I wanted to make a gift for a friend who has 3 children. So I decided to bake a big chocottone and 3 mini-chocottones, all of them decorated with rolled fondant.Chocottone is a panettone that has chocolate chips instead of glacéed fruits. I love it. But my dear friend Valentina says that "chocottone" is a word that makes her laugh... :D
I used cellophane bags, because the minicake boxes I had at home weren't the right size... If you decide to do it, too, wrap and deliver them right away - the heat inside the bags will make the fondant melt and your pretty decoration won't last...
I took a class about chocolate once (sponsored by a big chocolate company) and got the recipe there. If you want more recipes with chocolate, visit this site.
Chocottone
Sponge:
60g fresh yeast, crumbled
3 tablespoons sugar
200ml lukewarm milk
2 eggs
240g all purpose flour
Dough:
150g butter, softened
80g sugar
4 egg yolks
1 egg
3 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon spices (cinnamon + nutmeg)
2 tablespoons rum - I used 1 tablespoon brandy
500g all purpose flour
300g semisweet chocolate chips
Make the sponge: in a large bowl, mixture yeast and sugar, then add milk, eggs and flour. Cover with plastic and let it rise for 30 minutes.
Beat butter, sugar, egg yolks, egg, honey, oil, spices and rum until you get a dense cream. Add this mixture to the sponge and gradually add the flour. Knead until dough becomes uniform - mine was very sticky, so I added 50g flour.
Cover with plastic and let it rise again for 30 minutes.
Roll the dough on a floured surface and sprinkle the chocolate chips. Roll it, divide it into 3 equal parts, form balls and place each one of them in paper panettone molds. Let it rise for 10 minutes - mine rose for 30, since I was making cookie dough and couldn't take my hands off it. :D
Makes 3 500g chocottones - I got 2 550g chocottones + 6 110g mini-chocottones
Those are beautiful! What a lovely treat.
ReplyDeleteThese look delicious! I am crazy for panettones. Chocottone sounds even better! My parents always bring a huge one for me whenever they visit Italy and I keep eating it for months. Funny how these keep for so long..
ReplyDeleteKristen, tks!! I'm anxious to know if the kids I sent them to liked them as well.
ReplyDeleteHi, Cenk, how lovely to have you here! Thank you for your comment.
The store bought panettones/chocottones have a good shelf life, you're right. These don't last that long, but you can keep them for about 1 week (if well wrapped).
Pat,
ReplyDeleteoh I love the name of chocottone! I'm not a kid, but still would love someone giving this lovely cake to me!
I used to make panettone last two years, because I enjoyed making bread by hand. I remember my dough was very sticky too. But your recipe looks very good, I'll keep in mind to come back again! Too bad the stores here don't sell the paper mold that you're using.
Gattina, I love the name chocottone too - I love everything that has chocolate. ;D
ReplyDeleteI love making dough, too, so that's why I'm always looking for yeasted breads and stuff (except now, that I'm on a diet).
I'm glad you liked it, it's pretty easy, too!
Pat,
ReplyDeletenow you're really tempting me! I miss making yeast cake/bread so much! Ok, I think I can spare some time to do it this week. In the meantime may I know the bottom width (diameter) of your 500g chocottone? Since I got to search for a similar baking tray.
Pat, your fondant deco looks excellent, I have no skill on that, but your delicious chocottone is enough to make me fly to the sky! :D
I cannot believe I waited this long to try panettone and now it looks like I should try chocottone too! Such a fun word to say, again and again.
ReplyDeleteMy kiddos will easily prefer the chocolate chips to the dried fruit!
Gattina, I love working with yeast (especially fresh yeast). Kneading is like therapy for me. lol
ReplyDeleteThe paper mold is 13cm (round base) and 11cm (height).
I'm so glad you liked my recipe, since everything you make is always so beautiful!
Hi, Janelle, welcome! I love the word too, I think it makes you want to eat it ever more! :D
I've never tried panatone. Your look absolutely lovely -- I like the different sizes, and the fondant decoration is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHi, T.W.,
ReplyDeletethank you! This dough is pretty simple to make, but the effect is really good.
Oh Pat,
ReplyDeleteso much I want to give you a BIG hug now!!! Eventually I found a friend who love making bread by hand!!! I mean, sometimes I really just want to get a bread machine and forget everything (you know those busy days...)... I still haven't bought a machine, still find the enjoyment(yes, very therapeutic!). Thanks for the info and it's very helpful Pat!
Gattina, I grew up eating homemade bread (at least until I was 10, that's when my father married again and his wife wasn't much of a cook). I love it!!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear it from you - I'm such a big fan of yours!
Pat,
ReplyDeleteI've made the chocottones, they had wonderful flavor!
But on the texture I failed... the dough was very very sticky as you said. But since I was curious how they turned out if without adding extra flour, so I kept an half dough for adding 50g extra flour, the other half without extra flour. Both were still impossible to knead, so I stirred them as long as I could. The bread rised nicely, inside was soft and tender, only thing missing was shreds and shreds of gluten that normally accomplished by kneading. Pat, will you suggest me adding even more flour? Could you knead by hand that time? I'm still happy on the overall result, especially it's my first try, I believe they'll be better when I do it again :D
Dear Gattina, I'm so sad because the recipe didn't work out for you! :(
ReplyDeleteSome of my friends who live abroad always tell me that the flour here in Brazil is different, may be that's the problem. Sometimes, when I bake foreign bread recipes, I have to add more flour, too.
I was able to knead by hand because I added more flour, because when I looked inside the bowl I thought - oh, my, this is never going to be firm enough to knead!
The only recipe I've ever tried making without adding more flour was the pizza dough - all the others I had to do so. Here you'll find a picture of the recipe, htne you'll be able to check the texture:
http://www.garoto.com.br/handles/receitas/minhas_receitas/receita.php?receita=82&cod_idioma=PT
I hope this is helpful. Please, let me know if you need anything else. I feel bad about it!
Oh Pat, please don't feel bad! When I try any recipe, I always prepare for 2nd round anyway (even come out right I tend to make some adjustment to suit my own taste). And that sticky dough didn't mad me at all! I'm happy they rised nicely and taste good. Thanks for your advice and more photo links, I certainly will give it one more try in the future.
ReplyDeletePat, you're right on different flours. In my local area, even different brands behave differently too. Thanks, I'll pay more attention on that! *hug*
Patricia, I am just looking through your sweet archives...wow, you have so many great recipes... This is such a great gift idea! I hope I can find paper panettone molds here. And I won't even wait for Christmas to make this because it's cold enough in Sydney now to pretend that it's Christmas. We sometimes celebrate "Christmas in July" ;-)
ReplyDelete