Italian Chocolate Dessert

Recipe for Chocolate Pudding from Gorgeous Desserts Cookbook

Feb 3, 2008 Rebecca Ford

Try this recipe for a delicous chocolate Italian pudding, from cookery book Gorgeous Desserts.

Italian Chocolate Dessert - Recipe

Italy has long had a close relationship with chocolate. Well, this is the country that gave the world Ferrero Rocher and is home to Turin’s annual chocolate festival. Chocolate certainly features in many Italian desserts – perhaps in a rich mousse, drizzled onto a poached pear, or sprinkled onto a creamy tiramisu.

A Nemesis Moment

If you’re a real chocolate lover, then you’ll want to know how to make an indulgent chocolate pudding – whether to end a romantic dinner for two or as a final flourish at a dinner party. This recipe, which appears here (with permission) from Gorgeous Desserts (pub Kyle Cathie, £14.99) by Annie Bell, is a simpler version of the River Café’s famous Chocolate Nemesis – which many enthusiastic cooks found far too difficult to make at home. Annie Bell calls it ‘A Nemesis Moment’, an indication that this is perhaps the ultimate chocolate dessert.

Ingredients – Serves 6-8

Cake

50g self-raising flour
50g light muscovado sugar
50ml groundnut oil
1 medium egg, separated
1 tablespoon espresso, or very strong black coffee, cooled
1 tablespoon milk

Filling

300g dark chocolate (about 50% cocoa), broken into pieces
4 medium eggs, separated
30g golden caster sugar
250g mascarpone
2 tablespoons kahlua or very strong black coffee
Edible gold or silver decorations, eg. buttons, dragees, chocolate stars, leaf, etc (optional)

Method

Heat the oven to 170C fan /190C/gas mark 5 and butter a 20cm cake tin at least 4cm deep with a removeable base. Sift the flour and sugar into a medium bowl. Add the oil, the egg yolk, espresso and milk and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Whisk the egg white until stiff in another bowl (Annie uses a hand-held electric whisk for this) and fold into the mixture in two goes.
Spoon this into the prepared tin, covering the base evenly, and give the tin a couple of sharp taps on the worktop to allow any bubbles to rise. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden, firm when pressed and shrinking from the sides. Leave to cool.
Place the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan with a little simmering water in it and gently melt. Remove the bowl from the heat and leave the chocolate to cool to room temperature if necessary.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff in a largish bowl using a hand-held electric whisk, then whisk the egg yolks and sugar in another bowl until very pale and mousse-like.
Add the mascarpone to the melted chocolate and blend, then fold in the egg yolk mixture, and then the egg whites in two goes. Stir in the kahlua or coffee. Smooth the chocolate cream over the cake base, scatter over gold or silver decorations if wished, cover and chill for several hours or overnight.
Run a knife around the collar and remove it, and serve the torte in slices.

Read a review of Gorgeous Desserts or a recipe for Plum Pie with Vanilla Custard.

The copyright of the article Italian Chocolate Dessert in Italian Cuisine is owned by Rebecca Ford. Permission to republish Italian Chocolate Dessert in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.