Small boat-shaped pastries with a sweet nut filling. You will need a set of small barquette or boat molds to make the proper boat shape. These are inexpensive and below this recipe there is information on where to get them (see note*). If you don’t want to make a special purchase, you can make these in mini muffin tins.
Ingredients
- For the dough:
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cups almonds, grated
1/4 teaspoon lemon rind, grated
1 large egg yolk
- For the filling:
2 cups walnuts, ground
1/2 cup granulated sugar
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
1/2 cup warmed cream
- For the garnish:
extra granulated sugar, or
chocolate icing (optional)
walnut halves (optional)
Directions
- Make the dough:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Work butter, flour, sugar, almonds, lemon rind, and egg yolk into a dough. Roll out a scant 1/4″ thick. Press into barquette tins (see note below *), 2″ to 3″ long, shaped like boats *. Reserve enough dough to cover the tops.
- Make the filling:
- To make the filling, simply mix all filling ingredients together.
- Assemble, bake, and garnish:
- Fill each boat with walnut filling. Top each boat with thin cover of reserved dough, pressing edges together. Bake about 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden. Turn out of molds and sprinkle immediately with sugar; or let cool, top with chocolate icing and decorate each with a 1/2 walnut.
- Examples of boat molds, see note below *.
Notes
- * “Barquette molds” (or tins) or “boat molds” are used for making small pastries and hors d’oeuvres. Traditionally, they are small individual tinned molds, but you can also buy silicone ones that look like a boat-shaped mini muffin pan. You can obtain a set of tinned boat molds at Amazon or the silicone boat mold at specialty pastry stores such as Pastry Chef’s Boutique. I recently found a set in my local dollar store!
If you don’t have one or don’t wish to make a special purchase, you can make these in a mini muffin pan. These are deeper and than a barquette mold and so each cookie will require more filling. You may need to make extra filling and bake slightly longer. - Submitted by “Roadrunner” who says: “Around this house, a holiday is not complete without dozens of Nut Boats. My Great Grandmother started the tradition over 90 years ago, and I’ve carried it into the 21st century…She came from Vienna and was the most wonderful woman I have ever known. I hope you will try them, and give some feedback as to how you did or did not like them.”
- Reviewers, please help us out and note the yield. Thanks!