This is a wonderfully spiced almond pastry filled with an enhanced raspberry jam. It's simple and delicious. The dough and the whole baked tart can be made ahead and frozen. A great addition to the holiday table, for Valentine's day, or just because.
Tart or torte
I'm all in for spices and berries, so this almond raspberry Linzer torte (also known as linzer tart) hit the mark quickly.
The spiced pastry is the star of this recipe and is used for the bottom and top of the tart. It's full of ground almonds, spices and ground graham crackers as an ingredient.
The addition of nuts to a dough always brings more to the table than what I'm expecting: a toasty flavor and unique texture. These are cousins to these Linzer cookies or the very popular Scandinavian jam tarts.
The original Viennese Linzertorte (named after the city of Linz in Austria) is a cake, but the tart and cookie versions are more festive.
The raspberry filling, especially when homemade, is tangy but sweet and perfect with the spices and aromas from the oven.
- Flavor: this torte has great holiday spice flavors and a slightly tangy filling that are fantastic!
- Easy: the spiced dough comes together quickly in the food processor.
- Yield: Depending on how you cut it, you can serve it as a dessert or as a little something with your coffee or mulled wine. You can also make cookies from the leftover dough.
- Make ahead: You can freeze the dough for up to a month, either before or after rolling, and freeze the whole torte after it's baked.
- Variations: you can adjust the spices and filling to your taste.
Ingredient Notes
Quantities are listed in the recipe card towards the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands we use.
- Graham cracker crumbs: You need fine crumbs, so using a food processor is the best choice. Use store-bought or make graham crackers from scratch.
- Cinnamon is the main spice in this recipe. I like Vietnamese cinnamon, but any ground cinnamon you like works fine.
- Other spices: I add ground nutmeg and allspice, but adjust or adapt to your palate.
- Almonds: Use natural almonds (not honey-roasted, previously toasted, or salted). They will toast as the dough bakes.
- Lemon zest: it adds some acidity and balances out the richness of the other ingredients.
- Raspberry preserves: the best brand you can afford. A little is added to the raspberry mixture, but you can use it for the filling if you don't have time to make it from scratch (as explained in the recipe card at the end of this post).
- Raspberries: fresh or frozen.
- Sugar: white or brown sugar, both work. The latter adds a caramel tone.
Variations & substitutions
- Other jams: Use other flavors, such as apricot, mixed berries, tart cherries, or plum. Fruits with some acidity are better than overly sweet ones like strawberries.
- Nuts: almonds are traditional, but you can make this Linzer torte with hazelnuts.
- Boozy: add a tablespoon or two of liquor (Amaretto, Frangelico, brandy, or cognac) to the filling.
- Spices: I love the combination in the recipe, but you can use only ground cinnamon (a good one), which will also be a great dessert.
- Flavorings: we use vanilla and almond extract (that you can omit) with lemon zest, but orange zest also works.
How to make the spiced dough
- Use a food processor. It's the easiest way because you can quickly grind the almonds and the graham cracker crumbs and then add the rest of the ingredients, including spices and lemon zest, to the same bowl.
- After adding the butter, you will have a soft and creamy mixture similar to almond cream or frangipane.
- After adding the dry ingredients, pulse to mix well, but do not form them into a ball.
- When you dump the spiced dough mixture onto a clean surface, there might be dry spots, and that's fine.
Forming the dough
- Gather the mixture until you form a dough, turning it onto itself several times until you have a solid pastry round with no flour patches. It will come together but be somewhat crumbly.
- Cover well in plastic wrap (I use freezer sheets) and refrigerate as directed in the recipe.
Vintage Kitchen Tip
After incorporating flour in a pie dough, we don't want to develop gluten as it will toughen after it's baked. So mix *just* until it's all well incorporated, but don't overdo it.
The filling
I hoard frozen raspberries year-round—lots of pounds—so I usually make homemade raspberry fillings and sauces.
That said, you can use store-bought raspberry jam. The better the jam, the better the Linzer tart.
- Thicker filling: For this torte, you need a thicker filling to cut the tart without creating a pool of raspberries. To achieve that, I mix the best raspberry marmalade I can afford with real berries, which gives it the right amount of tang and sturdiness.
- How sweet should it be? This is really up to you and your level of sweetness. I like it more acid than not, especially with such a rich buttery pastry. So feel free to adjust the sugar and lemon juice to your taste.
Mix
It's one-step where you mix the ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook them over medium heat.
Cook
The berries will release juice and break up. Don't let the liquid evaporate too much so the filling is not too thick. You'll be adding some jam that will thicken it.
Assembling the tart (video)
After you make the spiced dough, assembling the torte is quite simple.
You have to divide the crust and use ⅔ for the bottom part and ⅓ for the lattice crust or cutouts.
Top dough
The lattice is the traditional way of making a Linzer torte.
But really, it can be whatever you want it to be. Don't corner yourself with crisscross stripes (image below). You can cut out shapes and distribute them on top as I do.
Lattice crust
It's the traditional way of making the top of a Linzer torte.
Roll out the pastry and cut strips of dough using a pastry wheel or a pizza cutter. Starting in the middle, place a long strip and pinch the ends where they meet the bottom crust. Repeat with the rest until you have a criss-cross pattern.
Cut-outs
Don't corner yourself with crisscross stripes (image above). You can cut out shapes as I did with stars for this post.
You can use any cut-out shape you want. The pastry will hold its shape after it's baked, so it's a great way to make it more festive.
- Starts: they are great for Christmas and the 4th of July (you can also add blueberries to the filling).
- Hearts: it's a great Valentine's Day dessert if you make it with heart cut-outs.
Kitchen notes
- Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, equipment, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier.
