Bull’s Eye Cookies
The bull’s eye cookies are delicious shortcrust pastries typical of South Tyrol with a round shape, usually filled with apricot jam, custard, or gianduja cream.
Extremely crumbly, they derive their name from their appearance, as they are two overlapping round shortcrust pastry discs with a hole in the center through which the filling slightly comes out, reminiscent of a cooked egg.
As with any traditional recipe, there are several versions, the one I present today was “given” to me by a pastry master from Alta Badia whom I met during a snow holiday.
Preparing the bull’s eye cookies is extremely easy and quick, and you absolutely don’t need to be a cooking expert, just follow a few simple tricks to get a perfect result.
To start with, I recommend, as always, using top-quality ingredients starting with the butter, then very fresh eggs, and once the dough is obtained, it will be essential to rest the dough in the refrigerator to get perfectly shaped cookies during baking. Also, pay attention to the thickness of the cookies, which should be as similar as possible and not too thick since they need to be paired and overlapped.
According to the original recipe, they are round and filled with apricot jam, like today’s, but with this base, you can make many variations: heart, star, flower shapes, and fill them with the jam you prefer or with Custard or Nutella; just a dusting of powdered sugar and the bull’s eye cookies are ready to be served.
Perfect to serve with a cup of tea or for a snack, but also for a rich breakfast or to be gifted in tin boxes.
If you love recipes from Trentino Alto Adige, also try
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 45 Minutes
- Portions: 20 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 453.74 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 57.96 (g) of which sugars 26.78 (g)
- Proteins 5.98 (g)
- Fat 23.49 (g) of which saturated 14.56 (g)of which unsaturated 8.68 (g)
- Fibers 0.98 (g)
- Sodium 128.88 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 70 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/8 cups butter
- 7/8 cups sugar
- 4 egg yolks (about 80 g)
- 1 pinch salt
- to taste lemon zest (organic)
- 5.3 oz apricot jam (or other fruit, hazelnut cream, pistachio)
- to taste powdered sugar
Tools
- Mixer
- Baking Tray
- Cookie Cutter
Steps
First, take the butter out of the refrigerator 5 minutes before preparing the shortcrust, cut it into cubes, add the sugar, grated lemon zest, and a pinch of salt. Knead by hand on a pastry board or in the mixer bowl with the hook or paddle until you get a homogeneous consistency. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and continue to mix until incorporated, finally add the flour to the mixture and knead until all the flour is completely absorbed, achieving the classic shortcrust consistency.
Remove the shortcrust from the mixer, work it until it forms a not too thick rectangular block, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. After the time, take the shortcrust out of the fridge and work it for about 2 minutes, just enough time to make it elastic again. Roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 1/5 inches. Cut the cookies with a round cutter and place them one by one on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. In half of the cookies, make a hole in the center with a smaller round cutter. Bake in a static oven at 347°F for about 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Slightly mix the jam (or hazelnut cream) to make it homogeneous and velvety, pour it into a piping bag with a smooth nozzle. Place a drop of jam on the unholed cookie, dust powdered sugar on the surface of the cookies with the hole in the center, then lay it on the cookie with the jam, making a slight pressure. Here are your delicious Bull’s Eye Cookies with jam ready!
NOTES
You can also prepare the shortcrust the day before and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight, covered with plastic wrap.
The baking time for cookies may vary slightly depending on the type of oven and the thickness of the shortcrust.
It’s possible to replace the apricot jam with other types of jams, orange marmalade, custard, Nutella, or other spreadable creams.
STORAGE
If you fill the Bull’s Eye Cookies with jams or marmalades, it will not be necessary to store them in the refrigerator, but just put them in a cookie box. If instead, you choose to fill them with custard, you should store them in the refrigerator and they will keep for a maximum of 3 days.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Why is this cookie called Bull’s Eye?
The name of this Bull’s Eye cookie comes from its appearance similar to a large eye, where the filling in the center – usually jam – resembles a pupil.
Bull’s Eye Cookies original recipe – curiosities and origins
The Bull’s Eye is a typical Italian traditional cookie made of two layers of round shortcrust pastry in between which jam or chocolate spread is inserted. The top layer of the shortcrust has a hole in the center which allows seeing the filling. The Bull’s Eye Cookie is a typical sweet from Trentino-Alto Adige, particularly from the South Tyrol area where these cookies are usually made with apricot jam.
