Baking College In-Depth: Linzer Torte

The Austrian Linzer torte is a conventional vacation dessert that includes two layers of tender
hazelnut- and almond-enhanced dough—one layer serving because the torte’s base and the
different as a fascinating lattice design—with a barely tart purple currant or raspberry filling that enhances the candy, spiced dough. Though the phrase “torte” means “cake,” recipes for Linzer tortes are decidedly extra tart-like than cake-like, they usually date to a minimum of 1653, making it the oldest recognized cake on this planet. For greater than 300 years, Linzer tortes have been the delight and pleasure of Linz, a small city alongside the Danube River in northern Austria. Like many longstanding cultural and culinary traditions, its actual origins are a thriller.

The elements of our Linzer Torte couldn’t be simpler to organize. A buttery, nut-enriched crust comes collectively shortly in a stand mixer, and the filling of fruit preserves is one thing you’ll be able to simply purchase. Making this vacation torte may appear intimidating, however we’ve made the method easy. The dough is delicate, so we pat it into the tart pan, and as for the lattice, we roll the dough between two items of wax paper and minimize the strips on wax paper to make it simpler to deal with and switch the dough. The Linzer Torte could be served at room temperature the day it’s baked, however it’s additionally fantastic after an evening within the fridge, making it an ideal make-ahead dessert.

Be part of us for Baking College with Williams Sonoma on Monday, December 11, 2023 for a digital baking class demonstrating the right way to make this recipe!

For simpler viewing or printing at dwelling, obtain the pdf of this lesson right here!

INGREDIENT BREAKDOWN

Wonderful recipes require fantastic elements. Right here’s how our recipe’s elements contribute to creating the perfect Linzer Torte.

ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR: All-purpose flour has a protein content material of 10% to 12%, so the crust has sufficient gluten construction to carry collectively whereas nonetheless permitting the dough to bake right into a melt-in-your-mouth crust.

HAZELNUT FLOUR AND ALMOND FLOUR: Hazelnut flour has a particular sweetness and extra of a buttery taste than almond flour, which has a gentle, nearly savory nuttiness, making the mix of the 2 nut flours superb on this recipe. They add mild, delicate texture, enormously improve the torte’s taste, and pair completely with the orange zest and spices within the dough. It’s best to retailer almond and hazelnut flours within the fridge or freezer to maintain them recent and prolong their shelf life.

GRANULATED SUGAR: Apart from including satisfying sweetness to the dough, sugar reacts with amino acids within the flour throughout a heat-driven response that results in browning, known as the Maillard response, which provides a stunning golden coloration and toasty taste to the crust. Sugar additionally inhibits gluten formation, resulting in an much more tender crust.

LIGHT BROWN SUGAR: Brown sugar pairs superbly with the festive spices and tart raspberry filling in our Linzer Torte, including sweetness and depth of taste. Sugar is a hygroscopic ingredient, which suggests it absorbs moisture. It’ll preserve your torte moist longer whereas including a barely caramelized taste with its 3.5% molasses content material.

ORANGE ZEST: A contact of orange zest boosts the torte’s vacation taste delicately but distinctively.

KOSHER SALT: Salt is an all-encompassing taste booster, and candy bakes with out salt are inclined to style flat. We like kosher salt as a result of it’s a pure, additive-free salt with a crisp, clear style. Plus, it’s flaked relatively than granulated, permitting for more-even distribution in our dough.

GROUND CINNAMON, GINGER, NUTMEG, AND CLOVES: Barely candy cinnamon, sharp ginger, earthy and nutty nutmeg, and daring cloves mix to kind a well-balanced spice mix, offering the right quantity of welcome heat and depth of taste to the dough.

BAKING POWDER: Most baking powders are double-acting, which means the response occurs twice, utilizing two completely different acids. The primary is a fast response when moisture is added to the baking powder within the dough combination. The second response is slower, occurring when the dough bakes.

UNSALTED BUTTER: As a result of butter is crucial to the feel and richness of the crust, selecting a European-style butter with a better fats ratio than generic grocery retailer butter will yield the most effective outcomes. As for unsalted versus salted, salt content material can differ throughout completely different butter manufacturers, so we use unsalted butter, permitting us so as to add the precise quantity of kosher salt desired.

EGG: Eggs lend richness by their yolks and moisture and construction by their whites.

