Grandma’s Paris sticks

These walnut bars with vanilla lemon meringue on top, are crunchy yet chewy on the inside. This is a real European Christmas treat you will love.

Traditional walnut bars

My Grandma used to make these delicious and tender walnut flat bars, covered in crunchy lemon meringue. They were always a little two to three bite sized cookies, so you could always move onto another sort of Christmas cookies she made. And these were one of my favourite.

I will never forget the sleepless nights my grandmother spent to bring so many kinds of Christmas cookies on the table. We used to sneak into the cold room to get a taste, when she wasn’t looking. The aftermath was a few pounds extra, but it was all worth it. We have to enjoy our traditional food in these festive times.

Why do we call them Paris sticks

In the old times, not many people had the privilege to travel. And my grandmother came from a very small village in West Slovakia. So instead of travelling, people in these days, at least started to call their recipes with fancy names of cities or countries from all over the world. And this sweet fancy walnut sticks became quickly Paris sticks.

I have been very lucky to have the chance to learn many traditional meals and cookies from my grandmother. Unfortunately, this one had to be recreated from scratch. I never found this recipe in her cook book and never written it down for myself.

Luckily, my mom and my aunts helped me to put this recipe together. After a few tries, we figured out the right ratio of ingredients and Paris sticks were again alive.

So I would like to dedicate this post and recipe to my beloved grandmother and all the beautiful memories I have had with her. The main ingredients are nuts. I am using in this recipe walnuts and almonds, but pecan nuts or hazelnuts works really well as well. In my opinion, walnuts has the best aroma and are perfect to pair with almonds.

Ingredients needed for walnut bars

For the dough

• almonds
• walnuts
• fine sugar
• eggs
• vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
• all-purpose flour

Meringue topping

• egg white
• confectioner sugar
• vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
• zest from small lemon

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How to make Paris sticks

• Start by gathering all ingredients, best at room temperature. Measure and weight exactly, this recipe needs exact measurement in grams, please use digital scale.
• In a medium bowl of a standing mixer, with paddle attachment, combine all ingredients for the dough. Mix until the dough comes together in a ball. Place the dough on a clean, flour-dusted working surface and kneed it a few times until it’s pliable. Shape a ball, cover in plastic wrap and let chill in refrigerator for 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 150 C /302 F, middle rack. On a clean surface, dusted with flour, roll the dough  in a rectangular shape. The dough should be about 4 mm thick.
• In another clean bowl of a standing mixer, with whip attachment, add the egg white and star mixing on a medium low speed until it’s foamy. Then add confectioner sugar, vanilla sugar and zest from one lemon. Mix until stiff peaks. Make sure your meringue is not runny, if necessary,  add more confectioner sugar.
• With a large spatula, spread the lemon meringue over the dough. With a pizza wheel, cut out stripes wide about  2 cm- 3 cm (1/2 -inch). Use a knife or spatula and move each stick onto the baking sheet, covered with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

FAQ (tips & tricks)

Measuring is specifically made in metric system (measurements). The reason why; all these recipes for Christmas cookies are made in precise measurements to achieve the best quality of the final product. This is why I strongly recommend you, to get a food digital kitchen scale to get the best and enjoyable results.

Sticky dough. The dough is full of nuts, which means grease and with combination of sugar it will make a sticky and messy dough. But do not worry, it is still well handled if refrigerated. The whole process of preparing the dough is done in the stand mixer, so your hands won’t get messy. Once the dough is well wrapped in the plastic food foil, transfer it directly to the refrigerator and let it chill for 2 hours. Cold dough is easier to handle.

Hard dough. If the dough is too hard when taken out from the refrigerator, you can let it stand for 30 minutes on the counter. Rolling it with a rolling pin will help loosen the dough, and it will be easier to handle.

Meringue. Make sure you use confectioner sugar for smooth meringue. If you have only regular caster sugar, put it in a blender or food processor to break it down into a powder. The meringue must be stiff, not runny. If your meringue is runny, add more sugar.

Lemon zest is optional, but it brings a beautiful fresh aroma to the nutty flavour of walnut bars. I do recommend either mix it directly in the meringue or you can grate the lemon zest directly on the top of the walnut bars already with the meringue on.

Vanilla sugar. I like using vanilla sugar in these recipes, because it won’t dilute my ingredients. So if you have to use vanilla extract, use the concentrate or paste.

More recipes

• HAZELNUT CRESCENTS
• ISCHLER COOKIES
• WALNUT CRESCENTS
• LINZER COOKIES
• BEEHIVE COOKIES WITH MATCHA CREAM

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