blood orange curd linzer cookies

Forever inspired by Birdhouse Bakes, I’ve finally made linzer cookies that resemble her iconic ones. These have a great sandy-soft texture and light almond flavor from almond flour. They hold their shape when cut, although they do spread ever so slightly.

why you’ll love blood orange curd linzer cookies

• This almond based cookie dough is so good as is with a perfect tender crispness and light almond flavor. It holds its shape beautifully and when rolled thin, it makes a delicious little sandwich.
• Blood orange is so special and such a bright spot in the coldest months of the year. It just makes sense to bake with them while we have them. Blood orange curd is a great way to let their flavor shine, and my curd recipe is so easy.

ingredients in blood orange curd linzer cookies

the cookie

• unsalted butter– If all you have is salted butter, that’s totally fine. Your butter does need to be room temperature, though.
• granulated sugar– for texture and sweetness
• egg- for texture
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt– This is the best salt for cooking and baking. Grab a box on Amazon- it will last forever. If all you have is regular table salt, divide the amount in the recipe by half.
• vanilla bean paste– Extract is fine here, but vanilla bean paste is an even more potent and delicious form of vanilla. Plus it puts little vanilla speckles in whatever you’re making. I like to shop bundles and sales at Heilala.
• powdered sugar– for dusting on top the cookies

the blood orange curd

• blood orange juice– Best to use freshly squeezed. Since curd is typically made with lemon juice, which is a strong flavor, this recipe reduces the blood orange juice to make it more potent.
• lemon juice– to add some tartness to the curd
• granulated sugar– for sweetness and texture
• zest– from the lemon and the blood oranges that were juiced
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt– a pink of salt will balance the flavors (if you don’t have Diamond Crystal, use half the amount of regular table salt)
• eggs– the thickener for the curd
• unsalted butter– to richen the curd and make it thicker

supplies needed to make blood orange curd linzer cookies

• hand mixer or stand mixer
• scale
• parchment paper
• cookie sheets– two half sheets
• rolling pin with guides set to ⅙″ or 4 mm
• small flower cookie cutter
• very small circle cutter
• saucepan
• citrus juicer of some sort
• microplane or zester
• instant read thermometer– to check the temperature of the curd
• sieve– to strain the curd

how to make the blood orange curd

This is based on my easiest, stress-free lemon curd. If you’ve never made citrus curd, don’t be scared. It’s not as complicated as it seems. I’ve been testing my curd recipe for years, and this is my favorite iteration so far with the most flavor, perfect balance of sweetness, and least eggy flavor. Since we’re making a blood orange curd this time, we need to use twice as much juice and reduce it down by half so it’s the right amount.

Start by juicing a few blood oranges until you get about 1 cup of juice. Pour it into a pot and bring it to a light simmer uncovered. Keep an eye on it, making sure it’s not too hot. Pour it into a measuring cup to check how much it has reduced- it should be ½ cup when it’s done.

While the juice is simmering away, pour the sugar and salt into a saucepan. Zest the oranges and a lemon into the pot of sugar.

Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers or a spatula until it is moistened, slightly orange, and very fragrant. This brings the oils out of the zest, adding much more flavor to the curd.

Add the eggs to the sugar and whisk well to combine. Slowly pour the now-reduced juice into the pan while whisking to combine. Juice the lemon and add the juice to the saucepan, whisking to combine.

Place the pot on the stovetop at medium-low heat, stirring constantly. It will thicken quickly and without stirring, the curd will thicken unevenly and become chunky. Once temperature reaches 170 F, or when the mixture is thick and evenly coats the back of the spatula, remove from heat and pour into a sieve that is resting in a heat proof bowl. Whisk in the butter until it is melted.

Store lemon curd in the refrigerator while waiting for the next step. Cover the top of the curd with cling film to prevent it from developing a skin.

how to make the almond cookie dough

This dough is incredibly easy to make. It starts out by creaming room temperature butter with sugar, blood orange zest, and salt. Add an egg and vanilla and mix to combine, making sure the mixture is emulsified. Scrape down the bowl and give it a mix one more time to make sure everything is mixed before adding the dry ingredients. Add the almond flour and all purpose flour all at once and mix on low to combine.

Drop the dough onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper. Sprinkle more flour on top of the dough and place another piece of parchment paper on top. Roll the dough to ⅙″ (4 mm). Refrigerate the dough for a couple of hours to chill the butter in the dough and help prevent sticking and spread.

If you don’t have a couple hours, put the dough in the freezer for fifteen minutes instead.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Cut as many cookies as possible with a small flower cookie cutter (2″ to 2 ½″). Use an offset spatula to lift the cookies from the parchment paper and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing the cookies at least an inch apart.

Re-roll any scraps and cut more flowers. If the dough is too sticky to use after re-rolling, put it in the freezer for five minutes to firm up.

From half the cookies, cut circles in the center of the flower cookies.

Freeze the cut cookies for five minutes before baking to help prevent spreading.

Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny. If you want a golden brown, crispy cookie, bake for a minute or two longer.

Spread a layer of blood orange curd on the cookies that have no centers. Be careful not to put too much curd near the edges of the cookie, or the curd can overflow. Gently sandwich a cookie with a center cut out on top of the curd cookie. Add a tiny bit more curd to the flower center if there is room to add more.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over the cookies, and if you’d like, a bit of blood orange zest.

This dough makes about 5 dozen small cookies, give or take. When sandwiching, it makes about 2 ½ dozen sandwiches. It depends on the size of your cutter and how much re-rolling you do.

success tips for making blood orange curd linzer cookies

• Do NOT forget to reduce the juice. If you don’t reduce it, the amount is too high for the curd and it won’t thicken.
• Split the recipe up and make the curd ahead of time to make the process easier. I like to make my curd the day or night before so it has had plenty of time to set up in the fridge.
• Fill this little linzer cookie with anything you like! Lemon curd, chocolate ganache, pistachio paste, buttercream, jam. The possibilities are endless, and you better believe I’ll be trying as many as I can.
• ‘Mise en place’ is a French phrase with the idea of putting everything in its place before beginning to make a recipe. It helps everything to go smoothly and eliminates so much possible stress. Getting all of your supplies and ingredients together before ever starting the recipe will help tremendously.
• Weigh your ingredients, particularly the flour. It is the most important measurement in this recipe to weigh. Flour can be off in volume measurements by up to 30g, which is a quarter cup! Having incorrect flour measurements can cause your cookies to spread too much or, alternatively, be dry and crumbly. Weighing your ingredients makes everything so much easier, as you don’t have to wash all the measuring cups at the end. However, I do not use the scale to weigh out teaspoon or tablespoon measurements for things like baking powder, salt, vanilla, or cornstarch, for example.

variations on blood orange curd linzer cookies

You could fill these little cookies with anything.

• pistachio cream
• chocolate ganache
• lemon curd
• caramel

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