Today a traditional sweet recipe: Abruzzo sweet Easter hearts.

During the Easter period our home turns into an industrial bakery, although over the years the quantities have been greatly reduced. Between sweets, savory pies, Easter breads and Easter cheeses / pies, there is an embarrassment of choice, so many recipes to please everyone.

The typical sweets of this period in our home are the Easter hearts, which can be shaped as hearts or as a doll or a horse. When I was little everyone had their own pastry: for us girls the doll, for the boys the horse, and for adults the heart.

These sweets are made with a dough of almonds and chocolate, covered in chocolate and decorated with lots of colored sprinkles. As with all traditional recipes, everyone keeps their own version with variations. Some make a softer dough that must be baked in a mold, some make a workable but soft dough; some use more almonds, some less; and some cover them with chocolate while others use icing.

Today I propose my family’s recipe, my mother’s recipe which for me is super delicious and tied to many memories and emotions. With these quantities you will make three small hearts.

Here in Abruzzo the Easter hearts or Easter bread are mainly made to be given to loved ones; they are blessed during Holy Week and wrapped with an olive twig.

Let’s see, step by step, how to make this recipe.

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Ingredients

Below you will find links to some of the ingredients used

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp acacia honey
5 eggs
7 oz dark chocolate
1 1/3 cups almonds
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 lemon (juice and zest)
1 packet baking powder
1 1/3 tbsp brandy
7 oz dark chocolate (for coating)
1 colored sprinkles

Tools

Below you will find links to some of the tools used

1 Kitchen Scale
1 Work Surface Board
1 Cutting Board
1 Knife
1 Dough Scraper or plastic
1 Baking Tray
1 Brush
1 Small Saucepan for double boiler

Let’s make the sweet Easter hearts together!

To start, prepare the ingredients because the almonds need to be toasted and chopped and the chocolate chopped as well. Place the almonds on a baking tray and roast them in the oven at 356°F for about 15–20 minutes to toast them. Then let them cool and coarsely chop them using a food processor.
On a cutting board, chop the chocolate into irregular pieces with a knife.
On a work surface make a well with the flour and arrange all the dry ingredients around it and all the wet ingredients in the center. Start mixing initially with a fork, taking care not to let the liquid spill over the flour edges. Once the dough becomes fairly compact you can knead with your hands and help yourself with a bench scraper. You will obtain a soft but workable dough.
Now that the dough is ready, take a baking tray, grease and flour it (or you can use parchment paper) and draw a heart shape with your finger to guide the shaping. Lightly oil your hands, take one third of the dough (about 500 grams), place it inside the drawn heart and shape it with your hands following the outline. Make the other two hearts as well, each about 2 to 2 3/8 inches thick.
Bake in a preheated oven at 356°F for about 30–35 minutes, then remove from the oven and let them cool.
Carefully move the Easter hearts onto a work surface lined with parchment paper. In a small double boiler or in the microwave melt the chocolate and, using a brush, coat the sweets with chocolate, then decorate with colored sprinkles, sugar decorations and chocolate eggs.
Let the chocolate dry and enjoy the Easter sweets. While you wait, take a photo of your sweets and post it on social media tagging me (una riccia che pasticcia instagram and facebook) and tell me who you will give your heart to.