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Nussecken, a delicious Almond Pastry

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A wooden platter with sliced Nussekcken, a German almond pastry topped with chocolate and nuts, surrounded by various ingredients including almonds, butter, sugar, and flour in decorative jars and bowls.

These delicious Nussecken, a German Almond Pastry, are typically prepared during the winter months, but truly taste delightful all year round.

The reason for its widespread appeal lies in the perfect combination of crunchy nuts, sweet apricot jam, and rich buttery shortcrust pastry that make every single bite irresistible and delightfully satisfying.

Buy your slivered Almonds here on Amazon (2.2 pounds)

The heart of the Nussecken is the delicious nut layer, which is made from Hazelnuts, Almonds or Cashews in a buttery honey mixture. They can be either chopped, sliced, slivered and ground, or all combined.

  • Nussecken ingredients, flour, almonds, butter sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, peach jam, chocolate
    1. Nussecken ingredients, flour, almonds, butter sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, peach jam, chocolate
  • Nussecken batter, dough
    2. Combine ingredients for the Nussecken batter or dough
  • Nussecken batter, dough
    3. Add 2 eggs, each at a time
  • Combine sugar and eggs in mixer
    4. Combine sugar, salt, butter and eggs in mixer
  • Nussecken Add flour to batter
    5 Add flour to batter, a half cup at a time
  • Nussecken Add flour to batter
    6. Add flour to batter
  • Nussecken Combine ingredients for dough
    7. Combine ingredients for the dough
  • Nussecken, Press and knead by hand for about 2 minutes
    8. Press together and knead by hand for about 2 minutes
  • Nussecken, Make a dough ball
    9. Make a dough ball
  • Nussecken, Wrap dough ball in plastic foil
    10. Wrap dough ball in plastic foil and cool in refrigerator for 30 min.
  • Nussecken, Place batter into refrigerator for 30 min.
    11. Place batter into refrigerator for 30 min.
  • Nussecken, Prepare the almond mixture
    12. Prepare the almond mixture with butter, sugar and almonds
  • Nussecken, cook the almonds with butter and sugar, honey
    13. Cook the Almonds with butter, sugar and honey
  • Cook almonds until bubbly
    14. Cook almonds several minutes until bubbly. Let cool a little
  • Nussecken dough
    15. Remove dough from refrigerator and place on parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 F
  • Nussecken, Spread and roll out dough on parchment paper
    16. Spread and roll out dough on parchment paper
  • Nussecken, Place dough into baking pan laid out with parchment laid out with parchment paper
    17. Place dough into baking pan laid out with parchment laid out with parchment paper
  • Nussecken, Place dough in pan with parchment paper, make holes with fork
    18. Place dough in pan with parchment paper, make holes with fork
  • Place dough into oven on 350 F for 5 min.
    19. Place dough into oven on 350 F for 5 min.
  • Nussecken, Remove dough from oven and spread peach jam on top
    20. Remove dough from oven and spread peach jam on top
  • Nussecken, Drop almonds on the dough
    21. Drop almonds on the dough
  • Nussecken, spread almonds out evenly
    22. Spread almonds out evenly on dough
  • Place dough with almond mixture into oven
    23. Place dough with Almond mixture into oven and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes
  • Nussecken, Remove baked Nussecken almond pastry from oven
    24. Remove baked Nussecken almond pastry from oven
  • Cut Nussecken almond pastry while still warm
    25. Cut Nussecken almond pastry while still warm
  • Warm up chocolate in a pan
    26. Warm up chocolate in a pan
  • Cut Nussecken almond pastry into triangles
    Cut Nussecken almond pastry into triangles
  • Nussecken, Almond Triangle pastry
    Make Chocolate corners or sides

