Linzertorte

Clay and I have birthdays just two days apart, and this birthday week was very busy, so it took me a week or so afterwards to make his requested birthday dessert: linzertorte.

I'd never heard of linzertorte before. It's a tart with a crust that is largely made up of ground nuts. The recipe I used called for hazelnuts and a smaller amount of almonds. The filling is raspberry jam mixed with lemon juice.

This is by far one of the hardest things that I've ever baked and it went just fine. I was so proud of myself. I had such a hard time getting the skin off of the hazelnuts. It took forever even though I blanched them. Thank God for the food processor. This would have been an impossibility for me without it. The nuts are ground up super fine. There was also just a lot of cutting strips and freezing and STEPS, STEPS, STEPS! No one step was super complicated, but it was a long recipe.

Once the dough was made it was such a lovely consistency, super easy to roll out. It's not at all like pie crust.

Anyway, it was also super delicious, although so rich that I couldn't finish my slice above! After we enjoyed it we brought the leftovers out to a bar the next night to share with our friends. The recipe says that it's even better after a night in the fridge and I think they were right!

This was super delicious, but it's certainly something I'll only make for very special occasions.