Linzer torte
The oldest surviving Linzertorte recipe comes from a manuscript dated 1653, which is why it is reputed to be one of the oldest cakes known by name. The pastry carries as much ground nut as flour, which makes it soft, rich and practically impossible to roll when warm — so it chills for an hour and a half, and the lattice strips are cut from pastry as cold as stone and moved on a knife blade.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Nut pastry 20 min
- Chilling 90 min
- Building the lattice 20 min
- Baking 45 min
- Cooling 25 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneToast and grind the hazelnuts
Toast the nuts for 10 minutes at 170°C, rub off the skins and grind. Toasting is not optional — raw nuts give the pastry a flat, faintly green taste, and the nuts are meant to carry the whole character of this bake.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 g ground almonds · 100 g hazelnuts · 220 g butter · 130 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 1 tsp cinnamon · ¼ tsp cloves · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Mix briefly and chill for ninety minutes
Rub the cold butter into the flour, ground almonds, hazelnuts, sugar, spices, salt and grated lemon zest, add the egg and yolk and gather into a ball without kneading. Set a third aside for the lattice. Chill both pieces for 90 minutes — nut pastry is unmanageable when warm.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 g ground almonds · 100 g hazelnuts · 220 g butter · 130 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 1 tsp cinnamon · ¼ tsp cloves · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Dark and speckled — the nuts show in the pastry.Line the tin and raise the rim
Roll the larger piece between two sheets of paper and line a 24 cm tin, raising the rim to 2 cm. A high rim holds the jam, which turns liquid during baking and looks for a way out.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 g ground almonds · 100 g hazelnuts · 220 g butter · 130 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 1 tsp cinnamon · ¼ tsp cloves · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Spread the jam with lemon juice
Mix the jam with the lemon juice and spread it evenly. A sharp jam is mandatory here — pastry this rich in butter and nuts turns cloying under a sweet one.
Ingredients: 350 g redcurrant jam · ½ pcs lemon
Cut strips and lay a diagonal lattice
Roll the remaining pastry to 4 mm and cut 1.5 cm strips. Move them on a knife blade — this soft pastry tears between fingers. Lay the lattice on the diagonal, six strips one way and six the other.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 g ground almonds · 100 g hazelnuts · 220 g butter · 130 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 1 tsp cinnamon · ¼ tsp cloves · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Strips moved on a knife, not in your fingers.Seal the strip ends with a rope of pastry
Roll the scraps into a thin rope and lay it around the rim, pressing the strip ends down. This is not decoration — without it the strips pull away from the rim during baking and the lattice slides apart. Brush with yolk.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 g ground almonds · 100 g hazelnuts · 220 g butter · 130 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 1 tsp cinnamon · ¼ tsp cloves · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
The rope presses the strip ends onto the rim.Bake 45 minutes at 180°C
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, until the pastry is deep gold and the jam bubbles in the lattice gaps. Nut pastry darkens faster than plain shortcrust — watch the last ten minutes.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 g ground almonds · 100 g hazelnuts · 220 g butter · 130 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 1 tsp cinnamon · ¼ tsp cloves · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Cool, and ideally wait a day
Cool for 25 minutes in the tin, then unmould and cool completely on a rack. You can cut it then, but it is best left covered for a day: moisture from the jam moves into the pastry, the spices meld, and on the second day it tastes fuller. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg yolk · 20 g icing sugar
Before you start
It keeps two weeks
This cake keeps well: the short, fairly dry pastry and the thick, sweet jam stay fresh for a long time. In a tin somewhere cool it is good for up to two weeks, and it still improves over the first few days.
Jam, not jelly
You need a thick, sharp preserve with a high fruit content. A runny jam escapes through the lattice and burns at the rim. If yours is loose, reduce it for 10 minutes and cool it first.
Changing the nuts
Hazelnuts or almonds are classic, but walnuts give a more interesting, faintly bitter version. Do not change the proportion — ground nuts are half the dry ingredients here and the whole structure rests on them.
