Moms Forgiving Linzer Torte.. with a spring time twist of my own.

Do not be afraid of butter, it won't help. Butter is your friend. It likes you. You like it. Why fight it? My mothers Linzer Torte is awesome. There are 3 sticks of butter in it... and its the only thing I can bake. I have a hard time following a recipe and I hear baking is science so... if you make a substitution you better know what you are doing or you might blow something up. Anyway this is one recipe that doesn't care what you forget. As long as the butter sugar and flour are in there you're pretty good. In the end I forgot half the ingredients, messed up the dough, and yes I made substitutions but the result was WINNING>

Spring Linzer Torte - click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

3 stick butter room temperature

1 1/2 cups powedred sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups of ground hazelnut (buy whole grind yourself)

3 cups unbleached all purpouse flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Juice of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 lemon

14 ounces of raspberry jam with seeds ( I like Bonne Maman Preserves)

Supplies:

10" tart pan with a removable bottom

rolling pin (ghetto version is a jar or glass but dont let it get warm from your hands!)

food processor is nice but if you don't have one use a pastry cutter or two knives.

wax paper

cookie sheet

tin foil

sifter

cooling rack

Preheat oven to 375

In your food processor put butter and sugar and blend until creamy. It should look like this.

Then beat in the egg and add the ground hazel nuts and flour a little at a time - about a 1/4 cup or so of each - and add the salt.

Once you have mixed it all up divide the dough into two sections and flatten each ball between wax paper, place on a cookie sheet and chill in the fridge for 1 hour. You can also make this the night before and leave in the fridge all night.

In small mixing bowl add raspberry jam, juice of lemon, and zest of 1 lemon and mix until

smooth.

Even though my mother uses two 7" tart pans (hey if you got em go for it) I stick with one 10" tart pan.

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out into two circles a little larger than 10” in diameter. Slide one rolled out section of dough over to the tart pan and work up the sides of the tart tin. Pour in the jam mixture.

Take the other section of dough and slice into 1/2"-3/4" slices like this.

Layout the strips of dough to create the first layer of lattice work. Then lay out the second layer in the other direction. You can see mine is not exact and a bit of a mess. Don't worry it all tastes the same! If you have a hard time with the lattice work. put the sliced dough back in the fridge to chill before trying to lay it out.

Once your criss crosses are done put the tart in the fridge for 30 mins to chill the dough again. I like to put my tart on cookie sheet lined with tinfoil - this keeps the bubbling jam off your oven and your pan. so less cleaning. Bake for 45 mins golden brown and jam is bubbling.

Let it cool on a rack if you have one. Once cool remove the tart tin and place on a cake plate

Then dust with powdered sugar using a sifter!! This one traveled while hot so it did sink a little but still retained its beauty. My mother always said. Nothing a little powdered sugar wont fix! Its true the powdered sugar will hide any mistakes in the dough.

Gain 500lbs with each slice! Just kidding!!

Happy Birthday Angie!!! This Tortes for you!!