Linzeraugen (gluten free, vegan, soy free, nut free, opt. refined sugar free)

Linzeraugen

Okay so this one is for all my friends with a sweet, fruity tooth. I used to hate Linzeraugen when I was a kid. The jam inside of cookies was just not my thing. I loved Gingerbread, Chocolate dipped cookies, Vanillekipferl, Spekulatius cookies and pretty much every other cookie who hasn't seen jam or marmelade in its life. (Okay that is a lie, I didn't like those coffee cookies either!)

But things change and now I am actually in love. I haven't had proper Christmas cookies for about two years before I decided to make my own vegan and gluten free ones. Last year they were a success, so I made them again and here we are, success again!

Had I known it was that easy and not entirely impossible to make vegan and gluten free cookies without nuts, I would have made them earlier.

It's kind of a little bit of a shame, that so many gluten free products, especially here in middle Europe, have eggs and dairy to bind the product (instead of the gluten). I mean, it's good if you try to loose weight, as you simply won't find a cookie to eat, so you won't eat it, but as that's not the case for me, I am even more happ to be able to enjoy my own perfect Christmas cookies!

I hope you like them as much as I do, and if you bake them, make sure to tag me on Instagram, so that I can see them!

(gluten free, vegan, nut free, soy free, optional: refined sugar free)

Linzeraugen

Serves: 1 1/2 baking trays
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Rest time: 2 hours
Total time: around 3 hours

Ingredients

• 150g gluten free flour blend (I used the one by Schär) or Buckwheat flour
• 50g white rice flour (add more if your dough is too runny. The original recipe called for a sum of 250g flour. I found 200g worked well.)
• 100g coconut sugar (you can use any solid sugar you like)
• 125g vegan margarine (You may be able to sub for coconut oil but I can't promise a safe product with this)
• juice of 1/4 lemon
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp ground flax seeds + 3 tbsp water
• jam of choice (I used wild berry jam. Apricot jam is amazing as well.)

For decoration: powdered sugar (you can dip the ends in melted chocolate instead of covering it in sugar - but then it's not a Vanillekipferl anymore)

Instructions

• make your flax egg, set aside
• combine the rest of the ingredients, add the flax egg
• make a dough, cover it (or wrap it in plastic foil) and let it rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours
• preheat your oven to 180°C
• pop the dough out of the fridge and divide it in 2 parts - pop one back into the fridge
• roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter for 'Linzeraugen' (it has the option to remove a part so that it can cut out both a normal cookie, as well as a cookie with one or more holes)
• cut out your cookies and put them into the oven for around 15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies.
• When the edges turn a little brown, they're ready
• do the same thing with the other half of the dough, except this time, use the other setting of your cookie cutter
• Let cool and cover the upper part (so the one with the holes) in powdered sugar
• put some jam of choice on top of the lower part (not too much, otherwise it will overflow at the edges)
• Pop your upper part on top and let them cool before serving

Tip: If you don't have a cutter like that, you can easily use a straw or smaller cookie cutter to make the holes into your cookies!