These squares are light with the consistency of a soft “pite” and the walnut filling is moist and tender. The man said they tasted like beigli and these are not for sharing. Ha! I used my own Linzer Pastry recipe and armed with several walnut fillings I concocted a filling resembling... well... all and none.
These will be best with finely ground walnuts. Don’t omit the breadcrumbs. They absorb the
milk, swell and serve as binding agent.
Both the pastry and the filling requires parts of the egg, remember to
reserve whatever you don’t need at the time, because in the end every part of
the eggs will be used up.
WALNUT SQUARES
1 batch of Linzer Pastry
2 Tbsp rum + 1/4 cup raisins [optional]
3 cups walnuts
1/2 cup + 1/8 sugar
finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup hot milk
1/2 cup fine breadcrumbs
2 egg whites
1 egg yolk + 1 Tbsp water for glazing
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a tiny bowl, soak the raisins in 2 Tbsp rum.
- Make the linzer pastry next. Shape the pastry into a flat rectangle, wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Do not omit this step; the pastry will be tough without it.
- While the pastry is chilling, roast the walnuts LIGHTLY. Spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. They are done when they appear just a shade darker.
- Take out the walnuts and turn the oven up to 375F.
- Let the walnuts cool down a little and transfer them to the food processor. Grind them very fine.
- Transfer the ground walnuts to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the sugar and the finely grated lemon rind.
- Whisk it up with your hands.
- Heat the milk next and add to the walnut mixture.
- Stir to combine and set it aside.
- Whip 2 egg whites until stiff peaks form.
- Add the fine breadcrumbs to the walnut mixture just before the beaten egg whites. Give it a good stir.
- Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. The walnut filling is now complete.
- Take the chilled pastry dough out of the fridge and divide it into two equal pieces.
- Next, cut three sheets of parchment paper to fit your baking pan without overhangs. Mine is 13X9 inches so I cut my sheets exactly 13X9.
- Place one parchment paper on the board and place one of the pastry dough in the middle.
- Put a sheet of parchment on top, and roll out the pastry to fit the parchment. You will have to do bit of patching.
- Now peel off the top parchment.
- Place the rolled out pastry dough inside the baking pan with the parchment on the bottom.
- Spread the walnut filling evenly on top of the pastry with a large offset spatula.
- Roll out the remaining dough between the remaining two sheets of parchment paper.
- Peel the top layer off and discard.
- Position the rolled out dough on top of the walnut layer with the dough facing downward.
- Gently peel off the attached parchment and discard.
- In a small bowl whisk together 1 Tbsp of water with the remaining egg yolk and glaze the top using a pastry brush.
- Poke the pastry with a fork and place in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
- Let the pastry cool for 15 minutes and slice into squares.
