Italian Basilicata Filled Pastries | Bocconotti Lucani

Sep 29

11 min read

Bocconotti Lucani (Italian Basilicata Filled Pastries)

Bocconotti lucani are small filled shortcrust pastries from Basilicata, baked in individual molds and eaten in two or three bites. The shell is a firm sweet frolla; the filling is dark and dense rather than creamy, made of toasted almonds, black cherry preserve, cocoa and vincotto. They belong to festive home baking, which is why every family in the region makes them slightly differently.

Makes: 12 pastries. Molds: twelve 2 1/2 inch (6.5 cm) tart molds or a 12 cup muffin pan. Prep: 45 minutes. Chilling: 45 minutes. Bake: 25 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Region: Basilicata.

The Story

Bocconotti exist across southern and central Italy and the name means nothing more than a single mouthful, from boccone. Abruzzo has its famous version and so does Calabria, but the Lucanian pastries are a separate thing with a separate filling, and in Basilicata they have always been tied to the farming calendar rather than to a shop window. They come out at Christmas, at Carnival and for the patron saint feasts of the inland villages, made forty or fifty at a time and stacked in biscuit tins that stay on the table for several days. Nobody in Basilicata makes twelve bocconotti. Twelve is what a recipe written for a kitchen outside the region has to say.

What goes inside them is a record of what a Lucanian pantry actually held once the season was over. Almonds came down from the Ionian arc and from the terraces around Ferrandina, where they were dried and kept in the shell until needed. Black cherries and wild sour cherries were turned into preserve in June because preserve keeps and fruit does not. Vincotto, the slow reduction of Aglianico grape must that the Vulture area has made for centuries, supplied depth and a little sweetness without touching the sugar, which cost money. Cocoa arrived late and was used sparingly, a spoonful at a time, which is exactly how it still behaves in this filling: it darkens the almond and the fruit instead of turning the pastry into a chocolate dessert.

The molds matter to the story as much as the ingredients. Fluted tin bocconotti molds were part of a household's equipment, handed down through families and counted like cutlery, and their size fixed the format of the pastry long before anyone wrote the proportions down. Frolla rather than a leavened or layered dough was the sensible choice for them: it holds a shape in a small tin, it tolerates a wood oven with an uneven floor, and it stays good for days in a tin, which was the whole point. The bocconotto was never a restaurant dessert. It was a way of making fruit, nuts and a little flour last through a feast week.

Ingredients

For the pastry

All purpose flour, 2 1/2 cups (315 g)
Granulated sugar, 1/2 cup (100 g)
Cold unsalted butter, cubed, 9 tbsp (130 g)
Egg yolks, 2
Whole egg, 1
Finely grated lemon zest, from 1 lemon
Baking powder, 1/2 tsp (2 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Cold dry white wine, 1 tbsp (15 ml), only if the dough stays dry

For the filling

Blanched almonds, 5 oz (140 g)
Black cherry or sour cherry preserve, thick, 3/4 cup (240 g)
Unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 tbsp (12 g)
Vincotto or cooked grape must, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Granulated sugar, 2 tbsp (25 g)
Ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp (1.5 g)
Finely grated orange zest, from 1/2 orange
Dark chocolate, 70 percent, finely chopped, 1 oz (30 g)
Egg white, 1, lightly beaten

For finishing

Egg yolk, 1, beaten with 1 tsp (5 ml) whole milk
Softened butter and flour, for the molds
Confectioners sugar, for dusting

Preparation

Step 1

Rub the butter into the flour. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt onto a cold surface, add the sugar and lemon zest, and scatter the cold cubed butter over it. Rub the butter in with your fingertips, lifting and dropping the mixture, until it looks like coarse damp sand with a few larger flakes still visible. Work fast and stop early: the butter must stay cold and separate, not smear.

Step 2

Bring the dough together and chill it. Make a well, add the two yolks and the whole egg, and bring everything together with a bench scraper or the flat of your hand, pressing rather than kneading. Add the cold wine only if the dough refuses to come together, and stop the moment there are no dry patches left. Flatten it into a disc 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick, wrap it and refrigerate 45 minutes.

Step 3

Toast and grind the almonds. Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C) and toast the almonds on a tray for 8 to 10 minutes, until they smell sweet and are barely coloured. Cool them completely, then pulse them in a food processor to a medium grind with texture left, roughly the coarseness of polenta. Ground to a paste they release oil and the filling turns greasy instead of nutty.

Step 4

Mix and set the filling. Combine the ground almonds, cocoa, sugar, cinnamon and orange zest, then fold in the cherry preserve, the vincotto and the chopped chocolate. Add the beaten egg white last and mix only until it disappears. The filling should mound on a spoon and hold its shape, never slump. If the preserve is loose, cook it down two minutes and cool it first.

