Nussecken English Recipe – German Pastry

Learn today how to make a very delicious pastry: Nussecken, English recipe. It’s a classic German pastry that you can buy in every German bakery! In other countries you might find the Nussecken only in special German stores or bakeries.
Nevertheless this pastry is not that difficult to make from scratch. With this recipe you will bring some German baking tradition into your life.
I find that Hazelnuts are quite expensive in the USA (compared to Germany), so a substitute would be walnuts or a mix of hazelnuts and walnuts. Happy Baking!

Ingredients Nussecken English Recipe

(for 25-30 pieces)
Dough
225 g flour all purpose
1 tsp baking powder (Dr Oetker)
100 g sugar
1 package vanilla sugar, 0.3 oz –
Or find out How to make Vanilla Sugar –
1 egg
2 tbsp water (or a bit more)
100 g cold butter, unsalted

Topping
150 g butter
150 g sugar
2 packages vanilla sugar, 0.6 oz
3 tbsp water
100 g hazelnuts, ground
200 g hazelnuts, chopped fine – alternatively Walnuts
3 tbsp apricot jam or jam of your choice

Glaze
100 g dark chocolate

Baking Instructions Nussecken

– Mix flour with baking powder in a bowl.
– Add remaining dough ingredients and mix with kneading hooks first on low speed, followed by high speed. Or the best is to use your hands by mixing and kneading all ingredients on a smooth surface or a wooden baking board.
– Form the dough to a roll, wrap it in aluminum or plastic foil, and keep for 30 min in the fridge.

– For the topping melt butter with sugar, vanilla sugar and water in a pan, add the ground and chopped hazelnuts.
– Mix well.
– Let cool off for about 10 min.

TIPS:
You can roast the hazelnuts lightly in a non-stick pan without any grease which will add a nice nutty taste.
If you cannot get ground hazelnuts, chop them roughly, then grind in a coffee grinder.

– Roll the dough on a sheet of parchment paper that is sprinkled with flour.
– When dough is rolled place it on the baking tray. Thickness of the dough: 1/4 inch – it needs to be quite thin!
– Adjust the dough to the baking form if needed.
– Spread the jam evenly on top, then add the nut topping.
– Bake in pre-heated oven for 25 min on 180 C or 356 F.

– When the Nussecken are done let them cool off on a cooling rack for about 20 min.
– Cut in small squares first (5×5 inches), then cut in the middle so you get triangles.

– For the glaze chop chocolate roughly and melt it in double boiler.
– Dip the corners or all sides of the triangles into the chocolate.
– Let dry on the cooling rack  or on parchment paper.