Advent Calendar – Day 4: Linzertorte (Austrian Cake)

 This, for me, is a typical German Christmas cake. You know how everyone has this one thing they refuse to have because tastes like Christmas to them and “it’s only just November, I can’t have mince pies yet!”? This is Linzertorte for me. Now, my birthday is mid-November, and this would always be the first occasion we would have Linzertorte. It always meant the Christmas season has truly begun!

The beauty of this cake is that it keeps for ages – you just need to store it somewhere cool. I’ve baked five and kept them on the balcony, but my housemates are eating them quicker than I can bake them! 

Here is my nan’s recipe which has been a family secret for years:
Servings: 8 yield(s)
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Total Time: 70 mins
Ingredients
    For the dough
  • 140 g plain flour
  • 140 g granulated sugar
  • 140 g grounded hazelnuts
  • 140 g lightly softened butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp rum
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • lemon zest
  • current jam
    • For the jam filling
  • 200 g raspberry jam
  • 200 g cranberry sauce
Instructions
  1. Mix all the dry ingredients for the dough in a big bowl. Tip: be careful when adding the spices – you might want to use less for the first time!
  2. Add butter, egg and rum and knead until you have an even dough.
  3. Cover the bowl with a tea towel or cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour
  4. Dust your countertop with some flour and roll out ¾ of the dough to fit a round 20cm cake tin.
  5. Grease the tin with some butter and transfer the dough. You should have a rim of 1.5 cm on the sides of the tin.
  6. For the jam filling mix the raspberry jam and the cranberry sauce in a bowl with two tablespoons of hot water. Then pour it on the dough.
  7. Roll out the rest of the dough until it is roughly 1cm thick. Now you can either use cutters to cut out shapes and place them on the jam mix or cut long thin strips to cover the jam mix with (see pictures).
  8. You can coat the dough bits on the top with condensed milk or egg yolk to give it a bit of a shine. I usually just bake it and dust it with icing sugar after it cooled down and just before serving.
  9. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan) and then bake for 40minutes.