I thought I start a little Christmas cookie series since Christmas Eve is in a bit over a week. I recreated a few recipes that my dearest grandmother used to make every year. She was definitely one of the persons in my family that have a great knowledge and passion for cooking. Beside making the best potato rostis, she also made the best cookies. And these Ischler Tarts or Ischler Törtchen happen to be the first of this mini Christmas series!
Unfortunately last Christmas was the last we spent celebrating together as she passed away in spring this year. In remembrance of her amazing cooking skills I slightly adapted a few recipes of her. Even I made them dairy- and egg free they still taste just as I remembered.
Dear granny, thank you for always sharing your love for homemade goods with us! My
About these Ischler Tarts
These Ischler Tart cookies are my brothers favourite. Chocolate buttercream sandwiched between two cookies and topped with more chocolate and half of a walnut. Due to the amount of nuts in the dough, they have a unique and delight taste, but the cookies on their own wouldn’t be as good. It’s the whole composition that makes them so special.
The very original recipe calls for jam that is also spread on one of each cookie sandwich before putting them together. However my grandmother never used to make it that way. As I thought it adds a nice fruity twist and gives them a slight tanginess I added red current jam to half of the cookie batch.
Just to say one thing straightforward: baking these cookies is A MESS. And they TAKE TIME and LOVE. But in my opinion, the passion we put into things is what makes them (taste) so good. And I promise, the reward of making these will be truly pay off!
Oh, and also…
Also I want to note that these cookies are pretty much the “real thing”. As much as I love making traditional food/ favourites more “wholesome”, I wanted them to be as true to my grandmothers recipe as possible. And after all, it’s Christmas. Even though I was very tempted to make them “healthier”, I had to be really honest with myself- sometimes “healthified, low fat, low (insert whatever comes to your mind)” versions just don’t taste real. And there’s nothing wrong with treating ourselves to something that brings up beautiful memories and might not meeting our demands.
But there’s really nothing wrong with it! Christmas is for celebrating with loved ones, feeling happy and peaceful and good food is a part of being kind to ourselves. And no one should worry about something that actually is nothing to worry about. Because it adds more joy to our lifes.
So then, enough of my rambling and Happy Christmas baking!
ALL THE BEST
Ischler Törtchen (Ischler tarts)
Ingredients
cookies
- 270 g flour
- 250 g (vegan) butter *
- 150 g powdered sweetener/ sugar
- 200 g ground almonds
- 2 Tsp cinnamon
- 1-2 Tbsp plantmilk (in case the dough should be too crumbly/ dry)
the chocolate-buttercream filling
- 100 g (vegan)butter
- 100 g powdered sweetener/ sugar
- 100 g dark chocolate
Jam
- 250 g slightly sour jam, such as red currant or sour cherry
ganache
- 150 g dark chocolate
- 3 Tbsp (45g) almondbutter
Instructions
- Start by mixing together the ingredients for the dough with an electric hand mixer, with the hands or in a food processor. Leave the plant milk out at first to see if you need it. If the dough feels too dry and crumbly, start with adding 1 Tbsp. Add more if you need to in order to achieve the right consistency. The dough will be on the "softer" side but should not look and feel "spreadable".
- Roll dough into two equal sized balls. Cover bowl with a kitchen towel and let sit in the fridge for 30 min.
- When the dough is ready, take it out of the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 200C. Roll out the the dough about 0.5 cm (0.2 inches) thick. Using a small round glass or cookie cutter, cut out circles. Place on a lined baking tray and bake the cookies for 7 minutes. They will stay light in color, little browned edges are fine but they should not be burned! If that's the case, leave them in the oven for a shorter period of time or reduce the temperature to 180C.
- Repeat the process until there is no more dough left. When all cookies are baked, let them cool completely.
- Melt chocolate for the filling in a water bath. Let cool a bit.
- In a mixing bowl, whip up butter and powdered sweetener/ sugar with an electric hand mixer. Add slightly cooled melted chocolate and mix again until everything is well combined and a chocolate-cream formed.
- Spread a small teaspoon of the filling on top a cookie. If using the jam, spread a teaspoon of that as well on the bottom side of another cookie and put it on top. Again repeat this process until you have no more single cookies left.
- To make the ganache, simply melt the chocolate in a water bath. When it is smooth, add almond butter and combine. Spread a teaspoon of the ganache on each little cookie tower, place a walnut in the middle of the cookies and let cool completely again. Store in an airtight (cookie)box in a dark and colder place. Enjoy!
