Don’t let yourself be deceived by the name of the biscuits, it has concern neither with the Roman Emperor nor with the CD burning software. In Hungary the Nero name as a collective noun marks the group of tea biscuits that are made of shortcrust pastry and filled with jam or some kind of cream. They can be found in the coffeehouses throughout Hungary, the most popular filling is apricot jam, and top of the biscuits is decorated with melted chocolate.

It’s easy to make these amazing biscuits, the only thing you have to pay attention to is that you have to put only a small amount of jam in the middle of the biscuits and don’t spread it all the way to the edge, because the jam will overflow and the cookies will look messy.

Ingredients:

• 250 g (~1 cup) butter, softened
• 170 g (~1 1/3 cups) powdered sugar
• 8 egg yolks
• seeds of a half vanilla bean
• zest of a lemon
• 300 g (~2 1/2 cups) flour
• pinch of salt
• apricot jam for spreading
• 50 g (~1 3/4 oz) dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F.

Beat the soft butter and the powdered sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla seeds, salt, lemon zest and egg yolks, one by one, while beating continously. Gradually add the flour and combine to form the cookie dough.
Pipe the dough forming small heaps onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Leave some space in between.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Remove biscuits from the oven and let them solidify before transferring to a wire rack.

Spread a little apricot jam on a biscuit, then place another biscuit on top and set aside. Sandwich the rest of the biscuits.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave oven. Spoon into a plastic bag and cut a tiny hole into one of the corners of the bag. Twist the bag and squeeze wavy lines on top of the filled biscuits.