Name: Vegan Linzer Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 100 min
Ingredients: 300 g flour; 50 g nuts (ground); 100 g powdered sugar; 200 g vegan butter (room temperature); lemon zest; red currant jam; rum (optional); powdered sugar

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“Linzer Augen” are one of Austria’s most popular Christmas cookies. These jam-filled cookies are known as Linzer cookies in English and are super soft and crumbly. This vegan Linzer cookies recipe is easy to make with only six ingredients, well, seven if you count the jam in the middle. You can make them in different shapes and sizes and with their jam filling, they add a beautiful colour splash to every vegan Christmas cookie plate.

They get their name Linzer Augen – “eyes from Linz” from the town where they were invented and because the jam-filled holes kind of look like eyes. Traditionally, they are round but I love making different shapes. My favourite shape for vegan Linzer Cookies is a star.

Plate with Linzer Cookies — Linzer Cookies filled with red currant jam

To have the full Austrian Christmas experience on your holiday in Austria you can for food in one of the many vegan restaurants in Vienna before you stroll through the most beautiful vegan-friendly Christmas markets in Vienna. And afterwards, you can go back to your apartment to bake some delicious Christmas cookies. and to warm up with a hot cup of hot tea.

Table of Contents

Ingredients for vegan Linzer Cookies

I love recipes with a short and easy-to-get ingredient list. If you do as well, this recipe is perfect for you. For the cookie dough, you only need flour, vanilla sugar, powdered sugar, vegan butter, nuts and the zest of one lemon. The lemon zest gives the vegan Linzeraugen a great fresh kick. You can use any ground nuts you like, I used ground hazelnuts since I still had some leftovers from my vegan Vanillekipferl recipe. More common, however, is to use ground almonds.

Traditionally the Linzer cookies are filled with red currant jam. Red currant jam is a bit sourer than other jams, so the jam and the sweet cookie complement each other perfectly. But maybe I’m a bit biased because that’s the way I know the Linzer cookies from my childhood. You’re welcome to try it with any jam of your preference.

Step by step instructions

This vegan Linzer cookie recipe is super easy to put together, you don’t even need a bowl or a blender.

Place all ingredients on the clean kitchen counter or table.
Add the vegan butter and cut it into smaller bits.
Mix the dough together with your hands until there are no clumps of butter left.
Refrigerate the cookie dough for at least one hour. This step is very important so it’s easier to roll out the dough and that the cookies stay in shape.
Put some flour on the clean kitchen counter and roll out about half the dough and leave the other half in the fridge in the meantime. If you don’t have a rolling pin you can simply use a clean bottle. Dust the rolling pin so the cookie dough doesn’t stick to it.
Cut out the cookies and mash together the leftover dough. If the dough is already too warm place it in the fridge and use the dough from the fridge first to make the next cookies.
After the cookies are baked they need to cool down completely before you can add the jam. Once they’re cooled out, place the jam on the bottom side of a cookie without a hole. Don’t add too much jam though otherwise, it will spill out on the side. It’s best to try putting one cookie together after the other at the beginning to get a hang of it. Afterwards, it’s quicker if you add the jam on every bottom and then place the tops on top.
To finish the cookies you can sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

Which cookie cutter to use?

I remember my grandma used to love those cookies and she baked a lot of them during the holiday season. She even had a special cookie cutter just for her Linzer Augen, which already had the holes in the middle included. Since I don’t have one of those, and I assume you don’t either, you can easily improvise.

You can use any cookie cutter which isn’t too small or too delicate. I went with stars and smaller flower shapes. And for the holes, I used a bamboo straw. You can also use a smaller cookie cutter if you have a small enough one, or any small shapes. It’s important that the holes are not too close to the edge of the cookie otherwise the thin cookie part will burn.

One more tip for cutting the cookies: In case the cookie cutter starts to stick to the cookie dough, just dust it with some flour.

Cut out vegan Linzer cookies — Make sure you have the same number of cookies with and without holes

How to store vegan Linzer cookies

The vegan Linzer cookies are best stored in an air-tight cookie jar. In Austria you use special tin Christmas cookie jars but you can use any other container as well. The cookies last for weeks, although they do change their consistency a bit over time. The fresh cookies are crunchy and crumbly. If the cookies are stored some time they absorb a bit of the jam and become softer. The taste, however, doesn’t change and it’s up to your preference if you like the crunchy or softer version better.

If you serve previously stored cookies I recommend sprinkling some fresh powdered sugar on top to make them look like new.