This Nussecken recipe proves how easy it is to make the pastry yourself

  1. For starters, you can certainly experiment with different types of nuts than the ones we used. While Nussecken are often made with hazelnuts, we typically use whatever nuts we have available at home. This includes delicious options like almonds and walnuts, which contribute their own unique flavors and textures to the pastry.
  2. When it comes to the ground nuts, you don’t necessarily have to buy pre-ground varieties. While that option is available, you can also simply grind them yourself in a food processor at home if you have one handy. Essentially, don’t stress out if all you can find at the grocery store or whole food shop are whole nuts; they work just as well!
  3. As for the jam, Nussecken are traditionally made with Apricot jam, and this is what we usually prefer to use in our recipe. It really doesn’t matter if the jam has some fruit chunks in it or not—just go ahead and use whatever you have at home. Alternatively, if you happen to have another type of jam available, feel free to get creative and use that instead!
  4. If you like, you can skip the Chocolate glaze entirely if you’re not a fan of chocolate. We usually make half of them with the rich chocolate coating and half of them without any glaze at all since some members of the family simply prefer them better without the addition of chocolate.

Nussecken, a German Almond Pastry

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14 ratings
AngiesWeb
February 14, 2022
by AngiesWeb
Cuisine German
Category Breads and Pastry Cake and Torte European Cuisine Germany Recipes Western Europe

Ingredients

  • Dough:
  • ½ cup butter
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 2/3 cup flour
  • 1 dash salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Almond topping:
  • 2 ¾ cup Almonds, slivered and/or chopped (300 g)
  • 2/3rd cup sugar
  • ½ cup butter
  • 2 1/3 tbsp honey
  • Additional:
  • 5 tbsp apricot or peach jam
  • 1.5 cup (dark) chocolate
Print this recipe
Nussecken, Almond Pastry
Persons
16
Serving Size
1
Prep Time
30 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Wait Time
30 minutes
Total Time
55 minutes
The heart of the Nussecken is the delicious nut layer, which is made from Hazelnuts, Almonds or Cashews. They can be either chopped, sliced, slivered and ground, or all combined.
Buy your slivered Almonds here on Amazon (2.2 pounds)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (convection oven).
  2. Dough:
  3. Mix butter, salt, sugar, vanilla extract until creamy.
  4. Add one egg yolk at a time to the mixture and mix in.
  5. Add the flour and knead briefly into a mass.
  6. Knead for about 2 minutes by hand or knead with a machine.
  7. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  8. After 30 min. cooling, knead the dough for a short time until it is smooth.
  9. Roll out to the dough on the parchment paper, press down as needed into a rectangle.
  10. Place the rolled out dough with the parchment paper into the baking pan.
  11. Make some holes in. the dough with a fork.
  12. Bake the rolled out dough in a preheated oven at 350 F (confection) for about 5 minutes.
  13. After baking spread warm apricot or peach jam on top.
  14. Almond topping:
  15. Bring butter, sugar and honey to a boil over medium heat, let bubble for 2-3 minutes.
  16. Then turn off the heat.
  17. Add the chopped almonds to the pan.
  18. Distribute the warm almond mixture on the glazed shortcrust pastry and smooth it out.
  19. Bake in the oven for about 15 to 20 min. until golden-brown and bubbling.
  20. Cut around the edge of the baking pan.
  21. Let cool about 30 minutes until topping is firm, but still a little warm.
  22. Cut into squares first, than again to make triangles.
  23. Let cool completely
  24. Melt the half of the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl placed in hot water (or in the microwave). Then remove from heat source and melt the second half while stirring.
  25. Dunk the edges or sides into the liquid chocolate, or drizzle the chocolate on top.

Notes

Double the recipe for a larger family, or preparing as gifts

Tags

Almond pastry,
featured,
German pastry,
Honey Nut pastry,
Nussecken
Calories
492 kcal
20%
Fat
26 g
40%
Saturated
11 g
55%
Carbs
63 g
21%
Protein
7 g
Fiber
4 g
16%
Sugar
46 g
Sodium
24 mg
1%
Trans fat
0 g
Cholesterol
50 mg
16%
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
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