Bocconotto

Small shortcrust cases filled with jam and ground almond, sealed and baked in moulds.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

Pastry

• 350 g plain flour
• 120 g caster sugar
• 140 g lard, cold and diced
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• the zest of 1 lemon

Filling

• 200 g black cherry jam
• 80 g ground almonds
• 40 g dark chocolate, grated
• 1 tablespoon rum

• icing sugar, to finish

Method

1. Rub the cold lard into the flour, sugar and lemon zest with your fingertips until it is like coarse sand.
2. Add the yolks and whole egg and bring it together in as few movements as you can. WORK IT COLD AND BRIEFLY: this pastry has no water in it, and the warmth of a hand plus a minute of kneading turns it from short to tough with no way back.
3. Wrap and chill it for an hour.
4. Mix the jam, ground almonds, grated chocolate and rum.
5. Roll the pastry 3 mm thick and line small fluted moulds, pressing it in gently.
6. Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in each, lay a disc of pastry over, and press the edges together firmly. They must be sealed: an open seam lets the jam boil out and weld the tartlet to the mould.
7. Bake at 180C for 20 to 25 minutes until pale gold.
8. Cool in the moulds for 10 minutes before turning out, then dust with icing sugar.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes