Ischler Cookies

No wonder all the Christmas songs are singing this is the best time of the year! Sure, summer and spring win the season competition but December really is the coziest and merriest month of all! If you have luck, it's all white outside, then you can listen to the extra sexy voice of Michael Buble while he's singing it's a holly jolly Christmas and you can make and then sample allllll the Xmas cookies you will be making for the holidays! No guilt included!

Because how on earth would you know if a recipe is good? Even if you've made it hundreds of times, what if this year the recipe has expired? You just MUST try it out and see for yourself! Right? 

So, I dived myself into searching for the perfect cookie recipes. Well, there are too many. And too much sampling would mean way too small clothes, as well. So after debating whether it's worth it I just stuck to my favorite Christmas cookie recipe! If you've never had one of these linzer cookie sandwiches then you hadn't really lived before. That's right! They're that good! 

So if you don't know what an Ischler cookie is like then read on my friend! Ischler cookies are the best. Simply put :) 

You make a linzer cookie dough that has ground walnuts in it first. You can substitute it to almond meal, as well. Your choice. Then roll it out, cut small rounds in the dough and bake them. Then comes the fun part, you take one cookie, spread sour cherry or apricot jam on it and put another cookie on top. Then pour some wonderfully melted chocolate on the cookie sandwich! So so so good! The cookie is crumbly in a very very good way and the chocolate and sour jam just complement each other so well! 

Oh and they look kinda fancy, don't they? They just shout that you've spent a good amount of time making them so everyone will be super impressed :) So show them off at your Christmas party this year! :) 

Ischler Cookies

makes about 15 cookie sandwiches

200 grams flour (about 1 and 3/4 cups)

100 grams ground walnut or almond meal (1/2 cup)

1/2 tsp salt

150 grams butter (2/3 cup)

50 grams sugar (about 1/4 cup, a little less) - I used brown cane sugar

1 lemon's zest

1 Tbsp rum

for the filling

fruit preserve of your choice - I used homemade apricot and sour cherry preserves

for the chocolate coat

180 grams chocolate (about 6.3 oz)

2 Tbsp oil

For the linzer cookie dough, mix the flour, ground walnut, salt and sugar together. Cut the butter in it. Add in the lemon zest and the rum. You can use an electric mixer but I found that after a while you should switch to working with your hands. The dough will be very crumbly but after 5 minutes it will come together. Form the dough into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Dust a bread board or your counter with flour and roll the dough into about 1/2 cm. I didn't really know how thick 1/2 cm is in a dough form so I just trusted my eyes. It should look like this:

The dough will be very sticky so it will be a bit tricky to roll it out but sprinkle some flour on it and you'll be fine. It's essential for the dough to be this sticky, that's why it will have the perfect crumble to it. 

Preheat your oven to 170C or 350F.

Cut rounds in the dough with a cutter. My cutter was too small so I just used a glass :)

Once you cut all the holes, collect the remaining dough and roll it out again and cut the rounds the same way.

Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake them for 12-13 minutes. They should have a very light color, don't wait until they brown because it will dry the cookies.

Chill the cookies for 10 minutes. Then take one cookie and spread a fruit preserve of your choice on it lightly.

Press the other side of the cookie on the preserve and repeat the same method with all the other cookies.

When you're done, melt the chocolate and oil over boiling water. Place the cookies on a cooling rack. Put a baking sheet or foil under it. Then pour the chocolate over the cookies.

The chocolate will need time to harden so it's advised not to touch for a couple of hours. Decorate the cookies with an almond or walnut on top! The cookies taste better after time so if you make this for a gathering, make it 1 day prior!