How I Learned to Make Linzer Cookies (and How Many I Actually Made)

If you follow my unprofessional baking journey that I've been documenting here, you might have noticed that I've decided to make baking a side mission every once in a while. This time, in an attempt to fulfill my monthly weekend duty (and also because I was feeling cute and wanted to give my friends something homemade for Christmas), I decided to bake Linzer cookies. Following another recipe from Luvita Ho's YouTube channel, I planned to bake around 35-40 cookies by dividing the process into four or five batches. 

Much to my dismay, my baking session this time didn't go as planned. While the cookies turned out delicious, the total number of cookies I ended up with after several hours of baking was only... 6 (so much for 40!!!). I either burned them in the oven or broke them while decorating. Well...

And I ended up stopping after the second batch.

Despite the failure, I've learned how to make Linzer cookies and the challenges they come with. If I were to make another batch now, there's a high chance I would smash it (or, at the very least, bake more than six cookies in a few hours).

Since my experience was a bit of a disappointment, I don't quite have the confidence to share a list of tips and tricks for this dessert. Instead, I'll just write down a couple of things you SHOULD and SHOULDN'T do if you're planning to make the same cookies:

1. When rolling the dough, don't make it too thin, or else it will break easily.
   
   
2. The YouTube video instructs us to: 1) cut the rolled dough with cookie cutters without removing the cut dough; 2) put the whole dough back in the freezer; and 3) separate the cut dough while it's cold.
   
   
   
   Based on my experience, I find it easier to cut the rolled dough and separate the pieces directly. Putting it in the freezer, in my opinion, doesn't make the dough less fragile.
   

But that's just my two cents. And it turns out that I only have two bullet points to share. If you would like to counter my argument, please feel free to do so! I'm still looking for more pro tips and tricks to perfect my Linzer cookies skills.

My face upon learning how many dishes I needed to do afterward:

(Shock, but still trying to look good for a selfie)