Gluten Free Linzer Cookies with Nutella Filling

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Having a few gluten free Christmas cookie recipes to make for the holidays is a great way to ensure you have a sweet treat to snack on. And I love turning classic Christmas recipes into delicious gluten free snacks! These gluten free linzer cookies are a new take on the classic cookie recipe. With a Nutella filling, these easy GF cookies are a beautiful sweet treat everyone in the family will love.

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Linzer cookies are a popular Christmas treat. These sandwich cookies are traditionally made by combining flour with ground almonds. But a quick substitution will allow you to make this classic holiday cookie without the need for all-purpose flour at all.

And while these beautiful sandwich cookies are easy to make, my favorite part about this recipe is how simple it is to customize them. You can change the design of the cookie or swap out the filling to create a totally new snack. They’re a simple and delicious gluten free dessert for the holidays.

Gluten Free Linzer Cookies

To make this easy gluten free linzer cookie recipe, you’ll need just a few simple ingredients — the most important being almond flour. This gluten free flour creates the classic linzer cookie flavor and texture, so it’s a must when making this recipe!

In addition to super fine almond flour, you’ll also need to substitute traditional all-purpose flour with gluten free baking flour. When it comes to learning how to make gluten free cookies, I have found that not any flour will do. I’ve tried several different brands of gluten free flours and I have found the best one is Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour by far!

To make these easy gluten free cream cheese cookies, you’ll need:

• Gluten free baking flour
• Super fine almond flour
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Egg
• Vanilla extract
• Nutella
• Powdered sugar

How to Make Linzer Cookies

You can whip up the dough for these delicious Christmas cookies in a matter of minutes. After that, you’ll just have to wait for the dough to chill, cut it out, and bake!

The first step to making your Nutella linzer cookies is to whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the gluten free flour, almond flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg to a medium bowl. Stir to mix the ingredients, then set the bowl aside.

In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer to prepare these cookies. To get the best texture, start beating on low, then turn up the speed to medium to cream the butter.

Add the egg and vanilla extract to the bowl with the butter mixture. Beat the ingredients together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and beat on low to combine them together. Continue beating until a thick dough forms.

Divide the dough into three disks. Flatten the disk and place it on top of a piece of plastic wrap, then place a second piece of plastic wrap on top. Roll out the dough until it’s around 1/4 inch thick. Wrap the plastic wrap around the edges of the dough and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least one hour.

Linzer Cookie Sandwiches

Once your dough is chilled, it’s time to start cutting! Follow these simple instructions to make your own linzer sandwich cookies.

Turn one of the dough disks out on a lightly floured surface. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for around five minutes, to help make the dough more pliable. Sprinkle a small amount of flour over the top of the dough, then lightly roll the dough. Start at the center of the disk and work your way outward to prevent the dough from cracking.

Continue rolling the dough until it’s around 1/8 inch thick. Since you’ll be making sandwiches with these cookies, they need to be thin. Once you’ve gotten the dough as thin as possible, use a round cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.

After cutting out the cookies, gather the dough scraps and continue rolling and cutting until all the dough has been used. If the dough becomes too soft, wrap it and place it back in the refrigerator for a few minutes.

After rolling and cutting all the dough, you should have around 48 cookies cut out. Keep half the cookies intact, then use a small cookie cutter to cut out the center of the other half. I used a small star to create a fun Christmas decoration on the top of the cookies.

Once all your cookies are cut out, place them on a lined baking sheet and put them back in the refrigerator to chill. Keep the cookies cold for around 30 minutes to help keep your linzer cookies from spreading as they bake.

After chilling for a second time, preheat your oven and place the cookies in the oven to bake for 15 minutes. You can bake two sheets of cookies at a time to speed up the baking process.

When the cook time is up, remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for five minutes on the baking sheet. Then, transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Use powdered sugar to decorate the tops of the cut-out cookies. My favorite way to decorate cookies with powdered sugar is to put a small amount of sugar in a fine-mesh strainer. Hold the strainer over the cookies and lightly tap the side with your hand to sprinkle the sugar over the top of each cookie.

Flip all the remaining cookies over so that the bottom of the cookie is facing up. Spread a thin layer of Nutella over the top of each cookie.

Carefully transfer the powdered sugar coated cookies to the top of each Nutella-topped cookie. Lightly press the cookie into place, making sure not to press too hard. Since the cookies are thin, they’re very fragile. Pressing too hard could cause your cookies to crack!

Gluten Free Linzer Cookie Recipe Ideas

These delicious gluten free linzer cookies are the perfect way to bring a classic holiday tradition to your family this year. And with these recipe ideas, you can create a variety of different linzer cookies with one batch of dough.

These easy cookies are a classic Christmas treat that everyone in your family will love! As you prepare these delicious cookies, try these recipe ideas and tips.

• Use a different filling. Nutella is a popular choice among my family, but it’s not the traditional filling you typically find in linzer cookies. Most linzer cookies are filled with jam. Instead of spreading hazelnut spread in the center of each cookie, try filling your cookies with black currant preserves, raspberry preserves or strawberry jam.
• Season with zest. Traditional linzer cookies are often made with citrus zest instead of cinnamon. Since I filled my linzer cookies with hazelnut spread, I chose to use some warm seasoning in the dough instead. You can substitute the cinnamon and nutmeg in my recipe with the same amount of lemon or orange zest for a fresh citrus flavor.
• Try almond extract. Since linzer cookies are made with almond flour, they have a slightly nutty flavor. You can enhance that flavor with almond extract. Replace half or all of the vanilla extract in the recipe with almond extract to bring out the almond flavor in the cookie dough.
• Use different cooke cutter shapes. After creating the round base for your linzer cookie sandwiches, you can easily create unique cookies by using different cookie cutters for the peek-a-boo cut-out. Any cookie cutter shape that is smaller than the round cookie cutter you used to make the base cookies will work for your cut-out shape. If you don’t have any cookie cutters that are small enough, try using the wide end of a piping tip to cut out a circle in the center of each cookie.

More Delicious Gluten Free Recipes:

Easy Gluten Free Cream Cheese Cookies

White Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Easy Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

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