Custard and Nutella filled cookies

Lovely Swedish heart-shaped cookies filled with custard cream and Nutella. These cookies have been around for more than 100 years and they are so pretty!

The combination of the pastry and the cream filling is just exquisite.
A romantic recipe, even if Valentine’s day is just past because baking it’s a simple way to show how much you care. They are perfect to bake in so many other occasions.

For example, for the Global Love Day and Mother’s Day or why not just when you want to bake some adorable stuffed cookies?!

The original recipe consists of a delicate pastry that embodies a delicious custard vanilla cream and sprinkled with confectioners sugar on top.
There is always something special with cookies with a yummy surprise inside, right?
They are in the top-ten when it comes to Sweden’s most liked small biscuits and pastries.

In our recipe, we use an Italian pastry cream (vanilla cream enrich with some lemon zest). The Nutella filled cookies are also delicious or if you like you can use chocolate pastry cream or pistachio spread.

History of the cookies

These Beautiful Swedish Vanilla Hearts (Vaniljhjärtan) have been around for more than 100 years and will be worthy to bake. In “Vår Bakbok (translates to Our baking book) ” you can read the following: “Vaniljhjärtan “Vanilla hearts” or Norska Linser “Norwegian lentils” are two different forms of the same cookie. While the heart is the most common shape, it can be baked in a variety of molds, such as pleated.
In the Princess Cookbook from 1913, the recipe for Norwegian lentils is marked by a star, which means they were particularly popular.”

After you tried this custard and Nutella filled cookies you’ll make on repeat.

Instructions

Shortcrust Pastry
Stir the butter-soft. Add icing sugar, flour, salt, and egg and quickly work the dough together with your hands or a food processor. Flatten the dough and cover it with cling film, then let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Pastry Cream
Add the vanilla and lemon zest to the milk in a saucepan and slowly bring it to a simmer. In a bowl, add egg yolks and sugar. Stir it together, dont let the sugar rest in the egg yolks as it will start to lump up and your pastry cream will get lumpy as well. Then add the cornstarch and stir it together. When the milk has started to simmer add ⅓ of the liquid in the egg mixture and stir it until well combined. Do this 2 more times with the rest of the liquid. This process will temper the eggs, If you just combine the two mixtures, you’ll end up with cooked eggs in your cream. After diluted the egg mixture pour it back in the saucepan and bring it back to a simmer while whisking continuously. This will slowly bring up the temperature of the eggs without scrambling them.

When the pastry cream has firmed up transfer it to a chilled bowl or ice bath and whisk with energy until the cream is under 50c / 122f.

Cover the surface of the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent a custard skin from forming on top) as you can use a spoon when applying the cream inside the cookies. Let it cool in the fridge and after a couple of hours, you can use the cream. Transfer it to a piping bag.

Assembly:

Grease the 3-inch heart-shaped cookie molds (or any other shape of your choice). You can use a little bit of flour to help release the cooked cookie from the mold.

Preheat oven at 175°C /347°F (fan-assisted oven) or static oven 200°C /392°F.

On a piece of plastic wrap, roll out ¼ of the dough to 2-3 millimeters thick sheet. Layout the molds and lift and turn the plastic with the dough over the cookie molds. Remove the plastic. Press the dough with the rolling pin over the heart-shaped tins. Gently push the dough into the molds with your hands and be sure to get all the air out. Clean the edges of the molds with a spatula or knife. We usually roll out one small piece of dough at a time, although it takes a longer time. It will then be easier to place the dough in the mold without catching air or getting imperfections in the cookie. Fill with custard cream or Nutella and cover with another layer of dough.

Bake for approx 15 min in the low oven rack.

Gently remove the cookies out of the tins and dust with powdered sugar when the cookies are completely cooled.

Enjoy!

Do you want to make another classic Swedish pastry? You must try our version of The Semla or the traditional Semla recipe