These Paleo Linzer Heart cookies are a super fun recipe for Valentine’s day. One of my favorite readers, Anina, who attended one of my cooking classes came up with the idea for these. During class, she suggested that the Black and White Cookies we were preparing could also be turned into linzer hearts by replacing the chocolate with raspberry jam and making a couple of other easy changes.
Easy Valentine’s Cookie Recipe for Kids
These easy Linzer Heart cookies are made with 6 ingredients total. All you need to throw them together is almond flour, honey, palm shortening, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. A stunning tea cookie, my younger son and I love to make Linzer Hearts together. He’s not a huge fan of chocolate and these are the perfect Valentine’s day dessert for him.
Egg-Free Valentine’s Cookies
It’s so hard to find good paleo recipes that are egg-free but these Linzer Heart cookies work for so many types of special diets. If you’re allergic to eggs check out my Egg-Free Diet page.
Linzer Hearts
Ingredients
- 2½ cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ cup palm shortening or grapeseed oil
- ¼ cup honey or agave nectar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup raspberry jam
Instructions
- Combine almond flour and salt in a food processor
- Pulse in shortening, honey, and vanilla until dough forms
- Between 2 pieces of parchment paper, roll out dough ¼ inch thick
- Chill dough in freezer for 30 minutes
- Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out 2 hearts of the same size
- Cut out center of one heart with a small heart shaped cookie cutter
- Press thumb into solid heart to make an indentation, then fill with jam
- Place cut-out heart on top of jam covered heart
- Bake at 350°F on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 5-7 minutes until brown around the edges
- Cool and serve
Linzer Heart Cookies Recipe
The trick to making these Linzer Hearts is to divide the dough into 4 parts. Take one part of chilled dough out of the freezer at a time to roll and cut out cookies. The rest of the dough will stay cold in the freezer. The dough is much easier to handle when chilled.
One Cookie Dough Recipe, Two Types of Cookies
These vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free cookies use the same dough as my Black and White Cookies recipe. My favorite thing about this cookie dough is that it requires only 5 ingredients! This recipe is as easy as it gets. You can make this versatile dough into both the Black and White cookies and Linzer Hearts. Two types of cookies, more Valentine’s fun.
Gin says
I just want to say what a delight to use a site with such simplicity. No wasted color ink, no fancy drawings and a printer friendly service. Thank you so much. Gin
Elana says
Gin, you’re welcome!
Krista Foley says
I just made these tonight and they are so easy and simple to whip up! I love that. I did make a few changes.
I used coconut oil, refined, softened, instead of grapeseed oil; therefore, I cut it down to 1/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup.
I also used maple-flavored, natural, gluten-free table syrup to add a nice warm mapley flavor. Ideally I would have loved to use agave and add a maple extract, but I can’t find any natural gluten-free maple flavors locally. The maple was a nice touch- good buttery maple notes.
I cut down the vanilla extract, since using maple syrup. I also think that 1 Tb seems too much anyways, regardless if I used maple syrup or not. I cut it down to 1 tsp and it turned out well.
Since I cut down the oil, I added just 1 tsp water for moistness.
I didn’t have to chill these, they flattened and cut out fine.
The cookies look so pretty and taste so nice! Raspberry jam and maple flavored almond cookies. Thanks!
Elana says
Krista, thanks for letting me know you enjoyed these cookies!
Susan says
Hi, Elana: Nice cookies! As a former real-everything bakery owner, I would suggest baking the cookies first, then putting the jam in. The jam will stay red, will not be leathery…..and does not need further cooking.
Elana says
Thanks Susan!
Michelle Varrin says
I set out to make these this afternoon only to find that I didn’t have raspberry jam. So it would have to be apricot. Then I found that I didn’t have enough almond flour, but I had some hazelnut flour. So it would then have to be hazelnut flour/apricot linzer cookies. Then I couldn’t stop myself from replacing 1/2 cup of nut flour with 1/2 cup of cocoa (because it’s HAZELNUT flour after all). I also didn’t have the patience to roll anything out and so I did balls with two half thumbprints that made cutey hearts (just read that someone else did that too!). Last minute, I mixed 1 part orange marmalade with 2 parts apricot jam. Although these are pretty different than what your recipe intends, I couldn’t have riffed off of a better one. The texture is wonderful! Thanks and happy heart day.
Jeanne J says
Jeanne, I’m so happy you enjoyed these cookies!
nancy says
I’m trying to make these, but I am having trouble transferring to cookie sheet and can’t imagine how I will succeed with the top layer with the cutout in the middle. I just added another half cup of almond flour and put back in freezer. Hope this works! Need them by this evening . . .
Elana says
Nancy, make sure your dough is super cold and it will be quite easy to handle :-)
CJ says
Just made these tonight with makeshift round “cookie cutters” — a tin can and some small plastic kitchen utensil…they were truly a hit! I left them in to bake for 10 minutes, because our oven seems to usually be a bit off. Thank you so much, Elana, for this recipe…Blanched Almond Flour is my new baking BFF!
Elana says
CJ, thanks for letting me know these cookies are a hit!
Eden says
I don’t want to be a comment hog, but I do so enjoy what I’m learning that I love to let you know. I made these this weekend and they were yummy. (I love the jam you recommended too!) I ended up taking them to a family party where some of the extended family is off sugar and they loved the cookies too.
Elana says
Eden, thanks for letting me know your family loved these cookies!
Kari says
About how many cookies did this recipe make? I’m going to try adapting it for a different kind of cutout. Thanks!
Elana says
Kari, please refer to the yield provided in the recipe :-)
Lora says
I made these as thumbprint cookies – roll the dough into balls, make a little hollow, and fill with raspberry jam. This simplification turns this into a fantastic everyday cookie! I will be serving these at my daughter’s birthday party. Thanks for GF recipes that everybody loves!
Elana says
Lora, I’m so happy to hear these cookies are fantastic!
Bruce Padgett says
Great recipes, I’m making linzer hearts today! My wife put in an order for a GF lemon cake, any ideas?
Thanks,
Bruce
Elana says
Bruce, I have an incredible Orange Cake that your wife might like:
https://elanaspantry.com/orange-cake/
Enjoy!
Elana