I
schler [iːʃler] cookies are considered to be one of the finest examples of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy’s pastry tradition, originated in Bad Ischl [baːt ˈɪʃl̩] – a famous spa town in upper Austria, where the Emperor Franz Joseph I enjoyed his summers. In 1832 Johann Zauner, a well known winemaker and merchant from Vienna, decided to expand his business to Bad Ischl, so he founded the pastry shop “Zauner” and that is where these delicate cookies were born. Austrian emperor himself gladly visited Zauner’s pastry shop to treat himself with Ischler cookies, although there is a rumor that he just claimed he went to the pastry shop while he was actually visiting his mistress who lived nearby. Tsk tsk, naughty emperor…Anyway – fun (and impressive) fact – with or without the emperor and his mistress, “Zauner” is still up and running even today, almost two hundred years later! Wow!
There are so many different recipes for this royal treat! Ischler cookies are essentially cookie ‘sandwiches’. Take two cookies enriched with walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts, put some filling – like chocolate buttercream, apricot or raspberry jam – in between, and cover with chocolate glaze. Voilà! Every household in Croatia has its own recipe, and each one of them is, of course, “the best” and the “only true recipe”. Yeah, right..;)
So, which one is the original? According to the books, the original recipe consists of nut cookies filled with chocolate buttercream and glazed with chocolate. Allegedly, in “Zauner” pastry shop there was another Ischler recipe where the cookies were sandwiched with sour jam and glazed with coffee glaze, but I couldn’t find a solid confirmation – or denial, of this claim.
Anyway, since I think that there is never too much chocolate in one’s life, on this occasion I will show you how to make chocolate filled Ischler cookies. Stay tuned!
Ischler Cookies Recipe
by:Tereza Alabanda,The Pastry Maestra
PRINT PDF (EN) ISPIŠI PDF (HR)Prep. time : 60 minutes
Cook time : 20 minutes
Ready in 80 minutes plus cooling
Level : Advanced
Cookie Dough:- All purpose flour 200g (7oz)
- Butter 115g (4oz)
- Hazelnuts, toasted and ground 60g (2oz)
- Powdered sugar 70g (2.5oz)
- Eggs 50g (1.8oz or one medium egg)
- Egg yolks 80g (2.8oz)
- Sugar 130g (4.6oz)
- Butter 200g (7oz)
- Chocolate 55-60% 130g (4.6oz)
- Rum 15g (2Tbsp)
- Chocolate 55-60% 150g (5.3oz)
- Vegetable oil 15g (0.5oz)
- To make cookie dough combine softened butter with powdered sugar in a bowl of a stand mixer and mix with a paddle attachment until creamy. Add one egg and continue beating. Combine the dry ingredients – sifted flour and ground hazelnuts and mix them into the butter mixture until incorporated. Wrap the dough in a plastic film, flatten, and chill it for at least two hours.
- Take the chilled dough and roll it on a floured surface to 5mm (1⁄4“) thickness.
- Cut out circles 5cm (about 2″) in diameter and place them on paper lined baking tray.
- Bake cookies at 180°C (350°F) for 10-15 minutes until golden around the edges.
- Take the cookies out, and let them cool completely.
- To make chocolate buttercream put the egg yolks into a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Place the sugar into a saucepan and add water enough to cover the sugar. Melt the chocolate in a microwave. Start whisking the egg yolks and cook the sugar syrup to 118°C (245°F). Pour the hot syrup into the yolks and continue whisking the mixture. When the mixture cools down start adding softened butter. At the end, mix in melted chocolate. Be careful that chocolate isn’t too hot, because it might melt the butter in buttercream. Mix in the rum.
- Fill the cookies with buttercream. Put the buttercream into a piping bag with a plain 10mm (3⁄8“) tip and pipe a blob on a flat side of one cookie. Press the cream with a flat side of another cookie to get sandwich-like creation. Smooth the sides with a silicone spatula.
- Leave the cookies in the fridge to set before glazing.
- For the glaze melt the chocolate and stir in the oil.
- Place the cookies onto a wire rack, and glaze them. Leave them to set, and decorate them with melted white chocolate. Store Ischler cookies in the fridge.
Copyright© PastryMaestra.comTM
Well, what do you think about this post?
Please leave your comment on YouTube, thank you!
I read and really appreciate all the comments, even though I do not always have the time to respond to each one. So – keep me in the loop and try to create some sweetness every day because – Sweetness is happiness!!
