“I think it’s wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly.”
– Steven Wright.

Game night! My partner Steve and I are both big board game devotees. In fact, I have to go through and prune the games almost as much as I do the books. (Liability of being a librarian.) We seem to go through phases (Dominion, anyone?) though some games we return to again and again. Our vintage Aggravation game gets pulled out pretty often, as do the cooperative games like Forbidden Island and Pandemic. (LOVE Pandemic. It’s a different game every time and so challenging. Ain’t gonna lie, we often argue while playing this one but we also win more often than not, which is gratifying.)

And then there are all the card games. Spite & Malice, Gin Rummy, Hearts, Spades, Pitch…So when I found these vintage card suit cookie cutters, I knew what I had to do. Linzer cookies for game night!

The Cookies

As I wanted the windowpanes to match the overall shape of the cutters, I had to make templates out of cardboard for the smaller cutouts. You could certainly do the same and make all your cutters out of cardboard, or even cardstock, or you could get a set like this that has both the larger and smaller sizes of the card suits.

Linzer cookies are so buttery and spicy, and then you add that bit of sweet jam…yum. I confess to adding a bit of black food coloring to the blackberry jam to make it darker for the black suits, and I used plum jam for the red suits, but you could use seedless raspberry jam or strawberry or really any red jam. I love cardamom and feel it’s underused so you’re going to find that added to the recipe.

Reality Bakes

Linzer cookie dough can get pretty sticky, so be sure to chill it for at least an hour before you roll it out. And if you find it getting too tacky, pop it back in the fridge from time to time.

Print Pin

Game Night Linzer Cookies

Buttery delicious cookies filled with jam and cut into card suit shapes that are perfect for game night.

Prep Time 50

Cook Time 30

Chilling Time 1 15

Author Jen Leigh

Ingredients

1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom (optional)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Zest from 1 lemon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
Seedless strawberry, raspberry, or another red jam for filling
Seedless blackberry or another dark jam for filling
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Instructions

Pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely ground. Set aside. In a small bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar and set aside.
In large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, cardamom (optional) and salt. Add the ground almonds and stir to blend. Set aside.
In another large mixing bowl, beat the butter with a hand mixer until fluffy and pale yellow. Add the zest and sugar and beat until combined. Add the egg yolk, then blend in the vanilla and almond extract, and beat on low speed until blended.
With the hand mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour and almond mixture to the butter mixture and beat just until combined. Be careful not to overmix. Divide the dough in half and form each into a disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Working with one disk at a time and leaving the other half chilled, roll out dough onto a floured surface to about 1/4" thick. Cut out shapes with card suit cookie cutters (or whatever shape you'd like). Transfer cookies to parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Roll out the other half of the dough and cut out the cookies as before, but also cut out a peekaboo in the center of each one. You can cut a small circle or a square, or duplicate the shape of the overall card suit cookies with a template, or a smaller cutter in the same shape. Transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. You should have at least 12 solid cookie halves and 12 matching peekaboo cut-out cookies.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Bake in preheated oven 12-15 minutes or until cookies are firm to the touch. Cool on baking sheets on wire racks. After about 5 minutes, gently loosen the cookies with a thin spatula but leave them to finish cooling on the sheets.
When completely cool, spread about 1/2 teaspoon red jam over each of the solid heart and diamond cookies, leaving about a 1/4" border. Do the same with the blackberry jam and the solid spade and club cookies. Dust the peekaboo cookie halves with powdered sugar. Place sugared cut-out tops on top of the solid-piece bottoms with the jam.