ISCHL TARTLETS – holiday treats with a historical love story


Delicious and simple recipe for delicious treats that hide one of the most beautiful love stories of the 19th century. ISCHL TARtLETS are shortbread cookies mostly made for the holidays but any Croatian housewife would be glad to prepare a few if you ask.
These tiny, dark brown cookies combined with fine cream and decorated with a perfect chocolate blend, are a classic when Christmas comes. Therefore, the recipe is shared from knee to knee from moms, grandmothers, aunts, and so on.
The first Ischl tartlets were made in a small town of Bad Ischl, famous for being fairy-tale and magical little village, and the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franjo Josip and his beautiful wife, Princess Elizabeth, nationally known better as Sissi, decided to make this their summer residency. And just in that small Bad Ischl, Franz Joseph had seen Sissi one year ago and fell in love with her and decided to marry her and the rest is history. Since Croatia has been under the Austro-Hungarian Empire for quite a time, it’s no wonder that these cookies had an impact on Croatian cuisine.
Now try to make your own with this delicious and simple recipe!

Ingredients:

Dough ingredients: 20 dkg hard flour,16 dkg butter,10 dkg powdered sugar,10 dkg walnuts,1 egg yolk; Filling ingredients: 2 eggs,14 dkg powdered sugar,14 dkg butter,3 chocolate chunks,1 vanillin sugar, melted chocolate glaze;

Preparation:

Making filling: whisk in egg, sugar, chocolate and vanillin sugar. Steam cook with constant stirring until thickens, remove from heat, cool and stir in foamy butter. Knead dough from flour, butter, sugar, minced walnuts and yolks, and leave to cool for an hour. Roll out the dough and cut in small tarts using a cup. Bake at 200°C about 15 minutes. Spread filling over cooled tarts and stick them together (like a sandwich). Place tarts on a wire rack and coat with chocolate glaze.

Practical tip:

Place clean baking paper under the rack, as to use a leftover glaze.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Andreja Pruša Horvatić

"There are countless beautiful stories proving that what I’ve been doing for the past eight years, with varying levels of enthusiasm is truly meaningful."

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