Spitzbuben (Jam Window Cookies)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Rolling pin
• •Fluted round cookie cutter (5-6cm)
• •Small decorative cookie cutter for windows (2cm, any shape)
• •Two baking sheets
• •Parchment paper
• •Fine-mesh sieve (for straining jam)
• •Small saucepan

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dough

   Combine the flour, ground almonds, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter cubes and rub them in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse sand. You want flat little flakes of butter worked through the flour, not a smooth paste. This is what gives the baked cookies their tender, crumbly snap. Add the powdered sugar, Vanillezucker, egg yolk, and lemon zest. Bring the dough together with your hands, pressing until it just holds. Don't knead it. The moment it forms a cohesive ball, stop.

   Cold butter is not a suggestion. If your butter is soft, the dough turns greasy and sticky, the cookies spread in the oven, and the cutouts lose their shape. If your kitchen is warm, cube the butter and put it back in the fridge for ten minutes before you start.
2. 2

   Chill the dough

   Flatten the dough into two discs, wrap each one in cling film, and refrigerate for at least one hour. The dough needs to firm up completely. If you try to roll it too soon, it will stick to everything and you'll lose your temper and your cutout shapes. Patience here saves you frustration later.

   Youcan make the dough a day ahead. It keeps beautifully in the fridge overnight and actually rolls more cleanly the next day.
3. 3

   Roll and cut the bases

   Preheat your oven to 170°C (340°F) fan, or 180°C (350°F) conventional. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Take one disc of dough from the fridge and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about three millimeters thick. Thin enough to be delicate, thick enough to hold together when you pick them up. Cut rounds using a 5 to 6 centimeter fluted cutter. These are your bottom cookies, the solid bases. Transfer them to your lined baking sheet, spacing them a centimeter apart. They barely spread.

4. 4

   Cut the window tops

   Roll out the second disc the same way. Cut the same number of rounds, then use a small cutter (a heart, star, circle, or diamond, about 2 centimeters) to stamp a window out of the center of each one. This is where every child in the kitchen gets involved. The shapes don't need to be perfect. Slightly wonky cutouts have more charm than precision-stamped ones. Gather the scraps gently, press them together without kneading, chill for fifteen minutes, and re-roll for a few more cookies.

5. 5

   Bake the cookies

   Bake both the solid bases and the window tops for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges just begin to turn pale gold. The centers will still look slightly underdone. That's correct. These cookies set firm as they cool and overbaking turns them dry and crumbly instead of tender and sandy. The almond in the dough means they color faster than plain shortbread, so watch them. Pull them the moment you see gold at the edges and let them cool completely on the baking sheets. They're fragile when warm.

6. 6

   Prepare the jam

   Warm the jam in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until it loosens. If it's a preserve with fruit pieces, press it through a fine sieve. You want a smooth, glossy jam that spreads evenly without lumps catching on the delicate cookie. Gretel always said the jam should be warm enough to flow but not hot enough to melt the butter in the cookie. She was fussy about this and she was right.

7. 7

   Dust and assemble

   Dust all the window tops generously with powdered sugar while they're still separate. Do this before assembly. If you dust after you've sandwiched them, the sugar lands on the jam and dissolves into a sticky mess. Spread a thin, even layer of warm jam on each solid base, about half a teaspoon per cookie. Press a sugared window top gently on top. The jam will glow through the cutout like a tiny stained glass window. Let the assembled cookies sit for at least an hour so the jam firms up before you stack them. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Use real Vanillezucker, not vanilla extract. Austrian baking depends on it. Buy it or make your own by burying a split vanilla pod in a jar of caster sugar for a week. The flavor is rounder and warmer than liquid extract, and it dissolves cleanly into the dough.
• •Redcurrant jam (Ribiselmarmelade) is the classic filling. Its tartness cuts through the rich, buttery dough perfectly. Apricot jam (Marillenmarmelade) is the other traditional choice, a little sweeter, a little more golden. Use whichever you love, but buy the best quality you can find. The jam is doing half the work in these cookies.
• •Don't overwork the scraps. Each time you re-roll, the dough gets tougher. Press the scraps together gently, chill them, and accept that the last few cookies won't be quite as tender as the first. That's fine. They'll disappear just as fast.
• •Store the assembled Spitzbuben in a single layer in a tin with parchment between layers. They keep for two weeks in a cool place, which is why they're perfect for the Weihnachtsbäckerei tradition of baking weeks before Christmas. The flavors actually deepen after a day or two.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made up to two days ahead and refrigerated, or frozen for up to one month. Thaw overnight in the fridge before rolling.
• •Unbaked cut cookies can be frozen on baking sheets, then transferred to bags. Bake from frozen, adding one to two minutes to the baking time.
• •Assembled Spitzbuben keep for two weeks in an airtight tin at cool room temperature. They taste even better after a day or two as the jam softens into the cookie.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 30g)