- Baking time: keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look the same or very similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as possible, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer (like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend tracking how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
- Spiced pastry: Don't overwork the dough. The food processor is a handy tool for making it easier, but don't process it much after you add the flour, as this will make it tougher.
- Cookie crumbs: Instead of graham crackers, you can use dry fine breadcrumbs or plain vanilla wafers and a little more cinnamon to match the graham cracker flavor.
- Make ahead: it can be kept in the refrigerator for a week or frozen for a month (defrost in the fridge first). In both cases, wrap it well.
- They travel pretty well, so you can ship them. Wrap them well (individual cookies or the tart cut into squares and wrapped individually) and pack them tight without piling them up. If the package has one or more layers of squares or cookies, I like to divide them with bubble wrap.
The spiced dough in this recipe makes great cookies.
Roll and cut with the form you want. Bake for 10-12 minutes in a 350°F/180°C oven until dry and starting to color.
Store in a cookie jar or metal tin.
Related recipes you might like:
One last thing
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Linzer Torte (or Tart)
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Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 ½ cups whole almonds
- 7 tablespoons graham crackers crumbs or fine dry breadcrumbs, scant ½ cup
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest, or a mix of both, loosely packed
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 egg
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
For the filling:
- ½ cup raspberry preserves, the best quality you can afford
- 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
OR
- 1 ¼ cups good raspberry preserves or jam, instead of the filling ingredients above
Instructions
For the spiced dough:
- Put 1 ½ cups whole almonds in the bowl of a food processor and process until they are medium to finely ground. You can also transfer them to a bowl and use an electric mixer at the lowest speed to continue mixing the dough.
- Add 7 tablespoons graham crackers crumbs or fine dry breadcrumbs, ⅔ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, pinch of ground nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice and 1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest. Pulse a few times to mix.
- Scatter 1 cup unsalted butter in pieces and pulse until it starts to come together. It doesn't matter if there are small pieces of butter here and there.
- Add 1 egg and ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract and continue to pulse on/off until it comes together, but short of forming a ball.
- Finally, add 2 cups all-purpose flour in 2 parts, processing lightly until it starts to come together. Scrape the sides of the bowl before adding the last part of the flour so that you gather any that is at the bottom and can't be reached by the metal blades, and pulse just until it starts coming together. Don't overwork it. The pastry will look dry and not form a ball.
- Transfer this shaggy mass to a clean surface or counter and gather together with your hands until you have a smooth round of pastry with no dry patches. Don't knead it but make sure all the flour is incorporated.
- Wrap with plastic wrap or parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
For the filling:
- Put 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries with 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice in a small saucepan.
- Cook at low/medium until the raspberries are crushed and the mixture has lost some of its liquid (especially important if you use frozen berries), about 5 minutes.
- Mix with ½ cup raspberry preserves and let cool completely before using.
For the assembly:
- Have ready a 9-inch square or round tart pan with a removable bottom.
- Divide the dough into two parts: ⅓ and ⅔. Keep the smaller part refrigerated, wrapped while you work with the larger part.
- Roll the large piece of dough on a lightly floured surface until you have a rough square a few inches larger than the pan. The dough is crumbly and if it tears as you roll it out simply patch it together. Make sure you make ¼ turns and flip it if you can to make sure it's not sticking to the surface. Lightly flour surface and rolling pin as needed.
- Transfer the dough to the pan without stretching it. If it tears, just pat it together with your fingers. It's crumbly, so most of the time you'll be able to transfer a large piece and then have to patch the rest. That's fine.
- Line the whole pan, bottom, and sides with dough, making sure the angles and corners are covered. With the rolling pin, a cornet, or a knife, level the rim by removing the excess dough.
- Prick the bottom with a fork and transfer the unbaked tart shell to the freezer for 30 minutes (or the fridge for 1 hour) before baking. You don't need to wrap it unless you want to freeze it at this point.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) about fifteen minutes before baking.
- Roll the remaining dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut out stars or your favorite cookie shape, or cut strips (I use a pizza cutter) to make a lattice.
- Spread the cold raspberry filling on the bottom of the cold unbaked dough you just took out from the freezer. Top with the cutouts, leaving space in between them; don't cover the jam completely.
- If making a lattice, starting in the middle, carefully lay the longer strips first over the filling, going from side to side to form a crisscross pattern. Repeat with the rest of the strips leaving some space between them. Pinch the dough strips with the crust at the edges to seal.
- Bake the tart for about 30 minutes, until the top is browned and dry and the filling starts to bubble.
- Let cool on a wire rack for fifteen minutes or so, and make sure no jam is stuck to the sides, as it will harden as the tart cools. Let cool completely before removing it altogether.
- Dust lightly with powdered sugar if you want before serving.
David says
Amazing recipe
Cara says
My gosh, this was honestly one of the best desserts I've ever made at home! We ate half the tart in one sitting. I'm not a huge fan of pie, but the spices in the dough blended perfectly with the raspberry. This recipe will easily become a Christmas tradition in my family - thank you for sharing!
One thing - you don't actually include vanilla in the recipe, but it's in the steps. I looked at other recipes and saw most included 1 teaspoon of vanilla so that's what I went with, but you might want to add vanilla to the ingredient list 🙂
Paula Montenegro says
Thanks for letting me know Cara, about the vanilla and how much you like it! Yes, it's among my favorites also, and not just for Christmas haha. Happy holidays!
Judee says
Wow!These Linzer tortes look exceptional. I can only imagine how good they taste. thank you for the step by step and the recipe.
Paula Montenegro says
Happy you like it Judee!
angiesrecipes says
You are an amazing baker, Paula. The linzer tart with stars looks so festive and tempting.
Paula Montenegro says
Thank you Angie!