Currently cooking out of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich.

Linzer tortes are a favorite Austrian or German holiday pastry. In it’s classic configuration, a buttery, almond-based dough sandwiches raspberry jam. I haven’t tried many linzer tortes (there are also cookie variations), so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. It had two things I don’t like very much: cloves and raspberry jam.

I generally find the flavor of cloves to be overwhelming, even in small amounts, and I’m prejudiced when it comes to baking with raspberry jam. I like my raspberry jam on toast, and that’s about it (actually, that goes for all jams or jellies, not just raspberry). Baking with jams and/or jellies seems like cheating to me (yeah, I’m weird. I know).

So, back to Medrich’s recipe. The dough came together pretty easily, using a food processor. I would have liked more descriptions on what the dough is supposed to look and feel like. Her directions say to pulse just until the almonds, flour, sugar, egg yolk and butter are blended. When I did that, though, the dough was still extremely crumbly. I continued pulsing until the dough came together in a ball. At that point, it was too soft to manipulate, so I let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes, to firm up, even though Medrich’s directions don’t say that.

Rolling the dough for the lattice was an exercise in patience. Even though I had chilled the dough, it was still extremely tender and sticky. Per Medrich’s instructions, I made sure to grease the fluted tart pan really well. As the torte baked, it smelled amazing and turned out looking quite pretty. Despite the careful greasing, it did stick a bit in the pan. I also ended up with a pool of butter underneath the torte.

Surprisingly, I mostly liked the torte, especially the edges where the dough carmalized a bit. The spices in the dough give it an almost peppery bite that goes nicely with the raspberry jam. Both Bryan and I thought there was too much jam in the center and that it made the torte too sweet. If I try the torte again, I’ll cut down on the amount of jam. I might also considering doing a version with something like nutella or maybe even lemon curd.

Currently cooking out of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich.

In the headnotes to this recipe, Medrich warns that these bars are tangy, and boy, is she right! These aren’t for those people who just want a hint of lemony sweetness.

At first, I was skeptical about whether or not I’d like these bars. I tasted the lemon filling before I baked it and it didn’t seem all that lemony to me. In fact, I thought it was almost overwhelmingly sweet. Instead of adding more lemon juice, I decided to go ahead and bake the bars as they were, trusting Medrich. She was right.

The recipe called for an 8×8 square pan, but I used a 9×9 square pan instead. My lemon bars ended up on the slim side, but they still packed a lemony wallop. The only other change I made to the recipes was to use the juice of two lemons and a lime, along with the zest, instead of all lemons or limes. In the finished product, I couldn’t really taste the lime. 

The bars sliced cleanly, even though I didn’t take the time to refrigerate them. I’d imagine that after a day or so, the crust might begin to soften, but I can’t say for sure. They didn’t last that long.