UW-Stout Archives: Fun with Jam! Bake Ischl Tartlets this weekend

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Fun with Jam! Bake Ischl Tartlets this weekend

This semester we are featuring recipes from cookbooks located in the UW-Stout Archives Special Collections. The Special Collections are older, more rare, or Stout related books that were originally located in the UW-Stout Library’s main stacks collection. This past year we added a wealth of cookbooks to the special collections, and I scoured the shelves for recipes to bring the world of baking to your home during this time.

Recipes: The Cooking of Vienna's Empire, 1968, cookbook

Our next stop is Vienna to bake Ischl Tartlet cookies, via Recipes: The Cooking of Vienna’s Empire, Foods of the World, Time-Life Books, New York, TX721.W42 1968. We have a variety of the Food of the World cookbooks that feature recipes from a certain country or region. Discover more information about these cookbooks here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foods_of_the_World

Ischl Tartlets (To make 12 Tartlets), p. 93

½ lb. + 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened (2 ½ quarter lb. sticks)

2/3 cup sugar

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 ¾ cups ground almonds

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

5 tbsp. raspberry jam

Confectioner’s sugar

Cream the butter and sugar together by beating them against the side of a bowl with a wooden spoon or by using an electric mixer at medium speed, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in flour (½ cup at a time), the almonds and cinnamon, and continue beating until the mixture becomes a slightly stiff dough. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 325*. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a sheet 1/8 in. thick. With a 2 ½ inch circle cookie cutter, cut as many circles from the sheet as you can. Roll and knead dough until you make 12 circles. Arrange on ungreased baking sheet. Repeat the rolling and cutting process to make 12 more circles, and cut out the center of each circle with a ½ in. cookie cutter. Bake both batches in the center of the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until light brown.

Place cookies on a wire rack to cool, about 20 minutes. Spread the tops of the solid circles with a thin coating of jam; lay a cutout cookie on top of each, and press together to make a sandwich. Spoon a dab of jam into the opening of each tart and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.

This recipe was not too hard to follow, just a little on the messy side to mix the dough and spread the jam on the cookies. I do not make cookies often, so it was fun to use my cookie cutters. I made these right before Valentine’s Day, so I also cut out heart shaped cookies and spread jam in between two heart shaped cookies. These cookies are also good without jam spread on top. I say have fun with the cookie shapes, jam flavor, and variations of using jam or no jam. These cookies are delicious, especially with your morning cup of coffee, and my family approved! As the character Joey from the TV show Friends says, “Jam…good!” Happy Baking!