Linzer torte

Linzer torte
Alternative names Linzertorte
Type Cake
Place of origin Austria
Region or state Linz
Main ingredients Flour, unsalted butter, egg yolks, lemon zest, cinnamon, lemon juice, ground nuts (usually hazelnuts, or walnuts or almonds), redcurrant jam

The Linzer Torte (or Linzertorte) is an Austrian torte with a lattice design on top of the pastry.[1] It is named after the city of Linz, Austria.

Linzer Torte is a very short, crumbly pastry made of flour, unsalted butter, egg yolks, lemon zest, cinnamon and lemon juice, and ground nuts, usually hazelnuts, but even walnuts or almonds are used, covered with a filling of redcurrant jam or, alternatively, plum butter, thick raspberry,[2] or apricot jam. It is covered by a lattice of dough strips. The dough is rolled out in very thin strips of pastry and arranged to form a criss-cross design on top of the preserves. The pastry is brushed with lightly beaten egg whites, baked, and sometimes decorated with sliced almonds.

Linzer Torte is a holiday classic in the Austrian, Hungarian, Swiss, German, and Tirolean traditions, often eaten at Christmas. Linzer Torte is often made like small tarts or cookies in North American bakeries.

Linzer sablés (German: Linzer Augen, "Linzer eyes") are a cookie-sized version, made by cutting a circle of a similar dough, covering it with jam, placing a donut-like circle of dough on top, and dusting with confectioner's sugar.

History

The Linzer Torte is said to be the oldest cake in the world.[3] For a long time a recipe from 1696 in the Vienna Stadt- und Landesbibliothek was the oldest one known. In 2005, however, Waltraud Faißner, the library director of the Upper Austrian Landesmuseum and author of the book "Wie mann die Linzer Dortten macht" ("How to make the Linzer Torte") found an even older Veronese recipe from 1653 in Codex 35/31 in the archive of Admont Abbey.[3]

The invention of the Linzer Torte is subject of numerous legends, reporting on a Viennese confectioner named Linzer (as given by Alfred Polgar) or the Franconian pastry chef Johann Konrad Vogel (1796–1883), who about 1823 at Linz started the mass production of the cake that made it famous around the world.

The Austrian traveller Franz Hölzlhuber in the 1850s allegedly brought the Linzer Torte to Milwaukee, whence the recipe spread over the United States.[4]

Read also

  • Marshall Faye: Now that's a Linzertorte. Stowe, Vt. 2007, ISBN 978-0-9747872-0-6.

References

  1. ↑ June Meyers Authentic Hungarian Heirloon Recipes Cookbook
  2. ↑ Iaia, Sarah Kelly. Festive Baking: Holiday Classics in the Swiss, German, and Austrian Traditions. Doubleday, 1988.
  3. 1 2 Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum. "Linzer Torte". Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum.
  4. ↑ "Franz Hölzlhuber's Watercolors". Archived from the original on 2007-12-29. In an odd sidenote: American Heritage [magazine], June 1965, attributes the introduction of Linzertortes (pastries filled with fruit, usually raspberries) to America to Franz Holzlhuber: "In 1856 Holzlhuber, an enterprising young Austrian from the vicinity of Linz, started for America. He had very little money but was equipped with a zither, a sketchbook, some education in the law and in draftsmanship, and the promise of employment in Milwaukee as conductor of an orchestra. Somewhere between New York and Wisconsin, he lost both his luggage and the letter confirming his job, which, it turned out, was no longer available. Nothing daunted, he went to work as a baker-introducing (so he said) the Linzer Torte to America..."
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