Last Updated on September 9, 2026 by Deliciously Organic
Last month when I recieved the email that we all needed to come up with a cookie, honestly, I laughed. Baking cookies with whole wheat flour (especially if it’s fresh ground wheat) is one of the most challenging things for me to create. It took me over 30 tries to come up with my Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for my upcoming cookbook (sorry, can’t share now, but it will be worth the wait!) so I knew this was going to be a challenge. My girls and I got out a few cookbooks to get some ideas, flagged 10 different recipes, made a grocery list, and started testing. It took about a week until we finally decided this was the cookie.
I love how whimsical and delicate these cookies are. They have a slightly sweet shortbread-like cookie with a sweet almond-cherry filling. You can use special linzer cookie cutters that I got here (they have a huge selection) or use your favorite Christmas cookie cutters and create a sandwich cookie. They are perfect to make for your neighbors, a hostess at an upcoming Christmas party, or for friends coming by for a visit.
Almond Linzer Cookies
This recipe was published before I began only posting grain-free recipes. For a grain-free slice and bake cookie recipe (that will work great as a Linzer cookie dough) click here.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup almonds, soaked and dehydrated
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold butter, cut into pieces
- 1/4 cup organic whole cane sugar or sucanat
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup cherry preserves
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Pulse together almonds, salt, cinnamon in bowl of food processor until finely ground. Transfer almond mixture to bowl of a standing mixer. In a small bowl whisk together flour and baking powder, set aside. Add the butter and whole cane sugar to the almond mixture and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add vanilla and egg and mix until just incorporated. Pour dough out onto the counter, shape into a disk and wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. (This dough can be made ahead of time and stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.)
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut cookies using cookie cutter and place cookies on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake until they are just turning golden brown, about 8 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool.
- In a small bowl stir together preserves and almond extract (if there are lumps in your preserves your can pulse it in the food processor a few times). Spread 1/2 teaspoon preserves onto uncut cookies and top with the cutout ones. These cookies are best eaten the day they are made.
- *I sprinkled the cookies in my pictures with a little powdered sugar. This is not a sugar that I cook with, but I just couldn’t resist giving the cookies a light dusting to make them look a bit more festive.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Makes about 2 dozen cookies
My mom always used to make Linzer cookies when I was a kid, so I make them now… with cute little cut-outs like you have pictures. Never have tried an almond sort though. Yours are beautiful & delicious-looking!
These look so delectable. Unfortunately, I'd make them and think, Oh, these are so healthy! Then I'd eat every. last. one.
LOVE these. They look incredible! During the holidays I sometimes swap hazelnuts and apricot jam. Yum.
Hi, I've just discovered your blog and it's amazing! I love healty organic food but I am also a sweet tooth. I never thought it's possible to combine these two! So I hope that with your inspiration my sweet bakes will be healthier 🙂
These look absolutely delicious!
These look amazing!
What are the chances that these would work using Spectrum shortening and/or coconut oil in place of the butter…Might have to try.
Beautiful work. These are just perfect for the holiday season. It's nice to know that there's nourishing alternatives to so many treats.
Katy – The spectrum shortening could work, but I don't think the coconut oil would..I think they would spread too much. You could also try beef tallow or lard which is a great natural alternative to shortening. I hope that helps!
These are so wonderful! I love that they are perfectly sweet and nourishing!
Well done! I love how deliciously healthy these are!
These look phenomenal! I've never tried them but I can't wait to get creative with the recipe!Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest!!
these look amazing! I just discovered your blog through foodbuzz. It's gorgeous. Subscribing right now!
I like the simplicity of this recipe, however in my experience there was far too little butter to hold this dough together. I followed recipe, except I used white pastry flour because I was out if whole wheat, and toasted almonds instead of soaked and dehydrated. Not really changes that would alter the moisture of the dough. In fact whole wheat needs more anyway.
The dough was too crumbly to even form a disc. I tried as best as I could to get it to stick together but the second i flattened it into a disc from the ball (which also barely came together) I got a pile of crumbs.
I put it all back into the bowl and incorporated about 4 tbsp more softened butter and another tbsp of coconut oil.
Any tips from the author? In my experience with Linzer tart cookies I usually use 2 sticks of butter to 2.5 cups of flour…similar to making a double pie crust. Why choose so little fat here? Thanks!
In case there are any others here that avoid sweeteners, I made these without any added sweeteners and they turned out great. I agree that the dough was a little crumbly still, however – maybe a bit more butter as caroline suggested would be good. Also, I made them completely by hand (I don’t have any electric mixers) and they worked perfectly.