Let’s prepare the Easter nests

• Take the toasted hazelnuts and place them in the mixer with the powdered sugar, turn it on and finely chop. The powdered sugar will absorb the hazelnut oil and we will have a flour at the end. Try not to heat it too much, chop a little, turn off, and then turn it back on. Move the obtained flour to a bowl.

  

• Put the flour and cold diced butter in the mixer and turn it on to sand and obtain a crumbly mixture, then add the egg, a pinch of salt, and the hazelnut flour, turn on the mixer again and let it go until the dough compacts.

  

• Take the obtained dough and place it on a lightly floured work surface, work it quickly with your hands and form a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap, flatten it slightly, and place it in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour.

  

• In a small saucepan, put the milk and the lemon zest, being careful to only take the yellow part with a peeler, put it on the heat and warm it up. In a bowl, combine the yolks and sugar, mix to create a light and frothy mixture, add the sifted flour and starch, and mix again, then pour the warm milk and mix again. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat until it thickens, for about 10 minutes.

  

• Once thickened, pour the lemon cream into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap in contact and let it cool. In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, whip the cream until it’s lightly whipped. Take the cold cream, add a spoonful of cream and stir it quickly, then gently fold in the rest of the cream with movements from the bottom up.

  

• Take the shortcrust pastry, lightly flour a work surface, and roll out the hazelnut pastry with a rolling pin until you get a sheet about 1/8 inch thick. Use a pastry cutter to cut out discs which should be the right size to cover the muffin pan.

  

• Take the obtained discs and line the muffin molds, leaving the edge irregular to create the ‘crumpled’ effect of the nest. Prick the base slightly, put the muffin tray in the fridge and preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius (347 degrees Fahrenheit), when it reaches temperature bake for 20 minutes and until they are golden even underneath. Remove from oven and let cool.

  

• Put the Italian chantilly cream in a piping bag with a small star nozzle. Take a shortcrust shell and fill it with the cream, then decorate it with colorful sprinkles and filled dragées.

  

• Sweet Easter nests with hazelnut and chantilly cream are ready to be eaten, but first take a picture and post it on social media tagging me (una riccia che pasticcia instagram and facebook) and let me know how many dragées you put in.