the loaf tins you are using)
greased spring form cake tin (24cm for the quantity in this recipe)
or simply use a baking tray previously greased with butter (in this case model the log into a U shape)

Very gently place your rolled dough (seam side down) into a bundt pan, cake tin or baking tray. Cover with a clean kitchen towel, place it in a warm, draft free room and leave to prove for the second time for 30min to 1h or until well risen (not necessarily doubling in size, just filling out nicely the tin).

Take a toothpick and make little holes in the dough on the whole surface and brush with egg whites.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180C static for about 50-60 minutes. Halfway through baking, tent the potica with the aluminium foil to prevent it browning too much and starting to burn.

Leave until completely cold in a tin.

To remove the potica more easily, take a little plastic knife and run it around the edges to loosen the cake.

Transfer on a serving plate, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Just a thought

Potica tastes at its best the day after has been baked.

You can store it in an airtight container for up to five days and is suitable for freezing.

Wine suggestion

Friuli Colli Orientali Picolit Cialla DOC 2008 - Ronchi di Cialla (0.5l - astuccio)