Linz cake: step by step recipe with photo

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Linz cake (original Linzer Torte) is an Austrian cake with a lattice pattern. It was named after the city of Linz in Austria.

This dessert features a crumbly pastry made from flour, uns alted butter, egg yolks, lemon zest, cinnamon, lemon juice, and nuts (usually hazelnuts, but sometimes even made with walnuts or almonds). Such a cake is covered with a filling of red currants, plum puree, fresh raspberries or apricot jam. The top of the cake is covered with a lattice of pastry. To do this, it is rolled out, cut into thin strips and laid crosswise over the filling. The pastry is topped with lightly beaten egg whites, baked, and sometimes garnished with chopped almonds.

Linz cake is a classic holiday dish in Austrian, Hungarian, Swiss, German and Tyrolean traditions. This dessert is usually eaten at Christmas. In addition, it is often made in the form of small pies or cookies.

History

Experts say Linzer is the oldest cake in the world. For a long time, the recipe of 1696, kept in the Vienna archives, was considered the oldest. In 2005,however, an even older recipe from 1653 has been found.

In addition, the invention of the Linz cake is the subject of numerous legends about a Viennese confectioner named Linzer (according to Alfred Polgar) or chef Johann Conrad Vogel (1796-1883), who around 1823 in Linz began mass the production of the pie, which made it famous all over the world. In any case, Linz cake from Austria is several centuries old.

Can I make this treat myself?

If desired, you can easily prepare such a dessert at home. Classic Linz cake, the recipe of which is considered one of the oldest, is prepared as follows. You will need the following components:

• 250 g butter.
• 250 g flour.
• 150 g ground hazelnuts (or almonds).
• 125g sugar.
• 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs.
• 1 egg.
• 1 egg yolk.
• Generous amount of cinnamon powder.
• Pinch of ground cloves.
• Pinch of s alt.
• Grated lemon zest or lemon juice.
• Waffles for layering (optional).
• Egg for coating.
• Redcurrant for stuffing.
• Sliced almonds (optional).

Linz cake: step by step recipe with photo

Sprinkle some flour on a work surface, cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour with your fingers to create a light crumb. Mix with cinnamon, a pinch of ground cloves and a little s alt, put lemon zest or lemon juice. Stir quickly to form a smooth, firm dough, shape into a ball, cover with cling film and set aside in a cool place for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and oil a suitable springform pan.

Now lightly press just over half of the dough onto the base of the mold using your knuckles. Form the remaining dough into several small strips (for the lattice) and one wider layer (for the edge). If desired, top the base with wafers and brush with pie icing, leaving 1cm around the edge. Place the prepared sheet of dough into the mold along the edges (as a edging) and lightly press.

Place the redcurrant so that it is not higher than the edges of the workpiece. Lay the prepared strips of dough on top, creating a lattice. If desired, you can sprinkle the product with chopped almonds. Cover the cake with a beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven for 50-60 minutes. Remove the product, leave to cool, ideally put it to "ripen" at room temperature for a day, wrapped in a cloth.

Raspberry variant

As mentioned earlier, Linz cake, the recipe with a photo of which can be found in this article, has several varieties. While redcurrant and hazelnuts are considered classic, variations include another berry as a filling, and a combination of different nuts in the dough. So what do you need for Raspberry Linz Cake?

You will need the following ingredients:

• 3 cups raspberry topping (fresh berries mashed into puree);
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour;
• 1 ¾ cup ground almond and hazelnut mixture;
• 1 pack of uns alted butter;
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon;
• 1 glass of sugar;
• ½ teaspoons tea s alt;
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder;
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract;
• 1 ½ teaspoon citrus zest (lemon, orange, or a mixture thereof);
• 2 eggs;
• ½ cup apricot jam;
• 3 table spoons of water.

How to make this dessert?

Mash butter, sugar and citrus zest, mix with eggs and vanilla extract until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine nuts, flour, s alt, cinnamon and baking powder. Add the dry mixture to the oil in stages, mix until smooth. Refrigerate the resulting dough for an hour.

Then roll it out to a thickness of about one and a half centimeters and put it in a baking dish, separating a small part for decoration. Spread raspberry puree on top of it in a layer about one centimeter thick. Roll the remaining piece of dough thinner, cut into thin strips and place on top of the berries with a wire rack. Bake at 200 degrees until the top of the pie is golden brown. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, prepare the top coat. To do this, heat the apricot jam and mix it with a littlethe amount of water. Cover hot cake with it. The finished product can be decorated with whipped cream and fruit as desired.

Cranberry variant

This version of the Linz cake also features a combination of hazelnuts and almonds. Although this dessert is usually filled with raspberry or apricot jam, you can deviate from classic wishes and use fresh cranberries. This berry will make it a wonderful delicacy during the autumn and winter holidays. The secret of dough made with nuts is that it remains plastic when chilled. The Linz cake recipe below can keep up to a week if packaged well. In addition, this product also freezes perfectly before or after baking.

How to cook it?

To make Linz cranberry cake, you will need the following ingredients.

Ingredients for filling:

• 340 grams of cranberries;
• 450 grams of sugar;
• juice of 1 orange diluted with water - 220 ml;
• zest of 1 orange;
• a pinch of s alt.

Ingredients for dough:

• 120 grams of whole hazelnuts;
• 120 grams whole almonds;
• 270 grams of all-purpose flour, plus a small amount to work with dough;
• 160 grams of sugar;
• 14 tablespoons/198 grams uns alted butter;
• zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange;
• 1 large egg plus 1 yolk;
• 1 teaspoon extractvanilla;
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves;
• 1 ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon;
• ¼ teaspoons tea s alt;
• ½ teaspoon baking powder;
• powdered sugar (optional)

Cranberry Linz Cake Step by Step Recipe

Combine all filling ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Lower the temperature and stir until the cranberries begin to burst. Continue cooking, lightly beating the mixture with a spoon until it reaches the consistency of jam. This will take about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the hazelnuts and almonds on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes until they turn brown. Peel the skin off the nuts while they are warm. Cool them, then grind them in a food processor, adding 3 tablespoons of table flour.

In a deep bowl, mix butter, sugar, citrus zest. Beat with a mixer until the sugar is completely dissolved. The mixture should be homogeneous. Separately, beat the egg, egg yolk and vanilla, add to the previously prepared mass and mix.

In a separate bowl, mix the ground nuts, remaining flour, cloves, cinnamon, baking powder and s alt. Add to the butter mixture in three steps, stirring each time, until a slightly sticky dough forms.

Divide the dough into two unequal parts. Form a larger piece into a ball, wrap and flatten to a thickness of 2.5 cm. Wrap with cloth and refrigerate 3-4 hours.

Formationand baking

Then preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it rest for 10 minutes. On parchment paper, shape most of the dough into a circle, dusting the top with flour if needed. Spread it evenly into the baking dish, covering the bottom and sides.

Roll out the smaller piece of dough into a rectangle measuring about 25 by 30 centimeters and 0.5 cm thick. Cut into strips of small width. Put in the fridge for a while.

Spread the cranberry filling evenly over the dough lined. Lay the prepared strips on top of the grid pattern. Roll the remaining pieces of dough into a 1 cm rope and use it to decorate the outer edge of the pie. Bake for 30-5 minutes until filling starts to bubble. Let cool and, if desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar.