Among the most delicious "love sweets" ever, these "Baci di Dama" fly off the shelves in pastry shops for Valentine's Day. We recommend those by Ernst Knam, but if you have patience and a steady hand, you can also try making them at home with his recipe, revealed a few years ago on Bake Off.
Photo and recipe inside the article: Bake Off Extra Dolce
INGREDIENTS
For the dough
For the dough
- 200g toasted hazelnut flour
- 2g ground cinnamon
- 200g all-purpose flour
- 200g granulated sugar
- 5g vanilla powder
- 200g butter
- 3g salt
Method
Mix sugar with vanilla, salt, hazelnut flour, ground cinnamon, and flour. Add diced butter and work until you get a smooth and homogeneous mixture.
Roll out on a parchment paper with a rolling pin, to a thickness of about 1 cm. Let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. After this period, cut out small discs with a cookie cutter. Flour your hands, take each disc and roll it carefully to form a ball. Do the same with all the other disks and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, spaced apart. Flatten slightly with your hands and bake at 180°C for 10-12 minutes in a preheated oven. They should be golden brown when done.
For the filling
- 100ml fresh cream
- 10g instant coffee
- 180g dark chocolate
Method
For the ganache, bring the cream to a boil. Turn off the heat, add roughly chopped chocolate and instant coffee (which can be omitted or replaced with 30ml of espresso, reducing the amount of cream by 30ml). Whisk until smooth and shiny. Transfer to a bowl and let it cool for a few minutes in the refrigerator. Transfer to a pastry bag with a small tip.
Take the cold cookies. Pair them up, 2 by 2, with a dollop of ganache. Let them cool for 10 minutes in the refrigerator.
You can substitute hazelnut flour with almond, pistachio, coconut, or walnut flour.
To purchase them, here's the shop of the great pastry chef, who also offers them this year in a decorated bag.
