Tag: chocolate

Recipe Double chocolate cake with hazelnut caramel – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients For the tart

350 g flour
150 g icing sugar
130 g butter
30 g bitter cocoa
4 g instant coffee
2 pcs eggs
salt

Ingredients For the filling

200 g 52% dark chocolate
100 g caster sugar
80 g flour
50 g hazelnut flour
50 g butter
5 g baking powder
2 pcs large eggs

Ingredients For the caramel

380 g fresh cream
150 g peeled hazelnuts
90 g caster sugar
50 g dark chocolate
20 g honey

Duration: 1 h 30 min

Level: For experts

Dose: 10 people

For the recipe of the double chocolate cake with hazelnut caramel, lightly pound the instant coffee. Mix the soft butter with the cocoa and the icing sugar; add the coffee, a pinch of salt and eggs and finally the flour. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Sprinkle the work surface with flour mixed with cocoa and roll out the pastry with a rolling pin to a thickness of 4 mm. Butter a movable-bottom cake pan (ø 26 cm) and sprinkle the bottom and edges with a little flour mixed with acao. Lay the shortcrust pastry, stick it well and trim it. Cover the cake pan with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 20 minutes; then prepare it for cooking in white by pricking it with the prongs of a fork and coating it with a layer of special ceramic balls or dried beans and bake it at 180 ° C for about 10 minutes.
FOR THE STUFFING
Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and mix it with the softened butter. Beat the eggs with the sugar, until you get a light and slightly frothy mixture; incorporate first the chocolate, little by little, then the flours, the yeast and a pinch of salt. Spread the mixture into the tart and bake again at 180 ° C for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
FOR THE CARAMEL
Toast the hazelnuts in the oven at 180 ° C for 7-8 minutes. Coarsely chop the chocolate. Heat the sugar in a saucepan until golden brown. Lightly heat 130 g of cream in a saucepan and pour it into the sugar, stirring for a couple of minutes, until you get a smooth caramel; incorporate, first the chopped chocolate and then 100 g of toasted hazelnuts and honey. Chop the remaining hazelnuts. Whip 250 g of fresh cream. Spread the caramel with hazelnuts and chopped hazelnuts on the cake and serve with the whipped cream.

Migliaccio al cioccolato – Recipe Migliaccio with chocolate – Italian Cuisine

First prepare the semolina: pour milk, water, butter, vanilla bean and half orange peel into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Then lower the heat, remove the vanilla bean and orange peel, and pour the semolina in a rain, incorporating it a little at a time with a whisk.
Continue to cook for a few minutes, stirring, until it has thickened, then turn off and let cool.

Separately, work the eggs with sugar, vanilla essence and the rest of the grated orange peel.
Then add the warm semolina, ricotta and cocoa and mix.

At the end also incorporate 3/4 of the chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into the buttered mold, level the surface well, decorate with the remaining drops and cook for about 40 minutes in a preheated convection oven at 180 ° C.

The chocolate mill is ready, let it cool for at least 2 hours before cutting it into slices and serving it.

Is it really true that chocolate is an aphrodisiac? – Italian Cuisine

Increases serotonin levels, stimulates the formation of endorphins and is the only food in nature that contains the "bliss molecule"

It really isn't Valentine's day without a box of chocolates. And the reason is to be found in the past: since ancient times, cocoa has been considered a powerful aphrodisiac. According to a legend, the Aztec emperor Montezuma, in 1500, in Mexico, drank 50 cups a day of xocoatl, the ancestor of chocolate, just to keep his sexual reputation alive. At the court of the Sun King, cocoa was used as a euphoric during the holidays. But also the Italian seducer Giacomo Casanova he used chocolate to put his lovers at ease. IS Gabriele D’Annunzio he could not give it up before his love affairs.

The truth

But, beyond belief, is it really true that chocolate is an aphrodisiac? According to science, cocoa is not exactly used to enhance eroticism, but it has an equally interesting function: promotes the brain chemistry of love. Meanwhile, the levels of serotonin, the good mood hormone, which also promotes sexual arousal and desire, increases. Furthermore, its phenylethylamine content stimulates the formation of endorphins, substances produced by the brain, responsible for the state of euphoria experienced during orgasm or intense physical activity. Phenylethylamine also has the ability to enhance the activity of dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to sexual arousal and gratification. Furthermore, cocoa is the only food in nature that contains anandamide, the bliss molecule, a substance also produced by our brain cells that acts on the mechanisms of satisfaction and pleasure.

It's not over: thanks to nitric oxide, cocoa increases vasodilation, improving the supply of blood and oxygen to all our organs. Yeah, just like the blue Viagra pill. "In nature there are many substances that increase libido and sexual function," confirms Chris Kilham, researcher of medicinal plants defined by CNN as "the Indiana Jones of natural medicine", "but only cocoa promotes the mental chemistry of being in love.

Green light for cocoa, therefore, but without exceeding the doses: due to the high calorie content, it would be good to limit yourself to 6 grams per day, that is to say about a little square of chocolate, which is strictly dark. Or a cup of Chokkino, the first espresso made with 100% cocoa: a cup contains only 19 calories.