Linzer Torte

Method

1. 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.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, salt and lemon zest together, then stir in the ground hazelnuts.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Brush the lattice with the beaten egg.
7. 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.

1. Toast the hazelnuts as in the hand method, then let cool.
2. Hazelnuts into the dry bowl. Grind 8 sec / speed 8, stopping before they turn oily and clump.
3. 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.