Cookbook:Pastries Filled with Jam (Marmeladetascherl)

| Austrian Cuisine

Marmeladetascherl are a variety of sweet filled pastry originating in Austria.

History
Pinzgau, a region in Austria, is popular for various reasons, but especially for the food. Nowadays cuisines of other countries and influence Austrian cuisine, but people in former times had only little choice about what to cook. This was particularly the case for the vast population living under humble circumstances. Although a variety of common professions existed in the Pinzgau region, agriculture and farming were the most fundamental.

The basis for food in the Pinzgau region was milk, potatoes, and corn, which were cooked and prepared in various ways. Meat was a seldom culinary pleasure, even for comparatively prosperous families. Meat was commonly preserved as bacon and occasionally eaten during days of hard fieldwork or on Sundays in dumplings. Rich families ate vegetables almost every day, and fruits were eaten by those who owned fruit orchards. During winter, dried fruits were used to stuff pastries. The famous fruit bread, particularly prepared for Christmas, still reminds of that tradition. The chance for a healthy and balanced diet was a clear privilege to farmers with landholdings. In the past, poverty was the major reason for under-nourishment and consequently for diseases and infections, and almost everything was used and eaten with very few leftovers thrown away.

The marmeladetascherl have their origins in those times; so just try them and get a taste of former times in the Pinzgau region.

Ingredients

 * 250 g flour
 * 1 teaspoon baking powder
 * 250 g butter
 * 1 package curd cheese (e.g. quark or farmer cheese)
 * 1 pinch of salt
 * 1 egg white
 * Jam (or nut cream)

Procedure

 * 1) Mix the flour with the baking powder, and rub in the butter. Then, add the curd and the salt, and knead it into dough.
 * 2) Let the dough rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
 * 3) Roll the dough to about 2 mm thick, and cut it into 10 cm squares.
 * 4) Put a blob of jam in the middle of each square, and fold them diagonally. Press the edges to seal the tascherl.
 * 5) Brush a bit of the egg white onto each tascherl, and place onto a baking sheet.
 * 6) Preheat the oven to 180°C, put the tascherl into the oven, and bake them for approximately 20 minutes.
 * 7) Before serving, dust some sugar onto the tascherl to add some extra flavour.