Piedmontese Chocolate

Piedmontese chocolates

1) The Gianduiotto: an overturned and wrapped boat made up of cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter and toasted and ground hazelnuts.

Michele Prochet in 1852 chocolatier from Turin, as the cost of imported cocoa was always higher, he tried to "stretch" the product with hazelnuts. It happens that the Tonda Gentile delle Langhe contains a fat part due to the presence of oils, thanks to which it was possible to mix the hazelnut cocoa with excellent results: in this way the gianduja paste was born.

In 1865 Gianduja mask of the Piedmontese theater was commissioned, during the carnival, to distribute the chocolates (which later took his name) to passers-by for promotional purposes.

It is useful to know a couple of things. The first is that the mask was called in dialect Gioan d'la douja or Giovan del boccale. The second is the reason why this mask was chosen. During the Napoleonic period and then the Risorgimento gianduja was a symbol of the struggles for independence and also because in the last week of Christmas he used to distribute sweets in hospices and hospitals.

The first to produce giandujotti were Prochet, Caffarel in Borgo San Donato in Turin. Peyrano later created a new "edition" of the giandujotto by adding milk and a pinch of vanilla to the mixture.

2) Alpino: dark cup containing a liqueur cream whose recipe is secret. Created in 1922 by Peyrano protected by a patent for the trademark since 1935.

3) Kiss of Cherasco: in Cherasco, a small town in the Cuneo area, this irregularly shaped chocolate (praline *) is made, coated with toasted hazelnuts chopped with dark chocolate.

4) Bassinato: it is obtained by coating the raisins or almonds or hazelnuts or coffee beans with chocolate after making them crunchy. The name derives from the French term bassinne. It is a tool also used in the pharmaceutical technique to coat, for example, tablets.

5) Boero: dark sugar covers a "spirited" cherry in cognac and in turn coated with dark chocolate.

6) Cremino: it is a layered chocolate of gianduja, chocolate or coffee or lemon cream. Ferdinando Baratti invented it in the mid-1800s in the confectionery opened in Turin with his partner Edoardo Milano, hence the name "Baratti & Milano"

7) Cremino Fiat: In 1911, for the launch of the new type 4 model, Fiat held a competition among the Italian chocolatiers to create a new chocolate to match the machine. won by majani from Bologna (the first chocolate company born in Italy in 1796) which created a 4-layer cremino instead of the usual 3.

8) Cri Cri: hazelnut covered with dark chocolate and a white colored sugar grain. Almost certainly conceived in Turin by Decoster in the early 1900s, all wrapped up like a candy.

9) Cuneese al rum: It is made up of two meringue wafers stuffed with a dark cream and rum covered with a layer of dark chocolate. They were conceived by Felice Galletti, but it was the pastry chef Andrea Airone who patented them, becoming famous all over the world. Even Ernest Hemingway stopped specifically in Cuneo to buy them.

10) Diablotino: "diablotin" the oldest chocolate that is very easy to make at home. 60g of sugar plus 60g of grated dark chocolate plus three tablespoons of water, melt without boiling the mixture. Then form small balls on a plate and when they are still warm, crush them until they form small discs that can be sprinkled with vanilla sugar.

11) Ganache: it can be hazelnut, chocolate or white chocolate. Of French origin "discovered" by Ganache by mistake as he poured boiling cream over chocolate. The cream can be used to make bundles containing hazelnuts, but also with white chocolate.

12) Giacometta: artisan product born as Pralin which in 1975 Giordano changed into Giacometta (Gianduja's companion). It is a grain of Piedmontese hazelnuts covered with gianduja. This creation allowed the company to win the first prize at the 2013 international chocolate awards

13) Grappino: created in 1962 by Peyrano. Chocolate with a grappa core coated with dark chocolate. has a peculiarity is very expensive.

14) Napolitains: even if it is not of Piedmontese origin it is produced in good quantity, despite the name it has nothing to do with the city of Naples. It weighs an average of 5 grams and measures 3cm by 3cm. It is perhaps the most widespread in the world for its simplicity as it initially arises from the simple division of a chocolate bar into several parts. We wrap these small squares that can be made of various types of chocolate.

15) Truffle: ganache-based dough with hazelnut praline, another version is obtained using some liqueur and finally sprinkled with bitter cocoa.

16) Tresamis: three Piedmontese hazelnuts I.G.P. toasted together with dark chocolate

17) Covered peel: simply candied orange peel dipped in dark chocolate.