Tag: leads

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.

One nachos leads to another (especially if we made them) – Italian Cuisine

The most famous Mexican "fries" in the world are also prepared at home with just three ingredients!

The nachos, also known as tortilla chips, are gods typical snacks of Mexican cuisine, compact and crispy, of an intense yellow color and with an unmistakable flavor of roasted corn. Typically they are served with cheeses and sauces, but they are also excellent for munching on their own. Preparing them at home is very simple. Three ingredients are enough: corn flour, water and oil.

History of the nachos

These crunchy corn chips are born in 1943 in Mexico, in Piedras Negras, on the border with Texas. It was invented by a certain Ignacio Anaya, known by everyone as Nacho. Hence the name nachos. Today nachos are famous all over the world and are the typical dish of many Mexican restaurants.

xxx nachos

Nachos: the recipe

To prepare nachos at home, just mix 200 gr white corn flour with 200 ml of water and a pinch of salt. Once the mixture is made, spread it between two sheets of parchment paper with a rolling pin.
The sheet must be about 3-4 millimeters thick and, once ready, it must be cut with a circular pastry cutter and then again in wedges.
Fry the nachos in hot peanut oil. The oil should only cover the bottom of a pan, deep-frying is not necessary.
The alternative is baking. Brush the nachos with a little oil and then cook them at 180 ° for about 8 minutes.

How to serve nachos

The most famous accompanying sauce is guacamole which is prepared with crushed avocado pulp, chopped cherry tomatoes, onion, lime juice and tabasco.
Those with a sweet tooth can sprinkle nachos with del fontina cheese let it dissolve in a saucepan together with Parmesan and milk.
If you prefer a lighter accompaniment, prepare a kind of salad of tomatoes, red onion, peppers, celery, oil and lime juice. All vegetables must be finely cut into very small pieces.
To keep the nachos always crispy it is better to sauté them for a few minutes in the oven before serving them.
They are also excellent as an accompaniment to a plate of black beans, or to the classic chilli with beef, in typical tex-mex style.

Discover some ideas in the tutorial to bring nachos to the table and make your guests happy!

Pralin almonds. One leads to another – Italian Cuisine

When you start with one then we can stop. They are pralined almonds or, if you prefer, you can call them landed almonds, fall asleep mother-in-law, stones of Abruzzo

When you start with one then we can stop. Perhaps there is no sweet snack any more than good almonds landed.

They are prepared with only two ingredients: almonds and sugar

In the tradition of central and southern Italy in the period that precedes and follows Christmas, the pralined almonds are cooked, better known as almonds landed or asleep suocerto: a recipe very easy and very quick to prepare and all to nibble. It is almonds cooked in sugar that become frosted up to look like small pebbles, so much so that in Abruzzo they are also called Sassi D'Abruzzo. They can be flavored with lemon or cinnamon and in the most delicious version they are enriched with cocoa or chocolate. They are called she falls asleep, mother-in-law because in the tradition they were brought as a gift to the mother-in-law not only to sweeten them, but also to keep them busy while the engaged couple gave themselves a little intimacy.

The recipe for landed almonds

To prepare the pralined almonds you must use about 150 g of almonds; with or without skin is indifferent. Put them in an aluminum pot with 120 g of sugar and 40 g of water and turn on the stove at low temperature. Stir continuously until the sugar starts to melt and has a sandy consistency and a pinkish color. It means that it has reached the right temperature.
Turn off the heat and place the almonds on the parchment paper spaced from each other to cool.
If you let the sugar melt completely, it will caramelize and become amber and at this point you will get caramelized almonds, just as good, but different from the recipe that we are proposing.

Almonds landed in Puglia

In Puglia, in addition to this recipe, there is a variant of landed almonds much more delicious based on toasted almonds and melted chocolate. Just mix everything together and then make small piles to cool in paper cups. They are really delicious and very nice sweets to bring to the table with coffee.

Some variations

You can make your almonds land more beautiful and pink adding a few drops of cooking alkermes.
If you love the taste and the perfume of the cinnamon you can add a little 'together with sugar and water, while it is perfect cocoa if you prefer dark and slightly bitter.
Someone even adds a few drops of juice lemon to keep the color of the praline sugar more shiny and shiny.