Name: Nut-Filled Pastries (Travados)
Yield: Makes 32 to 36 pastries
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: Confectioners’ Sugar, if not using syrup; 3 tablespoons grated orange zest; ¼ cup fresh orange juice; 2 cups confectioners’ sugar; 2 cups ground blanched almonds; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 2 to 3 tablespoons water; 1 tablespoon orange-flower or rose water (optional); 1 cup water; 1 ½ cups ground blanched almonds; 1 egg yolk, diluted with a bit of water, for glaze; ½ cup dried currants; 3 tablespoons cognac; 1 orange zest strip, 3 inches long (optional); ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon; Sugar to taste (optional); ½ cup orange marmalade; ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled; 2 cups granulated sugar; 2 cups walnuts, finely chopped; 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; ¾ cup sweet wine such as late-harvest riesling or marsala; 1 cup confectioners’ sugar; 3 cups all-purpose flour; ½ teaspoon almond extract; 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; 1 egg white, for sealing dough (optional)

Preparation info

Makes
32 to 36
pastries

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Sephardic Flavors

By Joyce Goldstein

Published 2000

About

Every Sephardic cookbook and probably every Sephardic cook has a version of these nut-filled cookielike pastries. The Turks prefer walnuts for the filling, but the Greeks lean toward almonds. I prefer the filling that uses currants along with the nuts, as I love their chewy texture after the pastry is baked. In Rhodes, travados were traditionally served at Purim, while in Turkey they were on the table at Rosh Hashanah to celebrate the sweet new year, and a variation called borekas