Easy Gluten Free Linzer Cookies

As someone who has eaten gluten free for the past 17 years, I love a good cookie. I have always wanted to create easy gluten free linzer cookies but ironically, they seemed hard. To my surprise, our gluten free sugar cookies base was the perfect starting place for these buttery, almond jam filled treats. The dough comes together in minutes and the sandwiching step is so simple that even little hands can help. Mine did and they turned out great!

Cookies are probably one of my favorite desserts! I just love the simplicity and buttery texture of nearly every cookie I have ever had. Our gluten free shortbread and gluten free danish butter cookies are two simple delicacies that are just as good as these.

Now that I am dairy free though, I ALWAYS test my recipes to make sure they not only work with dairy free ingredients but taste amazing too. These and the other cookies mentioned all work great with dairy free butter which is a bit surprising as they are butter heavy.

Ok, here is why we love them

• Bakery worthy - These cookies look like a gourmet gluten free bakery style cookie but are so easy to make. They are great to take to a party or gathering because they always WOW.
• Perfect flavor combo - I love the buttery flavor of the dough that also has a lovely almond layer with both almond flour and almond extract. The sweet fruit jam cuts the rich dough and gives the best sweetness. We've also used Nutella and other flavors of jam like raspberry which also work well.
• They make a great food activity for the family - These cookies have some fun steps like, cutting out a shape in the middle, dusting with powdered sugar and making sandwiches. This makes it such a fun activity especially for kiddos. They can cut any little shape into the cookies. They can also pretend it is snowing on the cookies when they dust with powdered sugar... they love to do this! And of course, making cookie sandwiches are so fun to put together no matter what age you are.

Key Ingredients for perfect linzer cookies...

• Fruit jam or preserves: Strawberry jam is the traditional filling but I also love raspberry or grape jam. I even love to do a rich chocolate filling with Nutella or the dairy free equivalent.
• Butter & Sugar: As you can imagine, butter and sugar are two key ingredients in these linzer cookies, just like the classics. Make sure if you are using real butter, get one with rich flavor like Irish butter. If using dairy free, I recommend Miyokos or Country Crock plan based sticks. For the sugar, we found that just regular everyday granulated sugar works really well. 
• Almond Extract: This adds a slightly nutty flavor that brings more depth to the cookies. We use more than in our sugar cookies and other recipes because we want the almond flavor to be more pronounced.
• Almond Flour: Almond flour gives these cookies the perfect slightly crisp edges that you love. We also increase the almond flour in this recipe for the same reason as the almond extract.
• Gluten Free Flour: King Aurthur's Gluten Free Flour Blend is my favorite kind of gf all purpose flour. We use a bit less since we use a bit more almond flour but the combo still works so well.

Let's put some cookie sandwiches together!

Pro Tip: These cookies really are so butter and delicious. Be sure not to over bake the cookies as you want them to be melt in your mouth perfect.

I recommend these cookies with a warm cup of non alcoholic mulled wine or a cup of our cool and creamy Christmas mocktails.