Esterhazy Nut Bars

Ingredients

• 300 g flour
• 80 g powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
• 3 drops lemon aroma
• 125 g ground walnuts
• 1 egg
• 200 g cold butter
• 200 g whipping cream
• 50 g sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
• 200 g butter
• Kirschwasser
• 2 tbsp apricot jam
• 150 g powdered sugar
• 4 tbsp Lemon juice
• 30 g dark chocolate couverture

Instructions

1. 1.

   Sift the flour onto a work surface. Create a well in the center, add powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, aroma, walnuts and egg, then mix with part of the flour into a paste. Add cold butter pieces and quickly knead all ingredients from the center into a smooth dough. Wrap in foil and chill for about 30 minutes.

2. 2.

   Preheat the oven to 200 °C fan.

3. 3.

   Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1 cm, cut into strips roughly 12 cm long, place on a baking tray and bake for 10‑12 minutes until golden yellow. Remove and let cool.

4. 4.

   For the filling, whisk cream with sugar, egg yolks and vanilla sugar, then heat over a double boiler to about 70 °C while stirring until the yolks thicken. Place the bowl in an ice bath, stir until lukewarm, add butter pieces and beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Chill for about 1 hour, then whip with a stand mixer until fluffy and season with Kirschwasser.

5. 5.

   Layer four strips together using the filling as adhesive. Heat jam gently while stirring, spread thinly over the cut surfaces.

6. 6.

   For the glaze, whisk powdered sugar with lemon juice into a thick consistency, adding cold water if needed. Melt chocolate over a double boiler. Coat the bars with glaze, then pipe melted chocolate in lines and trace patterns with a two-pronged fork. Allow glaze and chocolate to set. Cut into cubes.