Vegan Linzer Cookies (Gluten-Free Option)

Crispy, sweet and golden cookies sandwiched with either raspberry jam or dairy-free chocolate spread – these cookies are naturally vegan, gluten-free and fun to make. Cut them into any shapes you like for a delicious treat.

With Valentine’s Day round the corner, I wanted to make something a bit pretty-in-pink to celebrate – although I know I’ll be making these cookies all year round. Linzer cookies are perhaps best-known as a Christmas cookie and can be flavoured with warming spices and filled with any number of spreads. For these Vegan Linzer Cookies, I’ve opted for half with raspberry jam and half with chocolate spread as I just couldn’t pick between the two!

I first made these Vegan Linzer Cookies with the delicious Vegan Malt Powder from Horlicks (a delicious dairy-free malt powder known as a comforting bed-time drink which I used to love when I was younger) which adds such a cosy and “malty” flavour. If you don’t have any, you can skip out the malt powder and they’ll be just as tasty.

Here’s what goes into these cookies:

• Vegan butter/margarine: this adds to the “buttery” taste and texture and allows them to melt in your mouth. You could try softened coconut oil with varying results.
• Coconut sugar: I love the caramel-like taste of coconut sugar, but regular caster or light brown sugar would also work here.
• Maple syrup: this is the sticky binder that holds the cookies together as there are no eggs or egg replacers in this recipe.
• Vanilla essence: for the sweet flavour.
• Flour: plain or a recommended 1:1 GF flour blend are perfect for this recipe.
• Ground almonds: this adds a lovely nutty and sweet aroma to the cookies and keeps the texture smooth and light.
• Horlicks Malt Powder: or extra flour. Note that Horlicks is not currently gluten-free, so to keep these cookies fully GF, use flour instead.

Like with any cut-out cookie, most of the time is spent rolling out and cutting out the dough but it’s not hard. It is actually the most fun part of making these Vegan Linzer Cookies. I love creating different shapes out of the dough and making the cut-outs, too. don’t through these, make sure to make these into cute mini cookies, too.

A few pointers to make these cookies as neat as possible:

• Chill the dough: don’t skip this step as it allows the dough to firm up and get less sticky.
• A well-floured work surface: this is essential to stop the dough from sticking and also a well-floured rolling pin. I like to roll out on a silicon baking sheet or parchment paper, too.
• Use a spatula or palette knife: to slide underneath the cookie shapes if they are getting stuck.
• Use a Linzer Cookie Cutter: this is the easiest way to get the neatest shaped cookies. They often have a selection of centre shapes to play around with, too. If not, use a regular cookie cutter and a smaller cookie cutter to make the inside shape.
• An even number of cookies: make sure you have an even number of tops and bottoms to make these cookie sandwiches.
• Work in batches: this ensures the dough doesn’t warm up too much.
• Keep an eye on the oven: smaller shapes will take less time to bake, so make sure they don’t catch.

Apart from that, these Vegan Linzer Cookies are really easy and fun to make! I also added on a little icing sugar decoration to these cookies – but it’s not essential. To make these cookies into Linzer sandwich cookies, simply spread all the bases with a little of the jam or chocolate spread and top with one of the cut-out shaped cookies. Enjoy them straight away or with a dusting of icing sugar, too!

These are so fun to make and I love that they are naturally vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free without and fancy ingredients. You probably already have all the ingredients in your cupboards! They are sweet, golden and crisp with a gooey, squidgy filling and they’re great with a cup of tea or coffee.

If you are looking for more simply cookies, how about my:

• Peppermint Mocha Cookies
• White Chocolate Macadamia Cranberry Snickerdoodle Cookies
• Vegan S’Mores Cookies
• Chocolate Covered Sugar Cookies
• Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vegan Linzer Cookies (Gluten-Free Option)

• Servings: 25 cookie sandwiches
• Time: 30 minutes plus 1-2 hours chilling
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Crispy, sweet and golden cookies sandwiched with either raspberry jam or dairy-free chocolate spread – these cookies are naturally vegan, gluten-free and fun to make. Cut them into any shapes you like for a delicious treat.

Ingredients

Cookies:
• 80g vegan butter/margarine
• 40g coconut sugar
• 50ml maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 120g GF or plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 110g ground almonds
• 10g Horlicks Malt Powder (or use extra flour)
Filling:
• 50g dairy-free chocolate spread
• 50g raspberry jam
Optional:
• 100g icing sugar + 1 tbsp water

Directions

1. Cream together the vegan butter and coconut sugar util creamy. Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla.
2. Sift in the flour and Horlicks Malt Powder and add in the ground almonds. Stir to a sticky dough, adding 1-2 tbsp more flour if needed.
3. Bring to the dough to a ball, wrap up and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 160Fan/180*C and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
5. Work in 2 batches, keeping the other half of dough in the fridge. Roll out the dough carefully on a floured work surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin. Cut out cookie shapes – making some for the bottoms and making some for the tops (the tops will need a small shape cut out of them – this is most easily done with a Linzer Cookie Cutter). You can also bake the middle shapes, too. Repeat to use all the dough.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown and allow to cool fully on a wire rack.
7. Once cool, decorate some cookies with the icing by mixing together the icing sugar and water until thick and decorate as desired. Then, spread half of the bases with the chocolate spread and half with the jam and sandwich together with a cut-out cookie.
8. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

I hope you will love these Vegan Linzer Cookies, so please let me know what you think in the comments below and tag me in your bakes – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With Linzer Cookie love x

This recipe was first made with Horlicks Malt Powder although this blog post is not sponsored and all opinions are my own – I used to LOVE Horlicks and was so excited by their vegan one.