The renovation is going well. We really like this contractor because he communicates frequently. He’s on site almost every day; he’s only missed one or two days and it was because his wife had a baby! The subs are also good, only a couple of them smoke and they have been reasonably good about not littering their cigarette butts (you’d be surprised).
However, I do have a couple of issues which we will take up with him on our project review at completion. It’ll be feedback to he can improve for the next project.
As you know, I bake for the guys almost everyday and these squares were part of my repertoire. The pastry is delicious but quite delicate so it’s a little finicky to roll out. JT thought the jam to crust ratio wasn’t high enough, but I like a buttery crust so it was fine with me. The jam caramelizes as it bakes and concentrates the flavour. I used a jam with double the fruit, but i think regular jam would work too. Needless to say, these didn’t last long.
Linzer-Style Squares
For the original recipe, kindly click here.
Makes one 23 cm 23 cm (9″ x 9″) pan
Ingredients:
- 250 g butter, cold
- 250 g flour
- 125 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- A pinch of ground cloves
- A pinch of salt
- 150 g ground almonds
- 1 tsp Lemon zest
- 1 egg yolk
- 375 mL Jam (your choice)
- 1 egg, whisked (for brushing the lattice)
Directions:
- In a food processor, combine the butter, flour, icing sugar, cinnamon, cloves, ground almonds, pinch of salt, lemon zest and egg yolk and pulse until it comes together. Form into a disk and cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a square pan with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into 1/3 and 2/3 and push the 2/3 quantity of dough into the pan in an even layer. Spread the jam of your choice over the bottom layer of the dough.
- Divide the remaining 1/3 of the dough into 12 equal parts and roll into thin straws. Lay the straws on top of the jam layer in a lattice pattern. Brush the lattice with egg and bake for 50-60 minutes or until pastry is lightly golden.
- Cool completely and cut into even squares. Sprinkle with icing sugar if desired.
Notes:
- This is not a traditional Linzer torte.
- Linzer is traditionally made with red currant jam, I used strawberry because I had a lot of it on hand.
Your workers are really lucky, Eva! The cake looks fantastic. Cross my fingers for the rest of the renovation.
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I’m lousy with tools but if I promise not to smoke will you bake for me? GREG
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Looks lovely, Eva. Brings me back to my Vienna days, where Linzertorte was perhaps my favorite sweet.
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Boy, does this look delicious. I’m not surprised that they didn’t last long! There’s a pastry that I like to make in the summer that uses a jam, and I make a very quick, homemade version that I bet would be fantastic in this crust. In traditional Polish desserts, there is often a much higher ration of pastry to filling that in American desserts, so I’m used to that. Like you, when it’s a fresh, delicious pastry, I’m find with it. Anyway, I’ve never made a lattice crust and it’s about time I did!
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I like more crust than jam, too, so I’d be pretty happy with these just as they are. Although I certainly wouldn’t turn down extra jam. Glad your remodeling is proceeding relatively painlessly — although I know it’s still a pain, alas.
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This is called a crostata in Italy. Yours came out great; you are spoiling those workers. The almond is a great addition in the crust. Is the egg yolk going into the dough? A trick to make the crust more flaky is to mix everything with 2/3 of the flour and without the egg yolk first until it comes together. Than flatten and sprinkle with the remaining flour. Pulse a couple of times, then transfer to a bowl, and fold in the egg yolk with a spatula (warm hands would make the butter melt).
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Great tips Stefan, definitely will try it next time. Thanks for catching my omission (original recipe forgot that too!) Ah yes, a crostata, I’d completely forgotten about that. There was a commercial bakery in Toronto that actually made a very tasty crostata years ago, but they’ve discontinued it (we used to design all of their packaging).
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They must love your home made bakes! They sound so much better than the handyman I recently hired. He was a dud from start to finish!
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Thank you Lorraine. It’s really difficult to find the right fit with a handyman or even a contractor. We were lucky this time.
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Wow, you better build another bedroom while you’re at it, the crew’s never going to wanna leave! Love the lattice top.
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Hahaha, I can’t wait for this one to be finished. The dust is incredible. Thanks for your comment Kelly.
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GORGEOUS, Eva!! I must give this recipe a try. P.S. Glad you have a good contractor. Whew.
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We really lucked out this time. Thankbyou for your comment.
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Looks so tempting! And it would be perfect to use some homemade strawberry jam now 🙂
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Homemade jam sounds awesome, wish I had thought of that! Thank you for your comment Angie.
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