Linzer Torte
The Austrian original, a spiced hazelnut pastry rather than a plain shortcrust, filled with tart redcurrant jam and finished with the traditional woven lattice rather than a solid top. It is a pastry dish before it is a jam dish; the dough is what makes it a Linzer Torte and not just a jam tart.
Prep40 min
Cook35 min
Rest60 min
Oven175°C
Servings12
Christoph's Linzer Torte, kept to the Austrian original with a properly spiced hazelnut pastry rather than treating it as a plain jam tart.
Ingredients
Written for a 24 cm round tin
Units
Temperature
Servings
Pastry
- 150 g whole hazelnuts rounded
- 200 g flour rounded
- 130 g sugar rounded
- 3 g ground cinnamon rounded
- 1 g ground cloves rounded
- 1 g fine salt rounded
- 1 lemon, zest only rounded
- 180 g cold butter, cubed rounded
- 2 egg yolks rounded
- 10 ml rum (optional) rounded
Filling and glaze
- 350 g redcurrant jam rounded
- 1 egg, beaten, for glazing rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan or a 160°C oven for 8 minutes, until fragrant, then let cool and grind finely in a food processor, stopping before they turn to paste.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, salt and lemon zest together, then stir in the ground hazelnuts.
- Rub the cold butter into the mixture until it looks like coarse crumbs, then work in the egg yolks and rum, if using, just until a dough forms. Shape into a disc, wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour; the dough is very short and needs to firm up to be workable.
- Press two-thirds of the dough into the base and up the sides of a 24 cm tart tin. Roll the remaining third between baking paper and cut into strips about 1.5 cm wide, then chill everything for 10 minutes.
- Spread the jam evenly over the base, then weave the pastry strips over the top in a lattice pattern, pressing the ends into the edge of the crust.
- Brush the lattice with the beaten egg.
- Bake at 175°C for 30 to 35 minutes, until the lattice is deep golden and firm. Cool completely in the tin before releasing; it slices best the next day once the jam has had time to set.
Method in the Thermomix
Written for a TM5 or TM6, 2.2 litre bowl. This covers grinding the hazelnuts; the pastry and baking are the same as the hand method.
- Toast the hazelnuts as in the hand method, then let cool.
- Hazelnuts into the dry bowl. Grind 8 sec / speed 8, stopping before they turn oily and clump.
- Continue mixing the pastry by hand or with a stand mixer, folding the ground hazelnuts through as in the hand method; the dough is too stiff for the machine’s blades once the butter is worked in.
Notes
- The dough is genuinely fragile before it has chilled. Do not skip the rest; a warm Linzer dough tears rather than rolling into clean lattice strips.
- Redcurrant is the traditional filling because its sharpness cuts through the rich, spiced pastry; a sweeter jam makes the whole tart taste one-note.
- This is better on day two. The jam settles and the pastry’s spice comes forward once it has had a day to sit, which is unusual for a baked good but typical for a Linzer Torte specifically.
- It keeps for 5 days at room temperature, loosely covered, and does not need refrigeration.
Ingredient substitutions
- Redcurrant jam can be raspberry jam, though the result is sweeter and less classically Austrian.
- Hazelnuts can be almonds, ground the same way, for a milder, less resinous pastry.
- Rum can be left out entirely; it adds a background note but is not essential to the structure.
- Ground cloves can be halved or left out for a milder spice profile if the classic amount tastes too assertive.
From Christoph Mayer