Zuccotto

Zuccotto is rich, chocolatey Tuscan trifle, said to have been inspired by the shape of the cupola of the Duomo of Florence. There are versions of this dessert made with an ice cream filling, versions with hazelnuts instead of almonds and versions with fruits folded into the cream. The version I make combines the flavors of semisweet chocolate and white chocolate with toasted almonds. I made it for the first time on a whim one evening last summer, and it's since become one of Eric's favorite desserts. Don't worry - the finished product only looks complicated. If you've got a few staple kitchen tools, a large bowl and about half an hour, this is a cinch to make.

The first step is to line a large bowl with wedges of poundcake. I use store bought poundcake to make my life a bit simpler. I like to make a pinwheel pattern in the bottom, as it makes the finished product look prettier. Be sure to save several wedges of poundcake for a later step. Also, notice that the bowl has been lined with plastic wrap. I spray my bowl with non-stick cooking spray and line it with plastic wrap to ensure that the dessert will come out easily in the end.



Once the bowl is lined with poundcake, use a pastry brush to baste the poundcake with brandy. Other liqueurs would also work well, like amaretto, rum or even whiskey.



Meanwhile, in another bowl, whip one cup of whipping cream and bit of vanilla extract. When whipping heavy cream, it's important to have the coldest cream and utensils possible. Otherwise, the whipped cream won't gain a good, thick, stiff texture - it will remain somewhat runny and will deflate easily. I always use a stainless steel bowl, which I put in the freezer with my beaters and chill for about 20 minutes before I whip the cream. Once the cream is whipped to stiff peaks, room temperature melted semisweet chocolate is folded into the cream. This is what the folding process looks like:



When folding ingredients together, it's important to remember that you're not vigorously stirring them together, but rather gently moving the spatula from the bottom of the ingredients against the bottom of the bowl, over and onto the top. The purpose of folding the ingredients is to gently combine them without losing any of the fluffiness from the whipped cream. This is what the end product should look like:



Once the cream and the chocolate are combined, spread the mixture evenly onto the brandied poundcake, creating a well in the bottom. Cover it and put it in the fridge while you move onto your next step.



For the next step, you'll be repeating the same steps with the melted semisweet chocolate and whipped cream, but this time you'll be using melted white chocolate and adding chopped toasted almonds. First, combine the whipped cream and room temparature melted white chocolate by gently folding them together.



Fold toasted, chopped almonds into the mixture.



Once combined, spread the white chocolate almond mixture on top of the semisweet chocolate mixture.



Take the reserved pieces of poundcake from earlier and brush them with brandy. Cover the top of the white chocolate mixture with the poundcake pieces, brandied side down. Make sure that there are no large holes, so the filling won't leak out when it's inverted. These don't have to be as prettily arranged, as they're going to be on the bottom of the trifle. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for at least three hours, up to one day.



When it comes time to invert the zuccotto, carefully invert the bowl by placing a plate top side down on top of the bowl and flip the two over together. The plastic wrap should come easily out of the bowl and off of the zuccotto. Keep in mind that this dessert should not sit long at room temparature, as it will slowly start to fall. Before slicing and serving, I like to dust the dessert with cocoa powder and confectioners' sugar.



Buon appetito!