Name: Viennese Punch Cookies
Yield: Makes about 24 sandwich cookies
Cuisine: Austria
Ingredients: 1 cup (about 4 ounces/100 grams) slivered almonds, finely ground in the food processor; 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted after measuring; 1 cup confectioners’ sugar; 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest; 1 drop liquid red food coloring; ⅓ cup apricot preserves, strained; 2 tablespoons dark rum; 2½ cups all-purpose flour (spoon flour into a dry-measure cup and level off); 2 ounces (50 grams) semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled; Baked cookie dough scraps; 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened; 2 teaspoons water; 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest; 2 cookie sheets or jelly-roll pans lined with parchment or foil

Preparation info

Makes about
24
sandwich cookies

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Modern Baker

By Nick Malgieri

Published 2008

About

In Vienna, a Punschtorte (punch cake) is an elaborate affair of dense sponge cake filled with something akin to a rum ball mixtur—cake crumbs soaked in rum and flavored with a bit of chocolate, some apricot preserves, and some grated lemon and orange zests. Then it’s covered with apricot preserves, a layer of marzipan, and a pink sugar icing. It’s quite sweet but also very delicate. To make this cookie version of the famous cake, I decided to bake the cookie scraps, then grind them up in th