Nutella bocconotti, typical Calabrian sweets, usually filled with strawberry grape jam or a special cocoa mixture, here in a more delightful version much requested, not only by children, filled with Nutella. I used butter shortcrust pastry for the shell, at my niece’s specific request, but typically lard shortcrust is used as per tradition, but there’s no rule against making them with your favorite shortcrust, even oil-based, whether sunflower seed oil or olive oil. Bocconotti, as the name suggests, are sweets to be eaten in one bite, maybe because they were a bit smaller in the past. These filled cookies are very ancient, nuns prepared them for bishops’ tables, they were called differently, but the shape remains the same as today, and over time they became known as bocconotti. Originally, they were filled with almonds and sugar, and were festive sweets; over time they evolved, some added strawberry grape mustard, others completely transformed them with chocolate and cinnamon, but today I take it further by filling them with Nutella to satisfy the most indulgent.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 medium eggs
- vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups Nutella
Tools for Making Nutella Bocconotti
- 1 Bowl
- 15 Molds
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 Oven
- 1 Plastic Wrap
Steps to Prepare Nutella Bocconotti
We start by preparing the shortcrust pastry at least half an hour in advance, but if left to rest longer, even better.
In a bowl, we put all the ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, and softened butter cut into small pieces. Add a bit of vanilla extract; if unavailable, organic orange or lemon zest will do.
Work the ingredients until you obtain a nice homogeneous dough. Do not overwork; just enough to get a nice uniform dough, which we flatten and wrap in a piece of plastic wrap and let rest, at least half an hour, in the fridge, or even better in the freezer. If you have more time, leave it in the fridge, even for 12 hours.
After resting the shortcrust pastry, take it out and work quickly to soften and make it more elastic, making it easier to roll out without breaking. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface; the sheet should be fairly thin, about 1/8 inch, yielding about 15 pieces. If you roll it thicker, fewer pieces will result.
Start cutting squares of the size needed to line the entire mold with wavy edges. There’s no need to butter the molds, but flour the shortcrust well for the side that contacts the mold. Line each oval or round mold with wavy edges, and trim the excess, which you reshape into a new dough ball. Leave another 15 pieces to close our sweets.
Now fill the pastry with a nice teaspoon of Nutella, or until well filled, and close them all with the pastry pieces left aside, trimming excess, which we reuse for other bocconotti. Cover well, trying to expel all air and seal the edges well by pressing a bit.
Let them rest in the fridge for at least half an hour, in the coldest part, or even in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking, so the Nutella stays softer. I use room-temperature Nutella, quite firm, so it doesn’t overcook and stays nicely soft during baking, just like for Nutella tartlets.
Bake in a preheated static oven at 350°F for about 15 minutes until they are nicely golden on top.
Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Store under a glass dome to keep them good as freshly made and the Nutella stays soft, unless it’s freezing at home like occasionally happens when someone forgets to turn on the heating.
