Salted Caramel Chocolate Linzer Cookies
Two rich chocolate cut-out cookies sandwiching a gooey salted caramel filling. A chocolate lover's twist on classic linzer cookies!
Equipment
- 1 offset spatula, optional
- 1 piping bag, optional
Ingredients
Chocolate Cookies
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- 100 g almond flour
- 80 g cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 230 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 135 g granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Salted Caramel Sauce
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 150 g heavy cream, room temperature
- 60 g unsalted butter, room temperature and roughly cubed
- ½ teaspoon salt
For dusting
- 20 g cocoa powder, or powdered sugar
Instructions
Chocolate Cookie Dough
- Flour mixture: In a medium bowl, stir together flour, almond flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugars: In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat softened butter until it becomes very creamy and pale in colour. Add the sugar and cream together until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Mix dough: Add the flour mixture and mix until a soft dough forms, switching to a spatula to finish mixing it if it becomes too thick to mix.
- Press and shape dough: Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Use your hands to press the dough together. Use a bench scraper or a knife to cut the dough in half. Press and shape each half into a flattened disc shape. Wrap both halves in plastic wrap and chill them in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Salted Caramel
- Melt sugar: In a small pot, add granulated sugar. Heat it on medium heat until the sugar liquefies, about 10 minutes.
- Add heavy cream: When the sugar syrup becomes light amber in colour slowly pour in the heavy cream while stirring the mixture. The mixture will bubble up instantly so make sure your pot is tall enough to contain it. Don't worry if the sugar hardens (the cream was too cold) - just keep stirring it on low-medium heat until it melts again.
- Add butter and salt: When the bubbling subsides and the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the butter, one cube at a time, and they're all dissolved in the caramel. Stir in the salt and transfer the caramel to a small bowl to cool.
Making the cookies
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Roll out dough: On a floured surface, roll out one disc of cookie dough until it's about ⅛" thick.
- Cut out top cookies: Use a 3" scalloped round cookie cutter to cut out rounds from the dough. Slide an offset spatula under each round to lift it off the counter if it's sticking. Transfer the rounds to your lined baking sheet. These cookies don't spread much so you can place them close together. Re-roll the scraps and repeat.
- Cut out window: Use a smaller 1" scalloped cookie cutter to cut out the middle of each round. You can bake these tiny cutouts for a snack or add them to your scrap dough to re-roll.
- Bake top cookies: Bake the cookies with the cutouts (the "top" cookies) for about 9 minutes or until the surface looks dry and set. Let them cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cut out bottom cookies: Repeat rolling out the second disc of dough in the same way as the first disc and use the same 3" scalloped round cookie cutter to cut out rounds from the dough. Transfer the rounds to your lined baking sheet. Do not cut out the middle of these cookies.
- Bake bottom cookies: Bake these cookies (the "bottom" cookies) for about 10 minutes or until the surface looks dry and set. Let them cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Dust with cocoa powder: Lay all the top cookies out on a wire rack or a sheet of parchment paper. Use a fine mesh sieve to dust the tops with cocoa powder or powdered sugar.
- Sandwich caramel: If your salted caramel has hardened during this time, warm it in the microwave for about 15 seconds until it's soft and pliable. Transfer the caramel to a piping bag and snip the tip off (or use a spoon). Pipe a dollop of caramel in the middle of each bottom cookie. Place a matching top cookie on top to sandwich the caramel.
Notes
Note 1: Cookie dough: This recipe makes enough cookie dough for about 30 sandwiched cookies (or 60 individual cookies) depending on the size of your cookie cutters. To make fewer cookies, you can halve the recipe or only use one disc of dough for both the top and bottom cookies. Freeze the other disc of dough for another time.
Note 2: Salted caramel: This recipe makes more than enough caramel to fill the cookies with leftover caramel that you can use for other recipes or eat with apples, etc. I just think if you're going to spend the time making it, you might as well make more! However, to make less caramel just for the cookies, you can halve the recipe. Less sugar in the pot means it will melt faster so keep an eye on it to prevent it from burning.
Nutrition
Calories: 190kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 37mg | Sodium: 99mg | Potassium: 73mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 331IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 1mg
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