Calabrian bocconotti with fox grape mustard, a homemade fox grape jam with unique taste and aroma, the recipe here. Bocconotti are crumbly pastry shells, generally made with lard pastry, but you can also use oil-based pastry or butter, as I did for those in the photo, a pastry shell that contains the delicious filling of fox grape mustard. These are traditional sweets, usually prepared for holidays, at Easter but also at Christmas, considered rich sweets, originally made with lard pastry, today I use butter, and a filling with a strong taste, originally with almonds and sugar, as evident from the ancient Mormanno nuns’ recipe, then these ingredients were replaced with a simple grape mustard, fox grape jam, easy to make at home, but there are some areas where they have replaced the jam with a fragrant filling of cinnamon with chocolate and almonds. At my home, my grandmother and my mother made them with grape mustard, my mom made large supplies of grape jam, we prepared it at home, with grapes from our vineyard, a long day preparing it, but we had supplies for the whole year, for our sweets and our snacks, delicious also on bread, or to eat with cheese. Then, as we grew up, we asked to make some with Nutella too, making them a real sinful indulgence, which is nice to give in to from time to time. Nowadays, they are made much more frequently, without waiting for holidays, they are a great way to start the day, they are nothing but delicious filled pastry cookies, and each time we can try with a different filling. These bocconotti sweets, or bucconotti, bucchinotti, depending on the town, are not only in Calabria, but there are similar versions in Puglia, in Abruzzo, but undoubtedly the origin is right here in Calabria, already in the 1300s a similar sweet existed, with the typical elongated shape with wavy edges, or round always with flared and wavy edges, whose name bocconotto indicates its characteristic of being small enough to easily eat in one bite.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 15 pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for Calabrian Bocconotti
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter (or 7 tablespoons lard)
- to taste lemon zest
- to taste vanillin
- 1 tsp baking powder (optional)
- 1 1/3 cup Grape Jam
Tools
- Bowl
- 12 Molds
- Work surface
- Rolling pin
Preparation of Calabrian Bocconotti with Fox Grape Mustard
Let’s start by preparing the pastry for our Calabrian bocconotti. We assume you have the jam, I obviously use homemade fox grape jam, if not, you can use jam of other fruits, Nutella, or even an almond paste and chocolate filling. I’ve already provided the link for preparing the jam, or better, fox grape preserve, the time to make it is autumn when grapes are ripe.
To prepare the pastry, we use a bowl, a work surface, or even a stand mixer. With the stand mixer, use the hook or paddle attachment. Combine all the ingredients, flour, sugar, eggs, and butter, baking powder, and flavors and work to obtain a homogeneous and non-crumbly dough, it should be nicely compact, slightly elastic, easy to roll out without breaking. If you don’t have a stand mixer and want to buy one, I recommend a safe purchase on Amazon.
If working by hand, start by working butter and sugar, it will be quicker this way, then add the flour and finally the eggs to obtain a homogeneous dough.
Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably overnight, our sweets will be more crumbly and melt-in-the-mouth.
On a floured surface, roll out the pastry, after leaving it 5 minutes at room temperature and working it a little. The pastry should be thin, so use flour as needed to roll it out with a rolling pin until thin.
Cut large rectangles, enough to cover our molds, buttered and floured. We can also avoid buttering and flouring the molds if we use plenty of flour at the base of the pastry.
Line the molds and remove excess parts.
. You can purchase the molds here on Amazon.
Using a mold, cut the lids for our bocconotti, making as many as there are bocconotti to close, about 15.
Stuff the bocconotti with fox grape mustard, a couple of large teaspoons per pastry. Close with the cut pastry lids, sealing the edges well.
Place on a baking tray, our Calabrian bocconotti, and bake in a preheated ventilated oven at 330°F or 350°F static (adjust according to your oven) for 15-20 minutes, until golden. Let cool, remove from molds, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Calabrian bocconotti can be stored in a pantry for several days. Ideally, store them in a closed container.
I’ve already told you that you can also fill the bocconotti with Nutella.
They are excellent sweets to enjoy for breakfast, healthy homemade cookies with Nutella, or any type of jam. Great to serve with tea, or for a delightful snack, kids love them, and not only them, it’s one of the sweets my husband loves too, simple and tasty, a real indulgent treat, every now and then doesn’t hurt.
The article contains affiliate links.
If the sweets crack a bit on the surface during baking, it’s completely normal, even local bakeries sell them with cracks on the surface, but this time I wanted to prepare them perfect, without cracks, by working the pastry a bit more for the covering, making it more elastic.
