Parrozzo (Almond Cake) Recipe

Parrozzo is an traditional Italian cake in Abruzzo, a region on the East coast of Italy. It's made with ground almond and semolina flour, which gives it a rustic texture. It's traditionally made in a dome-shape and glazed with chocolate and is served during the Christmas season. It's a long way off to Christmas, but I will not be deterred...

I halved the recipe and couldn't find a suitable bowl to bake it in, so I wounded up using a heart-shaped pan. I was still planning to glaze the cake in chocolate, but my chocolate seized. It could be due to a number of reasons: I was using a skillet instead of a saucepan for the water-bath; I was using milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate; I used a wooden spatula, which is frowned upon because they may contain residual water or oil between the wood fibres. I didn't feel like making another batch of chocolate, so I just left it at that, and did a simple dusting with confectionery sugar. Don't be like me.  

But on the bright side, I ate up the seized chocolate, and the grainy texture was strongly reminiscent of Cadbury's Bubbly range. Methinks I found their secret recipe. Could it really be easy?

Parrazzo

Serves 6

Original recipe from Dolci: Italy's Sweets by Francine Segan.

(I halved the recipe below when I made mine, and baked it on a heart-shaped pan instead. The baking time was reduced from 50 minutes to 20 minutes.)

Ingredients:
140g blanched almond (finely grounded), or almond flour
100g semolina flour
Pinch of salt
55g butter, softened
150g sugar
4 eggs, separated
Grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
Flour, for dusting the cake pan
70g Dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Steps:
Preheat the oven to 155 degree Celcius.  Butter and flour an ovenproof dome-shaped bowl, about 720ml in volume and 6 inches in diameter.

If using whole/sliced almonds, grind the almonds to a fine powder in a food processor. Add a couple of tablespoon of semolina flour when grinding the almond to soak up almond oil released during grinding. 

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. Using a spatula, stir in the semolina and almond flours, lemon zest, lemon juice, butter and salt until well-combined. Set aside.

In a separate large bowl, using clean, dry beaters, beat the egg whites to very stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter and pour the mixture into prepared bowl for baking. Bake for about 50 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven, turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely. 

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, or in a microwave. Spread the chocolate over the cooled cake and let the chocolate set before serving.