Note: This Eisenbahner recipe was originally part of my Biscuit Advent Calendar, a one-recipe-a-day email series in December. You can find the other recipes and sign up for the next round if you want here.
Today sounds like another Engineering challenge: railroad biscuits. But they are actually not so hard to make. What you do need in terms of special equipment is a small star-shaped piping nozzle. But you could also use a freezer bag with a corner snipped off (you just don’t get the raised edges then).
I have no idea where these cookies come from exactly but there is a lukewarm trail (track?) to Austria.
This is a three-part biscuit: shortbread base, generous fruity filling, and a piped marzipan border. All things I love and I hope you will, too.
There is a related biscuit in terms of composition which is also fairly well-known: the Ochsenauge or ‘ox’s eye’. You can maybe guess that it’s round with the marzipan border piped around the rim and the fruit filling in the middle. Otherwise it’s pretty much the same.
However, I think these are quite elegant-looking, I do like the name better and they are easier to make. Win win win.
Marzipan
Yes, I do have a weakness for marzipan. But not all marzipan is created equal. It can vary heavily in almond content, and it is flavoured with such hard-hitting substances (rose water and almond extract) that it can easily taste quite sickly.
The marzipan I use in Christmas baking is sold in Germany as “Marzipanrohmasse,” translated as “raw marzipan paste.” Its almond content is quite high: at least 50%.
But it doesn’t top out the nut-content scales: the city in Germany best known for its marzipan is Lübeck. And the sugar content of Lübeck “raw marzipan” must be below 35%.
However, that makes the raw marzipan expensive and harder to work with, so many goodies made from Lübeck marzipan have further sugar added during the manufacturing process (there are three grades: ‘noble’ (90+:10 raw:sugar), ‘standard’ (70:30 raw:sugar), and ‘consumer’ (50:50 raw:sugar)).
All that to say: marzipan is not marzipan.
If you can’t find good quality marzipan you can also make it yourself. It is really not that hard. All you need are finely ground almonds (the fresher the better), icing sugar, almond extract, rose water, and a little water. You could forgo rose water and/or almond extract but then it tastes a lot milder. And it’s important to go easy on the almond extract, it tastes very artificial if you add too much. I suspect this is why some people say they hate marzipan. Some manufacturers make marzipan more cheaply by reducing nut content and upping almond extract. Here’s a recipe. This makes only 190 g instead of 200 g ready-made which I specified in the main recipe, but that 5% discrepancy is fine.
Homemade Marzipan Recipe
Makes about 190 g
Ingredients:
- 100 g finely ground almonds (as fresh as possible and not almond flour (it can be defatted, you don’t want that))
- 80 g icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp rosewater
- 1.5 tsp water
- a few drops of almond extract/bitter almond oil
Instructions
Use a blender for this if you have one (not a mixer, it needs blades). Otherwise you can also knead by hand (but it’s more fickle in terms of preventing oil separation).
Blend almonds and sugar until very fine. Add the rose water, water and extract until the mix clumps together. It’s a matter of 10-20 seconds. If it doesn’t clump, add a tiny bit more water. Take it out and knead it into a ball (not too long), then wrap it and keep it in the fridge for at least two hours before using. It changes texture as the almonds absorb the moisture slowly.
And with that out of the way let’s start with the first (but not last) marzipan containing recipe:
Eisenbahner Recipe
Makes 80-100
Ingredients
- Shortbread base
- 300 g plain flour
- 200 g butter
- 100 g sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- pinch of salt
- optional: vanilla flavor to taste
- Railway tracks
- 200 g marzipan
- 25 g butter at room temperature (1 tbsp)
- 20 g icing sugar (1.5 tbsp)
- 1 egg white
- Filling
- 200 g redcurrant jelly (if you can’t find redcurrant then another red jelly)
Instructions
Make the dough
Knead flour, butter, sugar, egg yolk, salt and vanilla into a homogeneous dough, cover or wrap it and put it in the fridge to chill for at least an hour or overnight.
Shortbread base
Heat the oven to 170°C conventional.
Roll out the shortbread to a thickness of 3-4 mm, then cut it into long strips 5 cm wide and a bit shorter than the short side of your baking tray and set the strips on the lined tray. Bake for 7 minutes. Let cool.
Tracks
Grate the marzipan and mix it with all the other track ingredients. Fill into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe long lines on the sides of the shortbread strips. Bake for another 10 minutes until the marzipan is golden brown. Meanwhile, heat the redcurrant jelly.
Fill and Cut
Spread the jelly between the marzipan tracks while they are still warm. You can do it with a piping bag or a spoon,
Let the biscuits cool down completely. Then cut into about 2 cm wide strips (or what looks nice to you).
Pack them gently into tins or boxes. I separate the layers with baking parchment as the jelly stays a bit sticky.
Enjoy!!
Happy Monday!!
Konstanze