Monday, December 15, 2014

The Ischler


I come from a long line of Christmas Eve-ers who firmly believed the table should groan from plates upon plates of Christmas cookies and tea breads to go with pots of hot tea while opening presents and singing carols surrounded by dozens of cousins.  Those days are long gone but baking these Ischlers brought back that cozy feeling which surprised me, probably because I forgot to toast the almonds, froze the dough by mistake which made it really easy to handle once it thawed a bit and opted for store bought jam.  In other words, I didn't get too fiddly with these cookies. 


Yesterday I had help mixing up the dough.  This is my youngest granddaughter who is four and half.  She scooted a chair up to the counter and scooted me out of the way.  I did a combination mini food processor and mixer method, opting to grind the nuts with the powdered sugar.  This little one is a real Let Me Do It kid and loved pushing the pulse button.  Not merely content to add cupfuls of flour, I was informed she was quite capable of turning on and off  the mixer after each addition  (with inconspicuous close supervision).   Today I rolled out the dough with this adjustable rolling pin, a gift from my daughter back in the Heavenly Cake days.  It works like a charm. 


I used wax paper instead of plastic wrap and popped the dough back in the freezer to rechill before peeling the cut out dough onto the baking sheet with an off set spatula.   Speaking of which, I noticed a huge difference between baking pans and how the cookies browned.  I have those air cushioned ones but also an older plain one which caused the cookies to bake too quickly.  I also noticed baking them higher in the oven was a better option for me, they didn't brown as fast.  A dough scraper with a sharp edge was the perfect spatula to move the hot cookies to the cooling rack.  I love Trader Joe's organic apricot preserves so that is what I opted for, along with their organic strawberry jam to try on a few for fun, thinking  chocolate dipped strawberries..  They did not have the correct percentage of dark chocolate so I used a mix of Valrohona dark and milk chocolate for the ganache,  


These cookies plain kept reminding me of  Russian teacakes.  I rolled a few in powdered sugar and they were really good!   So Ischlers are apparently quite versatile either using the traditional apricot and chocolate combination or different jams as well as the powdered sugar coating for children's palates.  Now that I've got the hang of rolling,  cutting, rechilling and transferring to the baking sheet, I will make them again will all sorts of different jam fillings.




13 comments:

  1. Hello Vicki, Congratulations on successful Ischlers and your little helper looks completely smitten with the Kitchen Aid. I would have been too if we had one when I was her age. I'm sure she was an excellent helper.

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  2. What a cute little helper you had! After going through all the trouble of making the apricot lekvar, I wish I would have used jam instead. Live and learn - lol.

    Patricia @ ButterYum
    http://www.butteryum.org/roses-alpha-bakers/2014/11/6/tbb-the-ischler

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  3. Nice to see that you have help too! She looks so serious. Maybe we should sign her up right now for whatever book Rose is working on in 20 years.

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  4. ב''ה

    Adjustable rolling pin. Whoah. Cool. I like how your cookies turned out.

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  5. ב''ה

    Adjustable rolling pin. Whoah. Cool.

    I like the top picture. I looks like they turned out nicely for you.

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  6. Hello, Vicki: Great cookies, and so glad to see a photo of your beautiful granddaughter helping in the kitchen! I enjoyed baking the Ischler cookies, but we move so quickly on to the next recipe that I hardly have time to savor the possibilities. It's so nice to see the other Alpha Bakers' ideas for these delicacies! Please visit me at www.artfuloven.com, where I am giving away one of Rose's favorite kitchen gadgets this week! Happy baking to you and yours--Michele

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  7. Vicki, your helper is adorable! And your cookies look awesome!!

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  8. What an adorable helper! Hopefully Eliot will love the mixer, too. I forgot to toast my almonds, too, in fact I didn't even think about it until I read your post!

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  9. Wish I had a helper like that! Unfortunately my dogs refuse to learn. Moving the rack up is a great idea.

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  10. I remember when she was born! Amazing. Pretty sure we won't be waiting 20 years for her to do a cook through. I treasure the memories of baking with my grandmother - such an everlasting gift (makes me tear up just thinking about it). And I love how evocative baking can be...

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  11. What an adorable helper! Memories in the making!

    Lois B @ Polishhousewife.com
    My iPad is determined to make me Ed

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  12. she's so adorable and she's helping you your post is looks lovely in your cookies look very delicious you did a great job and when you have a minute come check out mine if you don't mind thank you.
    http://maggiggie55.blogspot.ca/2014/12/tbb-ischler-cookies.html?m=1

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  13. Your granddaughter sounds like a great helper and at that age where they want to do everything themselves!

    Your cookies look really delicious - I like the nutty texture! I'm determined to try the apricot lekvar at some point so will look for the TJ's organic apricot preserves that you recommend :)

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