Step 5

Roll the frolla thin and even. Butter and flour the molds. Roll two thirds of the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to an even 1/8 inch (3 mm), giving it a quarter turn between passes so it stays round and does not thin on one side. Cut discs 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) wider than the mold diameter and keep the remaining third refrigerated for the lids.

Step 6

Line the molds and fill them two thirds. Press each disc into a mold, easing it into the flutes without stretching, and leave a narrow rim standing above the edge. Spoon in the filling to two thirds of the depth only, about 1 tbsp (20 g), and level it without pressing it into the walls. A mold filled to the brim boils over, wets the rim and glues the pastry to the tin.

Step 7

Cap, seal and glaze. Roll the reserved dough to the same thickness and cut lids to the exact mold diameter. Lay one over each pastry, press the two edges together against the rim, then trim flush by running a knife across the top. Pierce the centre of each lid once with a skewer, brush the tops with the yolk and milk wash and chill the tray 10 minutes.

Step 8

Bake, rest in the mold, then dust. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 22 to 25 minutes, until the tops are a light even gold and the pastry has pulled slightly away from the flutes. Leave them in the molds 10 minutes: the filling is still fluid and the shell needs that time to firm. Turn them onto a rack, cool completely, and dust with confectioners sugar at the very end.

Plating

Serve them at room temperature, never warm from the oven and never cold from the refrigerator. Warm, the filling is still loose and runs the moment the pastry is broken; cold, the butter in the frolla sets hard and the almond loses its perfume. About an hour off the rack is the point where the shell is crisp, the filling sliceable and the fruit fully readable.

Present two or three per person on a flat plate or a small wooden board, dusted with confectioners sugar as they leave the kitchen, since the sugar draws moisture and turns grey within twenty minutes. Nothing else belongs on the plate: no sauce, no cream, no fruit. If you want a second element, a few toasted almonds beside them stay inside the dish rather than competing with it.

Professional Technique

Everything difficult about this pastry comes from its size. In a single portion mold the ratio of surface to volume is unfavourable: the shell sits against the hot tin on three sides while the centre of the filling stays insulated in the middle, so the rim is set and colouring while the core is still cool. A large tart forgives this because the mass in the middle evens out the heat. A bocconotto has none to spare. Roll the frolla thin, at 1/8 inch (3 mm), so heat reaches the centre before the edges overbake, and roll it uniformly: a shell 2 mm on one wall and 5 mm on the other comes out raw on one side and dark on the other.

The second correction is filling the mold only two thirds full. The filling expands as its water turns to steam and a small mold has no headroom for that. Filled to the rim it lifts the lid, breaks the seal and spills onto the tin, where the sugar in the preserve caramelizes and welds the pastry to the flute. Two thirds leaves the steam somewhere to go, and the pierce gives it an exit that is not the seam.

Working the frolla cold and resting it is not a formality. Butter kept in separate cold flakes melts during the bake and leaves the fine gaps that make a shell short; butter smeared warm into the flour coats the starch and gives a tough pastry that bends rather than snaps. The rest relaxes the gluten, so the discs do not shrink down the walls, and returns the fat to refrigerator temperature. The filling must hold its shape on a spoon for the same reason: a loose filling soaks the raw shell from inside during the first minutes in the oven, before the starch has gelatinized and the structure has fixed, and a shell wet from within never crisps.

Texture and Moisture Control

There are two textures to protect and they want opposite things. The shell must stay dry and brittle, the filling moist and dense, and they are in contact for the whole bake. The defence is the filling itself: thick preserve, ground almonds that absorb rather than release liquid, and one egg white that coagulates early and locks the mixture into a soft set. A watery preserve, extra vincotto or a whole egg instead of the white will all push free moisture into the pastry wall.

Oven temperature carries the rest. At 350°F (175°C) the shell sets in the first eight minutes, early enough to resist the filling, and finishes colouring as the centre reaches temperature. Below 325°F (165°C) the butter melts out before the flour structure exists and the pastry turns greasy and pale. Above 375°F (190°C) the rims darken while the middle is raw. The ten minute rest in the mold belongs to the same control: the filling keeps setting from residual heat, and moving them early cracks shells still soft at the base. Afterwards keep them uncovered on a rack for an hour so residual steam leaves instead of condensing under a lid.

Professional Mise en Place

Two components, one long rest and a narrow window for assembly, so almost all of it is done ahead and the only pressure point is lining and capping the molds before the dough warms.

