I’m a bit out of me in these last weeks.
All because the seasons are changing, or rather, going crazy. And for a meteorosensitive like me, this a problem.
How will this winter, which has not yet arrived, turn into spring?
I look for comfort in the taste of chocolate, and while I am deciding to add hazelnuts, a lot of them, I just think of the gusto Bacio (“kiss flavor”).
That of the Italian pralines I like so much.
This winter is in danger of ending without ever having really begun.
In the meantime, I do what I know and can do, I evoke the change of season baking winter desserts with the most classic of ingredients: chocolate.
An “al Bacio” tart, hazelnut and dark chocolate, is just what I need to exorcise the winter that is not coming.
“Al Bacio”. Hazelnut and chocolate tart.
Who knows the Italian chocolates called Baci Perugina? Where Baci, at the plural, means kisses and Perugina is the family company founded in Perugia (in Umbria) that produces them.
The combination of Italian hazelnuts and chocolate has been a winner since 1922.
It was born from the intuition of a woman, Luisa Spagnoli, who, by mixing hazelnut and dark chocolate, created a praline that was initially called Cazzotto (punch)!
Nothing could be further from the thought of a kiss
My recipe is easy.
I propose a classic flavor that takes name and inspiration from that original intuition.
I mixed dark chocolate cream and hazelnut chopped inside a shortcrust pastry shell.
I also added whole hazelnuts to the filling. As in the chocolate which, between chocolate and hazelnut crumbs, hides a whole hazelnut as a heart. Finally, I decorated with coarsely chopped hazelnuts and one praline in the middle.
The chocolate and hazelnut cream is held in a shell of traditional crispy shortcrust pastry.
At the end, it is just a crostata.
Buona cucina, Monica
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Food Tip.
Roll out the pastry thinly. It will be delicious and crispy.
Hazelnut And Chocolate Tart Recipe
for 6 slices,
mould diameter 15
Ingredients
for the shortcrust pastry
flour, 125 g
butter, 63 g
sugar, 33 g
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
chocolate and hazelnut cream
milk or dark chocolate, 250 g
fine hazelnut crumbs, 60 g
coarse chopped hazelnuts, 30 g
about ten whole hazelnuts
heavy cream, 40 g
whole egg, 1
butter, 10 g
a few Baci Perugina for decoration
Directions
Shortcrust pastry.
In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients to make the shortcrust pastry.
Then add egg and butter pieces and knead quickly, with your fingertips.
Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour.
Chocolate cream.
While the shortcrust pastry is resting, place chocolate, heavy cream and butter in a small pan.
Melt in a bain-marie on the heat, stirring. When the cream is smooth and soft, leave to cool before adding the egg. Then, add the egg and stir to incorporate before incorporate also fine hazelnuts crumbs
Make the chocolate tart.
Roll out the shortcrust pastry in a thin layer between two sheets of slightly wet and squeezed baking paper.
Line a baking tray with kitchen paper, place the dough in the tray, prick the bottom with the prongs of a fork, pour in the chocolate cream and evenly add whole hazelnuts by simply placing the hazelnuts on the surface of the cake and pushing them down with a finger.
Use a metal spoon to try to cover the whole hazelnuts as well as possible with the chocolate cream.
Bake in a preheated static oven at 180C degrees for about 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool, but not completely, before decorating.
While the cream is warm and still soft, place a chocolate in the centre, the base will melt a little and the chocolate will stay firmly in the centre of the tart. Gently push the coarse chunks of hazelnut gently into the cream so that they too stay firmly in place.
Allow to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes before serving.
