Walnut tartlets in any version are very traditional when it comes to Czech Christmas sweet baking. Here is a recipe for walnut tartlets with yolk topping (ořechová kolečka se žloutkovou polevou).
Walnut is a nut variety found across the Czech Republic and it often finds use it Czech cuisine, especially desserts. Czech Christmas sweets often include walnuts in their filling like the Beehives, Modlitbičky or Opilý František, as well as for the dough like the Walnut-shaped cookies, Pracny, Vanilla Crescents or Czech-adapted Ischl Tartlets.
You will find the walnut tartlets in different variations, usually dipped in chocolate but since we usually make several types of cookies dipped in chocolate already, I prefer to make the walnut cookies with yolk topping to have more variety.
This recipe is great because you can adapt it to your liking, you can choose a different filling and if you don’t have any walnuts, you can turn the walnut tarlets into, for example, almond tarlets .
Table of Contents
Walnut Tartlets with Yolk Topping – Recipe
You’ll need
Crackers
- 210 g/7.4 oz of plain flour
- 70 g/2.5 oz of powder sugar
- 80 g/2.8 oz of ground walnuts
- 140 g/5 oz of unsalted butter, softened
- 1 egg yolk
- lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
Filling
- 100 g/3.5 oz of unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tbsp of powder sugar
- 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
- 1 handful of ground walnuts
- 100 g/3.5 oz of vanilla pudding (cooked, not just the powder)
Topping
- 2 egg yolks
- 3 tbsp of powder sugar
- walnuts halves for decoration
How to make Walnut Tartlets with Yolk Topping
Crackers
Combine all the ingredients for the crackers well, knead until the dough is smooth. Wrap in foil and let the dough rest in the fridge for at least two hours.
Roll the dough out thin, cut out the shapes (round or round with wavy edge) and transfer them to the baking tray.
Preheat your oven to 175°C/347°F and bake for 10 minutes. Let the crackers cool down completely.
Filling
Whisk the softened butter with sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla extract, pudding and walnuts while still whisking.
Fill the decorating pipe and pipe the cream on half of all your crackers.
Be generous with the filling, it shouldn’t be just in the center.
Place the other half of the crackers on the cream. Place the tartlets in the fridge or another cold place for at least a couple of hours, overnight is even better.
Topping
Whisk the egg yolks with sugar until the mixture is smooth. Place the crackers on a flat surface and put a little topping in the center of each.
Spread the topping evenly and to the edges. The topping should be quite dense so it won’t easily overflow the edges.
The glaze should be smooth and shiny.
Decorate with walnut halves and let the topping set. You can even pop the tartlets in the freezer for a few minutes. Store the walnut tarlets in a box in a cold space.
