Linzer Torte (or Tart) Recipe

Austria is a country where so many famous desserts are prepared and, of course, we must not forget about the Linz cake! Linz cake or Linzer tart (German: Linzer Torte, Linzertorte), — is a nutty shortbread cake with jam, decorated on top with a lattice or dough figures. Linz cake is a festive classic in Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and Tyrolean traditions. This cake is one of the most ancient cakes because it is more than 350 years old. Four recipes, all of which have the name Linzer Torte, can be found in the cookbook of Countess Anna Margarita Sagramosa (Verona) dating back to 1653, but the name of the creator of this masterpiece remains a mystery. Also, the cake was very popular in the Baroque era. The Linzer cake is the subject of hundreds of legends. The most common version is that the cake is named after the city of Linz.

Mass production of the cake was started in 1823 by the Austrian pastry chef Johann Konrad Vogel (1796-1883), who emigrated in 1822 from Franconia and the cake gradually gained European fame. In 1850, the Linz cake was brought to Milwaukee by the Austrian traveler (artist, poet, composer, and conductor) Franz Hölzlhuber, and conquered the New World. In 1944, the cake was glorified in music: the premiere of the operetta by the Bavarian composer Ludwig Schmidzeder (1904-1971), which was called “Linz Cake”, took place at the Linz State Theater.

On Linzer land, red currant jam is used for the cake. In the land of Southern Baden, it is traditionally baked with raspberry jam.

There are several types of Linzer dough:

• a mix of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar with the addition of almonds, hazelnuts, or a nut mixture. Also, cinnamon and lemon zest are used to give a distinctive taste to the dough.
• brown Linzer dough (in Austria) consists of flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and almonds or nuts. Add cinnamon and cloves.
• white Linzer dough (in Austria) is made of flour, sugar, butter, egg yolks, and lemon zest.
• Linzer augen – this is a cookie from Linz dough. It is made of two cookies connected together with jam, 1-3 holes are cut in the top and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

How to make the dough

• Fry the nuts, peel, and chop.
• Beat up the butter with powdered sugar for 3-5 minutes.
• Add the remaining ingredients and knead the dough.
• Put the dough in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Forming the dough

• The cooled dough is visually divided into three parts. Two parts will be the basis, and the 3rd part will be the decoration.
• Distribute most of the dough in the cake pan, pre-lined with parchment and greased with 1 tsp butter, forming sides 1 in high.

The filling

• Put raspberries in a saucepan, mix with sugar and bring to a boil.
• Wash the apples, remove the core, and peel. Cut into slices and add to the raspberries. Cook for another 2 minutes.
• Dilute starch with cold water.
• Pour the starch into the hot filling in a thin trickle. Allow to thicken and remove from heat. Let it cool down.

Assembling the torte

After you have laid out the base of the cake, it is quite easy to assemble the cake. Use ⅓ for lattice crust or cutouts.

Top dough

The lattice is a traditional way of making a Linzer cake.

It is not necessary that the top of your cake be decorated with criss-cross stripes. You can afford to dream up and layout any figures from the dough, or create your lattice design.

Lattice crust

You need to roll out the dough, cut it into strips (a pizza knife will help you well with this). Now you need to put one strip in the middle and pinch where it comes into contact with the bottom crust. And so you need to do it several times until you get a pattern in the shape of a lattice.

Cut-outs

You can use any form of cut-out that you like. The dough in this cake perfectly retains its shape and is literally created so that you can decorate your cake and make it more festive.

There are a lot of thematic cut-outs that help to prepare a cake for any holiday. For example, you can use snowflakes and angel cut-outs for Christmas. Chicken, egg, the bunny cut-outs will be suitable for Easter, and leaf cut-outs are appropriate in autumn.

Tips and tricks

Linzer is a soft and delicate cake, in the taste of which it is difficult to identify individual notes – it is integral, indivisible. In order to make the dessert according to the classic recipe, it is necessary to use buttery, very fresh, and high-quality nuts. The crumbly dough would be saturated with nut butter when baking, and nut butter, in turn, absorbs creamy and berry flavors.

Dough for Linz cake is convenient to do with a straight-bladed knife – chop the butter-flour base with it for a few minutes, occasionally grating it with your fingers. The result will be the same as after processing in a food processor, as a result, you would get a crumbly crust.

If you decide to put the dough in the freezer for a long time, you should wrap it very well in food wrap or foil without gaps, because the fatty dough absorbs foreign odors.