Spiced Persimmon & Cranberry Linzer Torte

Originating from Linz, Austria, the Linzer torte is one of the oldest tortes in the world, found in an Austrian abbey in the early 1700s.

It is made with a buttery pastry dough with a significant amount of ground nuts, typically hazelnuts, but often with almonds or walnuts. With a lattice design on the top, it is traditionally filled with red currant jam; but raspberry, apricot and plum are quite popular too.

Linzer cookies employ the same recipe as the Linzer torte but instead the dough is cut into cookies and two of them form a sandwich around the preserves.  Moreover, the top cookie has a small cutout in its center (known as Linzer eyes), thus exposing the underlying jam and adding to the visual appeal. 

When Linzer torte was brought to North America in the 19th century, it became very popular. Today the Linzer cookie is still very commonly used in celebrating Christmas and other holidays as well.

There are countless versions of Linzer tortes around showcasing different nuts, different preserves, and so on such as tahini and sesame Linzer, beets Linzer, a lemon curd Linzer and a chestnut apple Linzer just to name a few.

With my passion for ‘recipe development’, I wanted to come up with a ‘Linzer torte’ that showcased persimmons and cranberries for Christmas. This is what developed!

Print Recipe
Spiced Persimmon & Cranberry Linzer Torte
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Servings
Ingredients
Spiced Cranberries
Cheesecake Filling
Servings
Ingredients
Spiced Cranberries
Cheesecake Filling
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Crust
  1. In a bowl, sift together flour & salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar & vanilla until light & fluffy. Beat in as much flour mixture as possible. Mix in the rest & gently knead till dough comes together. Form into a disk & wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
Cranberries
  1. In a saucepan, combine whole berry sauce, raspberries, sugar, orange zest & cinnamon. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the sauce thickens & is bubbly. Remove from heat & allow to cool. The sauce will thicken slightly as it cools.
Persimmons
  1. Place the melted butter in a large bowl & stir in the honey & spices. Stir well, then add persimmon slices. Toss to coat each slice well.
Cheesecake Filling
  1. Using a mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth then add sugar & blend well. Add eggs & vanilla, beat until smooth.
Baking
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Between 2 sheets of parchment paper, roll out 2/3 of pastry into a 10-inch circle. Place in an 8-inch springform pan. From the remaining 1/3 of the pastry cut a 5-inch circle. In the center of this circle cut a 3-inch circle (this should resemble a Linzer cookie). If you wish you can cut out a few 'stars' for decorations. Lay pastry ring & stars on parchment paper & place on a baking sheet. Blind bake pastry in the springform pan for 8 minutes or until barely set. Bake the ring & stars until golden.
  3. Remove springform pan from oven & pour cream cheese mixture over warm crust. Bake for 20 minutes or until crust is lightly golden & cheesecake tests done. Set aside to cool.
Assembly
  1. When cheesecake has cooled, place the slices of persimmon, overlapping each other to form 2 circles around the outer edge. Spoon spiced cranberries in the middle of the persimmons.
  2. Sprinkle baked pastry ring & stars with powdered sugar & place on top of cranberries. Press down slightly. Your torte should resemble a large Linzer cookie when finished.
Recipe Notes
  • You will have extra cranberry sauce which can be easily used over the holiday season I found. Brion & I liked them so much we added extra to our slices of torte.

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