Pastiera, a delicious version with dark chocolate, keeping all other ingredients the same, just adding chocolate to make it more delicious. You can simplify it a bit by removing the candied fruit, but nothing else, to keep it as close as possible to the original. I believe your kids will love it, and you can also use leftover Easter chocolate, reducing waste. Perfect for Easter and the following days. I tried this chocolate version of Easter pastiera for the first time last year. I had leftover filling after making three classic pastieras, so I thought, why not make a delicious chocolate version? We loved it, so I’m sharing it with you, in case you want to try a richer taste for the pastiera.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 8
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Easter
Ingredients for chocolate pastiera
- 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup Lard or extra virgin olive oil (or 1/2 cup of butter)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- lemon zest
- 1 1/2 cups cooked wheat
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- orange zest
- 7 oz dark chocolate
- 1 1/3 cups ideal sheep ricotta
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- as needed candied orange
Tools to prepare the chocolate pastiera
- 1 Small pot
- 1 Bowl
- 2 Small bowls
- 1 Kitchen spatula
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Fork
- 1 Rolling pin
- 1 Knife
- 1 Chopping board
Steps to prepare chocolate pastiera
In a large bowl, combine sugar and lard with lemon zest. Start mixing, then add flour and continue to mix. Finally, add the 2 eggs and knead to form a homogeneous dough. Let it rest in the fridge for an hour in a small bowl covered with a plate.
In a small pot, place cooked wheat, as per jar, add grated orange zest, butter, and milk, and cook for 5-10 minutes until creamy. You can blend the wheat if you prefer.
During these few minutes, chop the chocolate on a chopping board with a large knife to make it smaller and easier to melt. To melt it, place it in the pot with the wheat at the end of cooking, making sure not to dry out the cooking milk completely.
Pour the mixture into a small bowl and let it cool.
In a bowl, work the ricotta with sugar to obtain a cream. Then add two eggs, preferably one at a time, and mix with either a fork or a hand whisk without over-beating the mixture. Add the cooked wheat with chocolate, some candied orange zest, and millefiori or rum flavor if you prefer. Mix and set aside.
Take the dough, work it quickly to make it more elastic so it doesn’t break. Roll it out with a rolling pin on a well-floured surface, about 1/5 inch thick.
Line a 24 cm diameter pastiera mold without greasing and flouring the mold, but sprinkling the base of the pastry that goes into the mold with flour. Remove the excess and reshape them into a dough.
Prick the pastry at the base of the mold with a fork. Then pour all the ricotta cream with wheat and chocolate inside.
Roll out the remaining pastry and cut 7 strips to decorate our pastiera. Bake in the lower part of the oven for about 60 minutes at 350°F.
Remove from the oven, let it cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and enjoy.
