Mostkekse (Upper Austrian Cider Cookies)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small heavy-bottomed saucepan for reducing cider
• •Rolling pin
• •Round cookie cutter (4cm)
• •Small round cutter (1.5cm) for window tops (optional)
• •Two baking trays with parchment paper

Instructions

1. 1

   Reduce the Most

   Pour the 500ml of Most into a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring it to a gentle boil, then lower the heat so it simmers steadily. You're going to reduce it by about four-fifths, down to roughly 100ml. This takes thirty to forty minutes. Don't rush it by cranking the heat. High heat will scorch the sugars and turn your reduction bitter instead of caramel-sweet. As it reduces, the color deepens from pale gold to dark amber and the kitchen fills with a smell like toffee apples and autumn orchards. When it coats the back of a spoon in a thin, syrupy layer, pull it off the heat. Let it cool completely before it goes anywhere near your dough.

   If you can't find Austrian Most, use a dry, unfiltered farmhouse cider. Not sweet commercial cider and definitely not cider vinegar. You want something with natural fruit acidity and very little added sugar. French cidre brut works in a pinch.
2. 2

   Make the dough

   Put the flour, powdered sugar, Vanillezucker, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, salt, and lemon zest into a large bowl. Whisk them together so the spices are evenly distributed. Add the cold cubed butter and work it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. This is a Mürbteig, a short pastry dough, and cold butter is the whole point. If the butter gets warm and greasy, your cookies will spread in the oven and lose their shape.

   If your kitchen runs warm, put the cubed butter back in the fridge for ten minutes before you start. Cold hands help too. Gretel always said she had the best pastry hands in Kent because she was always cold.
3. 3

   Add the wet ingredients

   Make a well in the center of the crumbled mixture. Drop in the egg yolk and pour in the cooled Most reduction. It will be thick and dark, almost like molasses. Bring the dough together with a fork first, then switch to your hands. Knead it briefly, just until it forms a smooth ball. Ten seconds of kneading, not ten minutes. Overworking a Mürbteig develops the gluten and makes the cookies tough instead of tender and crumbly. Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap it in cling film, and rest it in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.

4. 4

   Roll and cut the cookies

   Preheat your oven to 170°C (340°F) and line two baking trays with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 3mm thickness. It should be thin enough to be delicate but sturdy enough to handle. Use a round cutter, about 4cm across, and stamp out as many rounds as you can. Gather the scraps gently, press them together without kneading, and roll once more. You want about 80 rounds to make 40 sandwich cookies. If you like, use a smaller cutter to stamp a small hole in the center of half the rounds. Those become the tops, and the jam peeks through like a little window.

   Dip your cutter in flour between each stamp. This dough is buttery and likes to stick. Work quickly. If the dough softens and fights you, slide it back onto the tray and chill for ten minutes.
5. 5

   Bake the cookies

   Arrange the rounds on the prepared trays with a centimeter between each. They don't spread much but they need room for the heat to circulate. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. You're looking for a dry surface and the faintest golden color at the edges. The cookies will still feel soft when they come out. Don't be fooled. They firm up as they cool. Pull them too late and they'll be dry and crumbly in the wrong way. Let them cool completely on the tray before you touch them. They're fragile while warm.

6. 6

   Fill and assemble

   Warm the sieved Marillenmarmelade gently in a small saucepan until it loosens and becomes spreadable. Sieving matters here. Seeds and chunks of fruit will tear through your delicate cookies like a boot through fresh snow. Turn half the cooled cookies flat-side up. Spoon or pipe a small amount of warm jam onto each one, about half a teaspoon. Press the matching tops on gently. If you cut windows in the tops, dust them generously with powdered sugar before you place them on the jam so thesugar stays white and clean. If you're making solid tops, dust the finished sandwiches after assembly.

7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Place the finished Mostkekse in a single layer in a cookie tin with parchment paper between the layers. Close the tin and let them rest for at least one day before eating. This is the hardest step. The jam softens the cookies just slightly, the spices meld with the cider flavor, and everything comes together into something better than the sum of its parts. After a day, they're good. After three, they're perfect. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •The Most reduction is the soul of these cookies. Taste it when it's finished cooling. It should be tangy, sweet, and complex, like fruit leather in liquid form. If it tastes flat or burnt, start again with fresh cider. Everything else in the recipe is forgiving. The reduction is not.
• •Use real Vanillezucker, not vanilla extract. A packet of Austrian Vanillezucker or a teaspoon from your own vanilla sugar jar gives a rounded warmth that extract can't match. If you don't have any, bury a split vanilla pod in a jar of caster sugar today and you'll have Vanillezucker for every recipe from now on.
• •Marillenmarmelade is traditional and my first choice because the apricot's tartness plays beautifully against the cider. But Ribiselmarmelade (redcurrant jam) works too if you want something sharper, and Zwetschkenmarmelade (plum jam) gives you a deeper, earthier cookie that leans into autumn. Try a few of each and decide which tin you like best.
• •These keep beautifully for three weeks in a sealed tin, and they actually improve over the first few days. That makes them ideal for the Weihnachtsbäckerei. Bake them in early December and they'll be at their best by Christmas Eve.

Advance Preparation

• •The Most reduction can be made up to a week ahead and stored in a sealed jar in the fridge. Bring it to room temperature before adding to the dough.
• •The dough can be made a day ahead, wrapped tightly, and refrigerated. Let it sit at room temperature for ten minutes before rolling so it doesn't crack.
• •Baked but unfilled cookies store well in an airtight container for up to five days. Fill them when you're ready to start the resting period.
• •Filled Mostkekse keep for three weeks in a tin at cool room temperature. They're better on day three than day one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 20g)