Recipe: Zuccotto:
Stuffed Pound cake with Chocolate, Nuts and Whipped cream:
Formula:
- 5 oz. hazelnuts/roasted/rub with towel to remove skin/grind up in food processor into fine pieces
- 5 oz. blanched almonds/grind up in food processor into fine pieces
- 3 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 8 oz mini semi-sweet chocolate chips or fine chopped semi-sweet chocolate
- 1 marbled pound cake (see my previous blog for recipe and procedure)or use a store bought pound cake.
- Simple syrup/1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, one orange, one lemon, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, cool down, add 2 teaspoons pure vanilla. If you like you can add rum 1/4 cup.
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 400. Place hazel nuts on an ungreased baking pan and bake until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Wrap nuts in a kitchen towel and rub off as much skin as possible.
Place in food processor and grind into fine pieces. Grind blanched almonds the same way; be careful not to process them into powder. Combine the nuts in a bowl and add half of the chocolate chips to them. Melt the other half of the chocolate chips over a water bath in a metal bowl over o small saucepot of simmering water and let it cool. Beat the cream on high with confectioners’ sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the nuts and chips.
Line a round bowl with plastic wrap. Cut each pound cake slice into two triangles. Line the bowl with the slices to form a design alternating the slices from narrow end pointing up next to wide end facing up. Use a pastry brush to soak the cake with the simple syrup or if you like soak with rum. Spoon only half of the whipped cream mixture into the cake and with a spatula presses it lightly onto the bottom and sides of the cake. Fold the melted and cooled chocolate into the other half of the whipped cream mixture and press it carefully into the empty cavity of the cake. Cover the top of the cake with slices of pound cake, or as I did with a slice of sponge cake I had saved up in the freezer. Soak with simple syrup. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
When you are ready to serve, unwrap the cake, place a flat dish over the bottom of the cake and turn it upside down. Lift the bowl off carefully, peeling the plastic wrap away.
Serve on bed of espresso cream Anglaise sauce, or just dust generously with powder sugar.
Step by Step Photos: How to assemble the Cake:
