Ischler is an Austrian confection, named after the famous spa town Bad Ischl that Franz Joseph I of Austria chose for his summer residence. Bad Ischl lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. One of the town’s sights is the Zauner Confectionery, the “birth place” of Ischler cookies, which was founded by Johann Zauner in 1832 and is still in existence today.

Ischler Törtchen (mini cakes) were created by Richard Kurt in the 1950’s, and they won the gold medal at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958. According to the original recipe Ischler consists of two linzer cookies filled with rum-chocolate cream and covered with melted chocolate. The Zauner supplies, furthermore, another type of Ischler with jam and coffee glaze. We Hungarians have taken over the recipe from our Austrian neighbor, of course, but the Ischler preferred by us and can be found in every Hungarian pastry shop is a hybrid of those two recipes: Hungarian Ischler is a jam filled cookie sandwich dipped into melted chocolate.

The dough can be a plain linzer dough or can also be enriched by adding ground walnuts. It’s recommended to choose a sourish jam (red currant, raspberry or apricot), which can balance well the chocolate’s sweetness. Opinions are divided whether the whole cookie sandwich or only the top should be dipped into melted chocolate. It doesn’t matter which one you decide on, it can make no great difference and does not adversely affect the quality.