Linzer torte

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The Linzer Torte (or Linzertorte) is an Austrian Tart or Pie made with a very short, crumbly pastry of flour, butter and ground nuts (usually almonds), in two thin layers, with a filling of plum butter or jam (most often raspberry^[1] or red currant.) It has a round opening on the top revealing a layer of jam, or it may be covered by a lattice of dough strips.

It resembles a large cookie (or biscuit in British usage) and indeed is often found made into small tarts or cookies in North American bakeries.

The Linzer Torte, named for the city of Linz, Austria, is the oldest-known torte or cake in the world. 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 man die Linzer Dortten macht" ("How to make the Linzer Torte") found an even older recipe from 1653 in Codex 35/31 in the archive of the Admont Abbey.^[2]

Johann Konrad Vogel (1796 - 1883) began the mass production of the cake that made it famous around the world.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Iaia, Sarah Kelly. Festive Baking: Holiday Classics in the Swiss, German, and Austrian Traditions. Doubleday, 1988.
2. ^ http://www.landesmuseum.at/de/lm/pages.php?page_id=134 (7. Nov. 2006)