There are certain ingredients that distinguish the Viennese kitchen from the British or American: vanilla sugar in place of vanilla extract or essence; ground walnuts or hazelnuts over ground almonds; poppy seeds a go-go; and, in lieu of dark rum from the Caribbean, Stroh or Inländer rum. This witches' brew (called tuzemák in the Czech Republic and hajós in Hungary) was a product born out of necessity. Unlike the British Empire, the Austro-Hungarian had no sugar cane-producing colonies to exploit for their natural resources, and so it was that in the nineteenth century, a chemist in Krems an der Donau conceived of a substitute product distilled from beet sugar and augmented with certain flavourings and colourings to give it a rum-like flavour. Though the days of empire are long gone and international trade with us, Inländer rum remains incredibly popular in Vienna -- more so than Caribbean rum, I dare say -- and, today made with sugarcane molasses per EU edict, its largest manufacturer is the Carinthia-based firm Stroh, founded by Sebastian Stroh in 1832.
You'll find Inländer rum in a number of Viennese desserts, including Cremeschnitte, but its instantly-detectable presence is most pronounced in Punschtorte and Punschkrapfen. It was Thomas Bernhard who said of the Austrian people, referencing the make-up of this petit four, that they were like Punschkrapfen: red on the outside, brown in the middle, and always a little bit drunk. A little over one square inch in size, the centre of a Punschkrapfen consists of two thin layers of vanilla genoise sponge spread with warmed apricot marmalade sandwiching a much thicker layer made from leftover genoise and either grated or chopped chocolate that has been soaked in a mixture of apricot jam, orange juice, and rum. The Punschkrapfen are finished with a glaze made from egg whites, rum, orange juice, icing sugar, and enough red food colouring to give the petit four its signature pink hue. The cherry on top is optional. Boozy, sickly, sweet, this dessert is not one for the faint of heart.
