Tag: chocolate

Pears and chocolate, the perfect match also for strudel – Italian Cuisine

If you've already tasted this pairing in a fluffy cake and liked it, try it out in this alternative studel too. Here is the recipe

You all have in mind the goodness of apple strudel, that fragrant pastry wrap with a filling of scented apples cinnamon? Now try to think of a different version of this wonderful dessert with a filling of pears and chocolate. The most delicious combination enclosed in a light and crunchy texture like that of strudel dough will win you over. We are sure of it. So try your hand at this delicious variation of one of the most classic traditional sweets!

The history of the strudel

Sweet originating from Turkish tradition, the strudel has spread to Hungary when Sultan Suleiman conquered those territories, and from there he came in Austria following the territorial conquests of the Turkish empire. From Vienna he then passed to the Tre Venezie and became one of the traditional sweets of Trentino Alto Adige, also protected by a disciplinary. The German name means vortex, and would refer to the structure of the cake, a roll of dough with a fruit filling inside. Some variations are allowed for its preparation, both for the pasta and for the content. Regarding the former, you can opt for the so-called "Crazy pasta" for the more experienced, for the shortcrust pastry richer, and for the puff pastry, simpler if ready.

Pears: browned or raw?

In this dessert, you can choose to include pears both raw and cooked. In the first case, they will cook directly inside the pasta and will have a firmer consistency. If, on the other hand, you like them softer and a little sweeter, brown them in a pan with butter and a teaspoon of sugar. They will be more tied up and have a fuller flavor.

strudel-pears-and-chocolate

The recipe for pear and chocolate strudel

Ingredients

200 g plain flour 50 g seed oil, 30 g water, a pinch of salt, 1 egg, 4 Abate pears, a teaspoon of sugar, 100 g dark chocolate, a knob of butter, 50 g pine nuts, cinnamon and a drop of milk

Method

In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, egg and then the water. Start kneading with a wooden spoon. Then add the oil and continue mixing until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous. Make it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for an hour. In the meantime, peel and core the pears. In a pan, melt the knob of butter, add the pears cut into small pieces and the sugar. Cook for 10 minutes then turn off and let cool. Take the dough, roll it out on a floured pastry board with a rolling pin and transfer the pears over it, leveling with a spatula. Chop the chocolate and spread it over the pears, together with the pine nuts. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll up the pear and chocolate strudel, close the edges well to prevent the filling from coming out and place it on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Brush it with a little milk and cook at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

In the tutorial, some more tips for a perfect strudel

Chocolate and chestnut truffles, one leads to another! – Italian Cuisine

These treats could become addictive. Don't say we didn't warn you!

You know the classics truffles chocolate? Here, this season we want to enrich them with chestnuts for an even warmer and more enveloping taste. A real autumn cuddle! They can be prepared both with dried chestnuts, both with those that you find already cooked and packaged at the supermarket and are the end of the world with Marron glace. Attention, one leads to the other!

The recipe for chocolate and chestnut truffles

Here's how to prepare them.

Ingredients

250 g of dried chestnuts
100 g of dark chocolate
10 g of butter
50 ml of milk
60 g of sugar
vanillin
20 ml of rum
bitter cocoa

Method

Soak the dried chestnuts for 24 hours and then drain and remove the remaining skin.
Cook them covered with lightly salted boiling water for 50 minutes, until they take on a very soft consistency and then mash them with a potato masher.
Separately, melt the chocolate in a double boiler with a knob of butter and the milk and let it cool.
Add the chocolate, vanilla and rum to the chestnut puree and mix all the ingredients well.
If the mixture is too soft, add a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa, if it is too hard, add a tablespoon of milk.
Let the mixture compact in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, then form balls and roll them in the bitter cocoa.

How to serve the truffles

Use paper cups the same size as your truffles to serve them nicely.
Otherwise, wrap them like gods Chocolates, using cling film and then foil.
In any case, keep them in the refrigerator for a week at most.
You can also freeze them, but consume them within a month.

Other decorations

Bitter cocoa is the fastest solution for the final decoration, but also for lovers of dark chocolate because the bitter taste of cocoa dilutes the sweetness of the chestnut.
You can alternatively dip the truffles in powdered sugar, if the sweetness is not enough for your taste, or in the rapé coconut for a variant with a slightly exotic taste.

Other aromas

Instead of vanillin you can put a few drops of orange essence or rum, and instead of rum you can put other liqueurs, such as a chocolate cream, a aniseed liqueur or even an orange one.
We advise you not to omit this small alcoholic part because it makes the difference and gives a particular scent to this super simple but very refined sweet.

Recipe Chocolate cakes with hazelnut heart – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients

250 g 70% dark chocolate
250 g butter
160 g praliné
150 g sugar
80 g hazelnuts
70 g flour
four eggs
salt

Duration: 1 h

Level: Easy

Doses: 8 people

For the recipe for chocolate pies with hazelnut heart, melt the butter with the chocolate in a bowl on a slightly quivering bain-marie. Add a pinch of salt, sugar and mix well. Lightly beat the eggs and stir in the chocolate mixture.

Add the flour and mix. Spread the dough into 8 oven molds. Collect the praline in a pastry bag, then place a tartlet on the scale and inject 20 g of praline. Repeat with the other patties. Complete with the chopped hazelnuts and bake at 180 ° C for 15-18 '.

You can prepare the patties in advance and store them in the freezer, to cook them at the last moment. In this case, let them defrost in the fridge a few hours before.