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BOCCONOTTI

Course Cookies, Desserts
Cuisine Italian
Servings 36 cookies

Ingredients

Pastry Dough:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 whole egg
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • lemon zest from 1 lemon
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter cold, cut into cubes

Filling:

  • 1 cup almonds slices, about 3 oz
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tbs cocoa
  • 2 oz dark chocolate coarsely chopped
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • confectioners sugar for dusting

Instructions

To make the pastry dough:

  • In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, whole egg, egg yolks, baking soda, and lemon zest. With a pastry blender or a fork, cut in the butter until the mixture begins to come together. Use your hands to gather the mixture into a dough and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you make the filling.

To make the filling:

  • Put the almonds in a food processor and grind them until finely chopped. Add the sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate, and cinnamon. Process again until the ingredients are well combined and finely chopped.
  • In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the almond mixture into the beaten egg whites, about 1/3 at a time. When the mixture is well combined, fold in the vanilla.

To form and bake the bocconotti:

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. You will need 36 individual mini tart molds that are approximately 1-1/2 inches wide, measured across the top of the mold or mini cupcake pans with 36 openings.
  • Take a small amount of dough and roll it into a ball about the size of a small walnut. Use your fingers to press it into the mini tart mold to form a shell of fairly even thickness against the edges of the mold. Trim the excess off the top. Continue in this manner until all the tart shells are formed. Then place a teaspoon of filling in each tart shell. Place all the filled tarts on 1 or 2 baking sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes until the dough is lightly golden.
  • Transfer the tart molds to wire racks to cool. When cool, remove the bocconotti from the molds. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Notes

  • Bocconotti, a word that literally means "small bites',  come from the southern regions of Lazio, Puglia, Abruzzo, and Calabria and are made a little differently depending on which region they are from.
  • They are traditionally made in individual baking cups that resemble tiny brioche molds but you can use a mini cupcake pan if you don't have the individual molds.
  • The delicate lemon flavored pastry shells may be filled with grape jam or cherry preserves, ricotta cheese, or a chocolate-almond filling; which is the filling in our recipe.
  • They can be made covered with dough or left open like little pies.  Bocconotti are usually very popular at Christmastime but they are perfect for any time of the year.