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Love linzer tarts but not the work involved in making them? Here’s linzer tart bars.
Linzer Tarts Made Easy
Linzer tarts are one of my favorite cookies and I often make them for the holidays.
However, they are fussy and time consuming to make which is why I limit myself to making the real deal only at holiday times.
Then I found out I could enjoy these wonderfully flavored cookies more often and without all the work since these are easy bar cookies!
I got this recipe from someone who posts in a cooking group I belong to. The members there are all seasoned home cooks and if one of them says something is good, then it is.
And these linzer tart bars sure are!
Jam
The traditional jam to use in linzer tarts is raspberry, so I kept to that. However, it will taste good with anything you use so don’t buy anything special.
The only thing I would advise if you are not using raspberry for the filling is to omit the almond extract. Where almond pairs wonderfully with raspberry, it doesn’t seem to pair well with other standard fruit flavors. Of course, that’s just my opinion and if you like it, use it!
Now, if you do use raspberry, go for the seedless variety jam. Those seeds are something else if they get caught in dental work–I used to think this was funny; until I got some of my own “dental work.” So it safest to go seedless.
Use Butter
While it might be tempting from an economy standpoint to substitute in this recipe, it will only work–and taste good–with butter.
Butter is where they primary flavor for these linzer bars comes from. Plus they need to solidify after they cool. Using margarine, or worse yet, “spreads,” result in an oily cookie that may not even set up; especially the spreads because they contain a lot more water than margarine or butter.
The Recipe
Linzer Tart Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1-1/2 cup butter room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
Filling
- 1 1/2 cups raspberry preserves seedless preferred
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Lightly spray bottom and sides of a 9-inch/23cm
- In a large bowl, stir together all ingredients except preserves and almond extract until combined.
- Reserve 1/2 of the mixture for topping. Press mixture into prepared pan.
- Bake 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile microwave the preserves and almond extract in the microwave for 1 minute.
- Stir until completely combined.
- Take out bottom layer out of the oven.
- Spread with preserves and sprinkle with crumb mixture.
- Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely.
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