Baci di Alassio, recipe for Ligurian biscuits with hazelnut and cocoa
THE Kisses of Alassio they are typical Ligurian sweets born in Alassio, a splendid town overlooking the coast of the Riviera di Ponente. These are two fragrant shells with hazelnuts and cocoa that contain a soft heart of Ganache Chocolate. Perfect to consume on any occasion and time of day, these biscuits are very reminiscent of the shape of the very famous Lady’s Kisses Piedmontese. Easy to prepare, the Baci di Alassio (also called ‘Baci della Riviera’) are made with a pastry bag with a star spout that gives them the typical tuft shape. Let’s see how to prepare them with our easy recipe.
Ingredients for 15 Kisses of alassio
- FOR THE COOKIES:
- Whole unpeeled hazelnuts: 200 g
- White granulated sugar: 150 gr
- Egg whites: 50 g (about 2 eggs)
- Bitter cocoa powder: 30 g
- Corn starch: 10 g
- Wildflower honey: 40 g
- FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
- Liquid fresh cream: 100 g
- Dark chocolate: 150 g
- Preparation: 40 minutes
- Cooking: 30 minutes
- Total: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Preparation
To start preparing the Baci di Alassio, pour the hazelnuts on the baking tray and toast them in a preheated static oven at 180 ° C for 8 minutes.
Once toasted, pour the hazelnuts into a blender and blend them until they are reduced to flour.
Add sugar and cocoa powder together with the toasted hazelnut flour and blend for a few more seconds until the ingredients are even finer.
Pour the minced mixture into a bowl, add the honey and mix with a spoon.
Separately, in a large bowl, pour the egg whites and whip them with an electric mixer at maximum speed, until the mixture is whipped until stiff peaks are obtained.
Pour, little by little, the mixture of chopped powders into the whipped egg whites until stiff peaks, stirring gently with a spatula with circular movements from the bottom upwards so as not to disassemble the mixture.
Once the ingredients are incorporated, also add the cornstarch and mix with the spatula.
Now take a pastry bag, or a syringe for sweets, with a star-shaped spout.
Insert the biscuit dough into the pastry bag and form small tufts on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. With the doses indicated in this recipe you should get about 30 tufts.
Bake the biscuits in a preheated static oven at 180 ° C for 15 minutes. Once cooked, take them out of the oven and let them cool.
Now prepare the chocolate ganache to fill the two layers of Baci di Alassio biscuits. Start by coarsely chopping the chocolate with the help of a knife.
Transfer the chocolate chips to a saucepan or bowl suitable for cooking in a bain marie. Place the bowl in a larger pot, half filled with water, placed on the stove.
Allow the chocolate to melt in a bain-marie, stirring constantly with a whisk.
Meanwhile, in another saucepan, pour the fresh cream and let it heat up on the stove until it just comes to a boil. It will take about 2 minutes. As soon as it comes to a boil, pour the cream directly into the already melted chocolate.
Mix well with a hand whisk, until you get a smooth and homogeneous cream.
Cover the chocolate ganache with cling film and let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Once it has cooled and the standing time has elapsed, whip the chocolate mixture with an electric mixer at maximum speed.
Beat the ganache until you get a thick, full-bodied and soft cream. Let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour to make it thicken better, covering it with cling film.
Once the chocolate cream is very cold, transfer it into a pastry bag, or syringe for sweets, with a star-shaped spout.
Take a biscuit and form a tuft of chocolate cream on the flat side of it and close it with another biscuit. Press lightly to make it adhere better. Repeat the operation for all the biscuits and finally serve the delicious Baci di Alassio immediately.
Accessories
- Two large bowls
- Electric hand mixer
- Table spoon
- Sac à poche with star spout
- Hand whisk
- Spatula
- Transparent film
- Large saucepan
- Small saucepan
- Mixer
- Greaseproof paper
Tips and tricks
- The original recipe involves the use of whole hazelnuts which are toasted and then chopped. Alternatively, you can also use the cocciole flour in the same doses, even if the consistency will be different and finer.
- If the biscuit dough is too soft and you are unable to form tufts, try placing it in the refrigerator for 15/20 minutes. In this way it will become firmer and more plastic.
- Among the circulating versions of the Baci di Alassio, there is also the one that sees the filling with White chocolate ganache. Just replace the dark chocolate in the same doses!
- It is possible to prepare the biscuits that form the Baci di Alassio previously, even the day before. In this case, we advise you to add the chocolate ganache just before consuming them. In this way the biscuit will remain crumbly and will not tend to become softer.
- What if you don’t have the sac à poche? No problem: with a little dexterity you can use two teaspoons with which to form small spherical balls of dough. It will not be the typical shape of the Baci di Alassio, but the goodness remains unchanged.
storage
Store the Baci di Alassio at room temperature and closed in an airtight container or a tin box for biscuits and consume them within 2/3 days. We do not recommend freezing these treats instead.
History
The paternity of the Baci di Alassio belongs to the pastry chef Rinaldo Balzola, who would have designed them in 1910 while he was active in the Royal House of Savoy and in the Balzola confectioners, at that time very popular with prominent and famous personalities. It is said that in those years Alassio was acquiring more and more tourist fame not only in Italy, but also abroad. So it was that Balzola thought of a sweet that tourists could take with them as a souvenir of the holiday spent in that pretty town.
The Baci di Alassio immediately acquired a lot of fame and were widely appreciated, so much so that in the 1950s they fully became the symbol of Alassio and in 2006 they also obtained the DOP denomination. Although the original recipe is still a secret today, each family jealously guards their own version of these delicious sweets.
Ingredients for 15 Kisses of alassio
- FOR THE COOKIES:
- Whole unpeeled hazelnuts: 200 g
- White granulated sugar: 150 gr
- Egg whites: 50 g (about 2 eggs)
- Bitter cocoa powder: 30 g
- Corn starch: 10 g
- Wildflower honey: 40 g
- FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
- Liquid fresh cream: 100 g
- Dark chocolate: 150 g
- Preparation: 40 minutes
- Cooking: 30 minutes
- Total: 1 hour, 10 minutes
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