VANILLA EXTRACT: Vanilla extract is a magical ingredient that provides instantaneous complexity to this torte.

BONNE MAMAN® RASPBERRY PRESERVES: Made with recent fruit, the refined tart notes and slight earthiness in Bonne Maman® Raspberry Preserves improve the gorgeously spiced candy dough.

CONFECTIONERS’ SUGAR: A dusting of confectioners’ sugar provides a captivating last flourish to the baked Linzer Torte.

Our Linzer Torte is a lattice-topped, raspberry preserves-filled affair made with a wonderful dough of floor hazelnuts and almonds. The key to working with this delicate, nut-enriched dough is to make use of wax paper when rolling to assist preserve the dough from sticking to your rolling pin or counter and freezing the dough earlier than layering the lattice. The strips aren’t woven; they’re merely laced over one another for a lattice impact with out having to deal with the fragile dough an excessive amount of.

MAKING THE DOUGH

1. Within the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk collectively flours, granulated sugar, brown sugar, orange zest, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves by hand till mixed. Add chilly butter; utilizing the paddle attachment, beat at medium velocity till combination resembles coarse crumbs, 2 to three minutes. Add egg and vanilla; beat at low velocity simply till dough comes collectively, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. (Combination needs to be moist however not sticky and may maintain collectively when pinched.) End up dough onto a clear floor; reserve one-third of dough (about 278 grams), and canopy with plastic wrap. A stand mixer is probably the most environment friendly and foolproof methodology when making this dough. In contrast to a meals processor, a stand mixer provides you extra management as you see the dough coming collectively.

PRESSING IN THE DOUGH

1. Spray the perimeters of a 10-inch spherical fluted removable-bottom tart pan with baking spray with flour. Press remaining dough into backside and up sides of ready pan; trim any extra with a small sharp knife, and add to reserved onethird of dough. Cowl with plastic wrap. After urgent the dough within the pan along with your arms, press the underside of a steel measuring cup into the pan to stop the dough from sticking to your fingers whereas getting a pleasant, even layer of dough so it bakes evenly.

CREATING THE LATTICE

1. Frivolously mud a sheet of wax paper with all-purpose flour; place reserved dough on ready wax paper, and calmly mud prime of dough with all-purpose flour. Place one other sheet of wax paper on dough, and roll dough right into a 12-inch circle (about ⅛ inch thick); place on a baking sheet. Refrigerate rolled dough and dough in pan for 1 hour. One trick to rolling out a delicate dough like that is to sandwich it between two sheets of wax paper to maintain it from sticking as you’re employed with it. You should utilize parchment paper in a pinch, however wax paper is skinny and barely simpler to deal with for this recipe. The dough will follow the paper simply sufficient to maintain it from sliding round from the stress of the rolling pin, permitting you to roll out the dough effortlessly.
2. Take away prime sheet of wax paper from rolled dough; utilizing a pastry wheel or pizza cutter, minimize dough into 1-inch-wide strips; cowl and freeze till agency, about quarter-hour. Utilizing a ruler, we rating the rolled-out dough into 1-inch intervals. This serves as a information to comply with as we minimize the complete size of the lattice strips utilizing the assistance of the ruler’s straight edge.

ASSEMBLE AND BAKE

1. Utilizing a small offset spatula, unfold preserves evenly into dough in pan. Gently prepare 5 dough strips about ½ inch aside in a single route on prime of preserves. Repeat with 5 dough strips in wrong way to create an unwoven lattice sample; press strips into edges of dough in pan, trimming extra to create a clear edge. (If dough turns into too delicate, freeze in 15-minute intervals as wanted; a calmly floured massive offset spatula may also help transfer strips.) Create further strips as wanted by rerolling extra dough to ⅛-inch thickness between calmly floured sheets of wax paper. (It is a delicate dough. If it tears whereas transferring, merely press it again collectively; alternatively, reroll, minimize, and refrigerate dough, and check out once more.) Refrigerate assembled tart for 20 minutes. Refrigerating the assembled torte lets the butter within the dough solidify, which helps the crust bake up good and crisp.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
3. Bake till crust is golden brown and set and filling is beginning to bubble, 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool fully in pan on a wire rack. Take away from pan. Mud with confectioners’ sugar as desired simply earlier than serving.