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The dish
What bocconotti are
The filled pastries of the province of Chieti.
Bocconotti from Castel Frentano are small shortcrust pastries baked in fluted moulds, filled with toasted almonds, chocolate, cocoa and cinnamon, closed with a shortcrust lid and dusted with icing sugar.
They are made at Christmas but found all year in the pastry shops of the village and the surrounding area. Every home has its version: some add cooked must or grape jam to the filling.
What you need
Ingredients
Makes about 25 bocconotti (6–7 cm moulds).
For the pastry
- 500 g plain flour
- 200 g sugar
- 3 eggs
- 150 ml mild extra virgin olive oil (or 200 g butter)
- Grated zest of one lemon
- 1 sachet baking powder
For the filling
- 200 g toasted almonds, finely ground
- 100 g dark chocolate
- 50 g sugar
- 20 g unsweetened cocoa
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 egg whites
- A small glass of liqueur (rum or vino cotto)
To finish
- Icing sugar
Step by step
Method
- Make the pastry: knead flour, sugar, eggs, oil, lemon zest and baking powder into a smooth dough; wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
- For the filling melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and mix it with the almonds, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, liqueur and lightly beaten egg whites: you want a thick paste.
- Roll the pastry out 3–4 mm thick and line the greased and floured moulds.
- Fill each mould with a spoonful of filling, not up to the rim, and cover with a small disc of pastry, sealing the edges well.
- Bake at 180 °C for 20–25 minutes, until the pastry is golden.
- Let them cool, turn the bocconotti out of the moulds and dust with icing sugar.
From our home kitchen
Tips
- Only take the bocconotti out of the moulds when lukewarm: hot, they break.
- They are better the next day: the pastry takes on the scent of the filling.
- They keep for a week in a tin.
Note: bocconotti are made in many southern villages, with different fillings: those from Castel Frentano are recognisable by their dark almond and chocolate filling.
Gallery
Photos
Tap a photo to enlarge it.
Photo 1: a bocconotto bought just outside Castel Frentano (CH). Credits: I8a4re (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons, resized; the menu icon is also made from it.
Tradition
History and trivia
Bocconotti are an old sweet of the Frentani hills: the almonds came from the trees around the village, and chocolate, which arrived later, made the filling richer. They were the sweet of feast days and weddings.
Today Castel Frentano is known throughout the region for its bocconotti, made by the village pastry shops and the bakeries of the area.
Did you know? Castel Frentano stands on a hill from which you can see both the Majella and the Adriatic Sea.