Equipment and tools

Twelve fluted bocconotti molds, or a standard 12 cup muffin pan
Bench scraper, rolling pin, pastry brush, skewer
Round cutters, one the mold diameter and one 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) wider
Food processor for the almonds, cooling rack, fine sieve for dusting

Prepared ahead

Frolla, up to 2 days refrigerated, or 1 month frozen, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
Filling, up to 3 days refrigerated, without the egg white, which goes in on the day
Almonds toasted and ground, up to 2 days in a sealed jar at room temperature
Molds buttered and floured, kept refrigerated on a tray

Service setup

Baked pastries cooled and held uncovered, out of the refrigerator
Confectioners sugar in a fine sieve, dusting done to order
Trimmings and offcuts gathered once, chilled and rerolled a single time

Chef Tips

Taste the preserve before you build the filling. Commercial cherry jam is sweeter and looser than the Lucanian versions this pastry expects, so cook it down and add no sugar at all to the almond mixture. If it tastes flat, a teaspoon of lemon juice does more than more sugar.

Reroll the trimmings only once, and chill them first. Frolla worked again while soft turns elastic and the shells shrink down the walls during the bake. Gather the offcuts into a flat disc, not a ball, refrigerate fifteen minutes, then roll them for the lids.

If the dough cracks as you press it into the flutes, it is too cold rather than too dry. Let the disc sit at room temperature for five minutes and try again. Patching cracks with scraps leaves a thick seam that stays raw, and a mold lined with patched pastry leaks.

Double the batch. The work is identical for twelve molds or thirty, they keep four days and they are better on the second, which is how they are made in Basilicata in the first place.

Common Mistakes

Filling the molds to the rim. The filling steams and expands, lifts the lid off the seal and boils over onto the tin, where the sugar caramelizes and glues the pastry to the flute. Two thirds of the depth, about 1 tbsp (20 g), and one pierce in the lid.

Rolling the frolla too thick. At 1/4 inch (6 mm) the walls of a small mold never cook through: the rim colours, the base stays doughy, and the pastry tastes raw next to a fully set filling. Roll to 1/8 inch (3 mm), evenly.

Using a loose preserve. Runny jam soaks the raw shell from inside before the starch has set, and no amount of extra baking recovers the crispness. Reduce it on the stove and cool it before it goes near the almonds.

Working the dough warm. Butter smeared into the flour instead of rubbed in cold coats the starch and gives a tough pastry that bends rather than snaps. Cold hands, cold surface, cold butter, full rest.

Turning them out straight from the oven. The filling is still fluid and the base still soft, so the shells crack and the contents run. Ten minutes in the mold, then onto a rack.

Wine Pairing

Malvasia Bianca di Basilicata IGT: The pairing from the same soil, and in its sweet bottlings the one that makes most sense of the dish. Grown on the volcanic flanks of the Vulture beside the Aglianico that gives the vincotto, it carries apricot and dried flower aromatics with enough acidity underneath to lift a filling this dense. Its sweetness is moderate rather than syrupy, which matters: a heavier wine flattens the cocoa and leaves the cherry tasting jammy.

Vin Santo del Chianti Classico DOC: Dried Malvasia and Trebbiano aged oxidatively in small barrels, and the technical match for the almonds. The oxidative character gives the toasted nut, dried fig and caramel notes the ground almonds already carry, so the wine extends the filling instead of contrasting with it. Acidity stays high through the residual sugar, cutting the butter in the frolla. Serve it around 57°F (14°C).

Recioto di Soave DOCG: Garganega dried on the plant and pressed late, sweet but built on acidity rather than weight. It is the choice when the cocoa and the chocolate dominate, because its almond and candied citrus profile meets the bitterness in the cocoa without either side hardening. The moderate alcohol is the point: a fortified wine collides with the cinnamon and the orange zest.

Malvasia delle Lipari DOC: The most aromatic bottle on the list, and the one that answers the preserve directly. Sun dried on the Aeolian islands, it gives dried apricot, raisin and a faint saline finish, and that salinity stops a sweet wine on a sweet pastry becoming tiring. Its softer acidity works against the cherry rather than the frolla, so pour it with the pastries rather than after them.

Storage & Reheating

Keep them in a tin or an airtight container at room temperature, in a single layer or separated by parchment, for up to 4 days. They are better on the second day than the first, once the almond and the cherry have settled into the shell. Never refrigerate finished bocconotti: the frolla absorbs humidity, the butter sets hard, and the aromatics of the filling go mute.

They freeze well baked, undusted, for up to 2 months in a rigid container. Thaw them at room temperature for two hours, then give them 6 to 8 minutes at 300°F (150°C) to drive off the moisture the freezer leaves in the pastry, and cool them before dusting. Lined molds can also be frozen filled and capped, then baked from frozen at 350°F (175°C) with 5 minutes added.

Nutrition

Per pastry, based on 12 pastries:

Calories: 310 kcal
Total Fat: 16 g
Saturated Fat: 7 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 8 g
Cholesterol: 55 mg
Sodium: 95 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 37 g
Fiber: 2 g
Total Sugars: 20 g
Added Sugars: 13 g
Protein: 5 g
Lactose: 0.3 g
Principal micronutrients: vitamin E, magnesium, manganese, copper, riboflavin, iron