This recipe is part of my annual Christmas cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza!
Tell Me About These Caramel Hazelnut Linzer Cookies
Flavor: Enjoy nutty cinnamon-spiced cookies with sweet and slightly salty caramel. The cookies themselves aren’t overly sugary, so there’s plenty of room for a spoonful of caramel. Interestingly, a few taste testers noted the flavor of butterscotch. With brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and caramel, it’s easy to understand why! Texture: Right out of the oven, these hazelnut cookies are soft with slightly crisp edges. After sandwiching with caramel, they soften even more. The magic happens on day 2 when the caramel settles into the cookies making the whole sandwich tender and deliciously crumbly. Without question—and this isn’t the case with most desserts—these cookies taste BEST when made ahead of time. Ease: This is an intermediate baking recipe because there are several steps and precise shaping involved. I recommend trying these caramel hazelnut linzer cookies if you’re looking for a fun baking project or an elevated addition to your lineup of Christmas cookies that goes beyond the traditional sugar cookie. Time: Like most shaped/cookie cutter recipes, this buttery cookie dough requires refrigeration. The dough is soft and sticky after it comes together, so divide it in half, wrap up tightly, and chill for at least 3 hours before you break out the rolling pin. If you want to save time, consider whipping up a batch of dough up to 4 days in advance or freezing the dough for up to 3 months.
4 Success Tips for These Linzer-Style Cookies
In Pictures: How to Make Caramel Hazelnut Linzer Cookies
Today’s cookies are similar to my raspberry pistachio linzer cookies, cherry almond linzer cookies, and the linzer cookie recipe in my cookbook. There are 3 parts to the dough: After the dough comes together, divide it in half so you have smaller portions of dough for the rolling-out step. (Tip: It’s easier to work with smaller portions.) Flatten into discs, wrap tightly, and chill in the refrigerator. Once the dough has chilled and solidified, it’s time to roll it out and cut into shapes.
Cookie Cutters to Use
Today’s hazelnut cookies can be cut into any shape, such as a circle or scallop-edge square as pictured. I love seeing the caramel center peeking out the top of the cookie sandwich and if you do too, make sure you have a smaller cookie cutter to cut a hole in the top cookies. Use a 2 or 2.5 inch cutter for the cookies and a smaller 1-inch cutter for the hole. This circle set has those sizes (I use circle cutters for these similar chocolate gingerbread sandwich cookies). For the pictured cookies, I use the 2.5-inch fluted square from this set and the small star from this set. You could also manually cut a circle or other shape in the top cookies using a sharp knife—or just skip the top cookie having a hole. All the cookies will be cut with the larger cookie cutter, but only HALF will be cut again with a hole in the center cookie. Bake the cookies until lightly browned around the edges. The bake time is usually about 10-13 minutes, but that depends on the size of your cookies. Once cooled, dust the top cookies with confectioners’ sugar and sandwich with thickened caramel. The confectioners’ sugar is completely optional, but it does add a lovely finishing touch.
Caramel Filling
Right off the stove, your caramel filling is thin and liquid. As it cools, it thickens into the consistency you see pictured above. The salted caramel is a recipe that’s been on my website for years. In the printable cookie recipe below, you’ll see that I reduce the salt down to 1/2 teaspoon to make a sweeter caramel. Salty or sweet, the caramel is extremely versatile and you can make it again for apple pie bars, banana cupcakes, and butterscotch pudding. (By the way, here are 50+ ways to enjoy the salted caramel!)
Instead of caramel, try dulce de leche, Nutella, or your favorite flavor jam.
What a cookie!! This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
Snowball Cookies Gingerbread Cookies Snickerdoodles Peppermint Mocha Cookies Peanut Butter & Jam Thumbprints
and here’s my video tutorial & guide for how to freeze cookie dough.
