Recipe: Spiced Blueberry Jam Linzer Cookies

Dig those blueberries out of the freezer, it’s time to jam. This recipe from Adi Kesselman, pastry chef at Kafka’s Coffee, is the perfect winter bite.

Ingredients

Cookie Ingredients (Makes about 30 cookies)

1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sifted icing sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tbsp lemon juice (approx 1 lemon)
Zest of 1 small lemon (optional)
1.37 cups (325 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup almond flour
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon

Spiced BC Blueberry Jam Ingredients (Makes about 1L)

1 kg frozen BC Blueberries
1.37 cups (325 g) sugar
30ml lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1 star anise (optional)
1/2 tsp salt

Make It

Cookies

1. Heat up the oven to 350F.
2. In a mixer bowl, with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together for 2-3 minutes, until creamy and light.
3. Add the egg yolks slowly, and scrape down sides of the bowl. Add vanilla, lemon juice, and zest (if using), mix until combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not over mix.
5. Divide the dough in half and create two discs, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or up to two days.
6. Roll each disc between two lightly floured parchment papers, into 1/4-inch thickness.
7. Before cutting, make sure the dough is cold enough, if the dough has warmed up after rolling put back in the fridge for 5-10 minutes and cut out cookies in your desired shape and size, and place on baking sheets with parchment paper.
8. Cut a smaller round in the middle of half of the cookies.
9. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking
10. Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes, until the cookies seem dry
11. Let cool to room temperature, dust icing sugar on the cookies with the middle cut out.
12. Spread jam (spiced BC Blueberry Jam recipe below) on the bottom of one cookie and sandwich with another on top. Enjoy!

Jam

1. Place the blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a saucepan, on medium high heat, until sugar is dissolved and let it boil for about 3 minutes, stir occasionally.
2. Turn heat down to medium low, add cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and salt, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. You can mash the blueberries at this point, or just leave them whole for a chunkier jam.
4. Turn heat off. At this point you can either can the jam for longer storage time, or let it cool down and transfer to an airtight container, store in fridge up to about 3-4 months.