Messina-style Black and White Chocolate

Discover our soft and indulgent dessert, a close cousin of the profiterole.
Its origin is likely traceable to the court of Catherine de’ Medici.
Specifically to one of her cooks, a certain Popelini, who created this dessert, whose fame spread only in the 17th century.
In Sicily the dessert is called “bongo”, suggesting a possibly different origin than the French one. When I was a teenager, at my grandmother Maria’s Miralago pastry shop we made the Sicilian version of the profiterole: the black and white, which could be coffee and chocolate, filled with cream.
Its shape can vary depending on the occasion, even forming a number.
Also available as a Thermomix (Bimby) recipe.

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Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Very inexpensive
Rest time: 20 Minutes
Preparation time: 2 Hours
Cooking time: 25 Minutes
Portions: 12
Cooking methods: Electric oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

623.36 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 623.36 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 45.54 (g) of which sugars 34.91 (g)
Proteins 7.39 (g)
Fat 46.53 (g) of which saturated 10.64 (g)of which unsaturated 3.92 (g)
Fibers 1.28 (g)
Sodium 142.45 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 200 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients

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3/4 cup Water
7 tbsp Butter
5 Eggs
1 1/4 cups Sugar
1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour (00)
4 1/4 cups Heavy cream (liquid)
to taste Salt
2 packets Vanillin
2/3 cup Hazelnut spread (Nutella or gianduia)
2 tsp Powdered sugar
to taste Chocolate (shavings or cocoa powder for decoration)

Messina-style Black and White Chocolate

Tools

What we need to prepare the recipe

Hand mixer
Piping bag
Saucepan
Serving dish serving
Knife
Baking tray large

Preparation of the Messina-style Black and White Chocolate

Traditional recipe, let’s prepare the choux pastry

In a small saucepan put the water, the butter and the salt and bring to a boil. Add all the flour, lower the heat and stir vigorously.
You will obtain a smooth and creamy dough. Let it cool.
It is important to add the eggs one at a time: do not add the next egg until the previous one is well mixed and incorporated.
Mix the dough well until you get a smooth cream.
Meanwhile, spray the baking sheet with butter spray or use parchment paper. Put the mixture into a piping bag and start piping the choux pastries.
Bake in a preheated oven at 392°F for 25 minutes, then lower to 356°F for another 5 minutes. Remove and let cool.
Meanwhile, move the cream from the fridge to the freezer for 30 minutes. Add the sugar and vanillin and whip with a whisk or stand mixer.
Divide the cream: use 3/4 of it to fill the choux, and keep the rest in the fridge for later.
Make a small hole in each choux with the tip of a knife, fill the piping bag and fill all the choux. Put them in a large bowl.
Gently heat the chocolate cream in a double boiler.
Take the cream you set aside earlier and add the Nutella.
Fold gently with a spatula until you obtain a smooth and homogeneous mixture.
Toss the choux into the mixture and gently mix everything by hand.
On a sufficiently large cake plate place the choux one by one forming a mound, or shape them into a number if it is for a birthday.
Before serving add a dusting of powdered sugar or a sprinkling of melted dark chocolate, and decorate with stars, chocolates, or strawberries as you like. That’s it — Messina-style Black and White Chocolate.
Put the water, butter, salt and sugar into the Thermomix bowl, heat: 5 min./212°F/speed 1.
Add the all-purpose flour and mix: 20 sec./speed 4. Remove the bowl from its housing and let the contents cool for 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 392°F. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Reposition the bowl on its base, remove the measuring cup and with the blades running at speed 5, add the eggs one at a time through the lid opening.
After adding the last egg, mix again: 30 sec./speed 5. Transfer the dough to a piping bag with a plain tip and…
Form the choux by piping from the pastry bag onto the prepared sheet, leaving about 2 in between each one.
Bake in a hot oven for 20-25 minutes (392°F) or until the choux are golden. Turn off the oven and leave the door ajar, letting the choux dry inside for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the tray from the oven and let cool completely.
The cream must be in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before whipping, and preferably the bowl too. Add the sugar and vanillin and whip without the measuring cup with the butterfly at speed 3.5. Watch through the lid and stop as soon as it’s whipped, otherwise it will turn into butter.
At this point, divide the cream: use 3/4 of it to fill the choux, and keep the rest in the fridge for later.
Make a small hole in each choux with the tip of a knife, fill the piping bag and fill all the choux. Put them in a large bowl.
Gently heat the chocolate cream in a double boiler.
Take the cream you set aside earlier and combine it with the Nutella.
Fold gently with a spatula until you obtain a smooth and homogeneous mixture.
Toss the choux into the mixture and gently mix everything by hand.
On a sufficiently large cake plate place the choux one by one forming a mound.
Or give them a special shape, like a number, if it’s for a birthday.
Before serving add a dusting of powdered sugar and decorate with stars or strawberries as you like. That’s it — the black and white chocolate profiterole.