Born and bred baker seeks savoury cooking skills

Passport & Plate - Nussecken

Germany | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 2 photos

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g caster sugar
1 tlbsp light brown caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (I use Dr Oetker Madagascan Vanilla with seeds)
1 egg
1 tlbsp cold water
100g butter (I use Lurpak slightly salted)

For the topping:
150g butter (same as above)
150g caster sugar
2 tlbsp light brown caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (same as above)
3 tlbsp water
100g ground almonds
200g chopped hazelnuts
2 tlbsp apricot jam

For the glaze:
100g dark chocolate (I use Cadbury’s Bourneville)

How to prepare this recipe

Grease a 16” x 12” baking sheet and preheat the over to 160 Celsius (if fan-assisted).

To make the shortcrust pastry, mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Next mix in the egg, vanilla and water, and knead until it forms a shortcrust pastry.

For the topping, warm and melt the sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and water gently in a pan, stirring all the time. Stir in the nuts. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Allow the topping to cool for 10 minutes.

Roll out the pastry onto the baking sheet. Melt the jam a little so that it is of a spreadable consistency and spread it over the pastry. Spread the topping out evenly on top of the jam.

Put the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake for 30-35minutes.

Allow the pastry to cool for 20 minutes. Once cooled, cut into 3”x 3” squares. Cut each of the squares diagonally across to make triangles.

Melt the chocolate in a ban-marie over a low heat. Dip the two pointed corners of the triangles into the chocolate.

Place the triangles on a baking sheet to cool and set.

The story behind this recipe

The recipe was given to me by my partner at the time’s grandmother. She was an incredibly sweet old woman who survived the WWII and from what I can remember was very frugal and kept almost everything she could. Though she spoke very English, and I remembered very little of my GCSE German, we bonded over a mutual love baking and reading.

The recipe itself is a traditional German biscuit, which this German grandmother tended to bake for her grandchildren. I believe it was originally a Dr Oetker recipe which has been adapted. It was much loved by my partner at the time. I enjoy baking these biscuits from time to time at home and over the years it has become a firm family favourite. While I normally tend to vary recipes I am given, I have stayed true to the original for this one.

The biscuits conjure some happy memories of Aachen, where I often spent time with this German grandmother listening to her reminiscing over her struggles during the war, while eating sweet German biscuits and drinking slightly strong expressos.

I also have some family based in Germany and over the years have been inspired to try baking some other traditional German treats Lebkuchen and Apple Strudel.