Walnut Tartlets (Traditional Czech)

Walnut tartlets in any version are very traditional when it comes to Czech Christmas sweet baking. 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 or Vanilla Crescents.

Here is a recipe for walnut tartlets with yolk topping (ořechová kolečka se žloutkovou polevou).

Crackers

1. 210 g/7.4 oz of plain flour
2. 70 g/2.5 oz of powder sugar
3. 80 g/2.8 oz of ground walnuts
4. 140 g/5 oz of unsalted butter, softened
5. 1 egg yolk
6. lemon zest from 1/2 lemon

Filling

1. 100 g/3.5 oz of unsalted butter, softened
2. 2 tbsp of powder sugar
3. 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
4. 1 handful of ground walnuts
5. 100 g/3.5 oz of vanilla pudding (cooked, not just the powder)

Topping

1. 2 egg yolks
2. 3 tbsp of powder sugar
3. walnuts halves for decoration

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.

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.

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.

You can eat them right away but they taste much better if you let them set for a couple of days. We make them even two weeks before Christmas night.