Date cake and bitter orange marmalade
A few nights ago, looking back at the photos of my vacation in Malta with nostalgia, one image in particular reminded me of the delicious Maltese Imqaret, sweets made with dates.
I decided to search the internet for the recipe, but being the instructions too long and not suitable for amateurs, I did another search and found an interesting recipe for a date dessert. I customized it and added our Bitter Orange Marmalade.
Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients and Preparation (For 8 people)
For the chestnut shortcrust pastry
150 gr of type 0 or 1 soft wheat flour
100 gr of chestnut flour
125 gr of cold butter in cubes
80 gr of icing sugar
50 gr of eggs (1 medium egg)
a pinch of orange zest
a pinch of salt
a pinch of vanilla sugar
20 gr of dark chocolate
Work the flours with the butter with your fingertips (or in the mixer) until the butter disappears. Combine all the other ingredients (except the chocolate) previously mixed and work just enough to form a homogeneous pastry. Crush it into a dough and wrap it in cling film. Let it cool for at least 4 hours.
Roll out a part of the pastry and cover a greased micro-perforated ring 20 cm in diameter and 2 cm high. Cook it at 170°C until it takes on a light hazelnut colour. Also bake some pastry decorations in the shape of small leaves.
Allow the base to cool, brush it with melted dark chocolate and let it solidify.
For the ricotta cream
250 gr of ricotta
10 gr of icing sugar
80 gr of chestnuts in syrup by Il Baggiolo
the zest of half an orange
15 gr of dark chocolate chopped into small pieces
a pinch of salt
Mix the ricotta with sugar, salt and orange zest using an immersion blender if it is too lumpy. Combine the chopped chocolate slowly, a little at a time.
Fill the shortcrust pastry base with the ricotta cream and level it with a spatula.
For the chestnut chantilly
250 gr of fresh cream
125 gr of Il Baggiolo chestnut cream
Combine the two ingredients in a bowl and whip them with an electric mixer until you have the consistency of a mousse. Fill a pastry bag with a Saint-Honoré spout and decorate the surface of the cake with strips or tufts of Chantilly.
Decoration
A whole chestnut in syrup by Il Baggiolo, to put in the centre, some dark chocolate beads, shortcrust biscuits in the shape of a leaf, icing sugar.
Keep cool until ready to serve.
Soft blueberry and hazelnut cake
Difficulty: Medium / High
Ingredients and preparation (For 8-10 people)
For the hazelnut biscuit
150 gr of icing sugar
60 gr of ground hazelnuts in flour
50 gr of rice flour
2r g of baking soda
170 gr of egg whites
90 gr of butter
1 / 3 of a jar of blueberries in syrup by Il Baggiolo
20 gr of coarsely chopped hazelnuts
the zest of half an organic lemon
a pinch of vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt
In a bowl, mix the icing sugar, hazelnut and rice flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and vanilla sugar. Combine the egg whites.
Melt the butter over low heat and cook until it takes on an amber colour (noisette butter). Allow it to cool, pass it through a colander and add it to the dough.
Line a 24 cm diameter cake pan with parchment paper. Fill it with the mixture and sprinkle it with the blueberries in syrup, drained of their liquid, and the chopped hazelnuts.
Bake at 180°C for about 35 minutes and allow the biscuit to cool before turning it out onto a plate.
For the mascarpone Chantilly
100 gr of fresh cream
60 gr of mascarpone
20 gr of granulated sugar
zest of half a lemon
For the mascarpone and blueberry Chantilly
100 gr of fresh cream
60 gr of mascarpone
25 gr of blueberry juice in syrup (take it from the jar of Blueberries in syrup by Il Baggiolo)
20 gr of granulated sugar
In two bowls, combine the very cold ingredients and whip them with an electric whisk until they reach the consistency of a mousse.
Prepare two pastry bags with smooth spouts (10 or 12 mm diameter) and fill them with the two doughs.
To fill and decorate
2/3 of a jar of “Il Baggiolo” blueberries in syrup, some hazelnuts.
When the biscuit is very cold, cover it with the remaining blueberries (leave some to decorate) and with alternating tufts of the two chantilly. Garnish with some blueberries and some chopped hazelnuts. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
English 
Italian