Chocolate baskets – Filled Cookies
Ready in
3h 30 min
Preparation
2h 10 min
Cooking
15 min
Portions
12 Pieces
Cost
chip
difficulty
medium
Cookies filled with chocolate cream
Winter in Cilento can sometimes be severe. And just on a cold and gloomy day, thinking about my cold grandchildren and how to pamper them on their return from school, I felt like messing around a bit. I was looking for something new to grab on the fly, something that would make them feel all my love: and here are Nonna Claudia’s chocolate baskets. Filled cookies with chocolate cream, crunchy on the outside but with a soft heart, perfect when the temperature drops outside! The Filled cookies with chocolate cream are made with a cocoa shortcrust pastry and a cocoa custard is always placed inside. Once baked they take the shape of a basket or as it is called in the Cilento “panariello”.
Ingredients
Dough
- 600g 00 flour
- 250g sugar
- 250g butter
- 30g bitter cocoa
- 8g baking powder
- 2g vanilla powder
- 3 whole eggs
Filling
- 500 ml milk
- 100g 00 flour
- 100g sugar
- 3 whole eggs
- 30g bitter cocoa
- 1 bio lemon zest
- 50 ml amaretto liqueur
Decoration
- 50 g icing sugar
Follow Us
Directions
Knead the shortcrust pastry first. Start by pouring the flour on a pastry board or in a large bowl and make the classic fountain*
Put the sugar and eggs in the fountain
add the cocoa, vanilla and baking powder
Cut the butter into small pieces and put it all around the fountain over the flour
Mix all the ingredients well until you get a nice, smooth and compact dough
Ball up and then mash the pasta, wrap it in a cloth and put it in the fridge
While the dough rests, we make the custard. In a saucepan, boil the milk with the lemon peel
In the mixer or with a blender, whisk the eggs with the sugar
Add the flour by sieving it and making sure that no lumps form
Add the sifted cocoa, making sure that no lumps form
Strain the milk to remove any skin and lemon peel
Mix the two compounds well and pour them into a pot
Leave to thicken over moderate heat (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly
When the cream is ready, pour it into a bowl and with the whisk, turn dizzily so that it becomes soft and beautiful. Then cover with a damp cloth and let cool
At this point we begin to form our baskets. Take a muffin mold. You can grease and flour it at will. I do not recommend it because the pastry already contains a lot of its fat and therefore does not stick
Take the pastry from the fridge and put it on a lightly floured pastry board
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, flour and turn the dough several times, until it is half a centimeter thick
Take 2 round pasta cutters, one bigger and the other smaller. Cut the pasta so as to create an equal number of discs in the two different sizes.
Cover the molds with the larger circles
Fill the molds with cream up to half a centimeter from the edge
Close the molds with the smaller circles and lower the edges
Bake in an oven that is already hot at 180°C (350°F) and cook for 15 minutes
Remove from the oven, remove them from the mold and put them to cool on a grate*
when they are cold, decorate with icing sugar and serve
Tips
- If the pastry breaks at the time of use, it means that it is not yet ready. Spread it on sheets of parchment paper, one above and one below and, without removing it from the paper, put it in the pan. Once laid in the pan remove the paper.
- I recommend you knead the shortcrust pastry one day before use, so it won’t break.
- When you roll out the dough, always flour it with each turn, otherwise it sticks.
- Lemon must be washed and dried.
- As an alternative to lemon cream, you can use a sachet of vanillin or a spoonful of vanilla.
- Cut the peel with the potato peeler, so do not remove the white part of the lemon which is bitter.
- To cook the cream do not use the same pot in which you boiled the milk, otherwise it sticks underneath.
- When the cream is cooked, stir from time to time while it cools down. In this way you will prevent the odious film (skin) from forming on the surface.
- It is recommended not to fill the molds to the brim with cream, otherwise they open and stick when cooking.
- If you do not have the wire rack, wait 10 minutes after taking out the baskets and turn them upside down. Leave to cool for another 10 minutes and then turn them over again.
Storage
- The chocolate baskets can be kept two days, in a cool place at room temperature but, if it is hot, they must be placed in the fridge.
Note
- * The grate is a cross-linked steel tool (type oven grill) with shims to detach it from the surface to circulate the air underneath.
- * The fountain is the hole that is made in the flour so as not to let out the liquid ingredients.
* Silicone lick spatula
Equipments
- Casserole (Pot)
- Wooden ladle
- Round pasta cutter of 2 different sizes
- Rolling Pin
- Pastry Board
- Knife
- Silicone lick spatula*
- Planetary mixer or mixer
- Muffin mold
- Tray
- Strainer or sieve
- Oven
- Cooker
- Fridge
- Bowls
- Baking dish or tureen
- Whip
- grate*
- Potato peeler
