Chocolate Crostata with Cherries Jam had just became my new favorite crostata! This is the type of dessert perfect to start the holiday seasons, but also for a Saturday dinner with friends and family.
I must confess that I love my mom’s crostata so much, that I wasn’t very open to new recipes until recent times. I think it started when I moved to Israel, for some reason her perfect crostata never came quite the same here. So I started experimenting a bit more and this is how I met this chocolate crostata.
If you are wondering what’s exactly a crostata, let’s say that it’s the closest thing to a tart we have in Italy. It’s an evergreen and every family has it’s own recipe. There’s who’s adding orange or lemon zest to the dough, or who prefers vanilla. In my case I usually don’t add orange or lemon, because I like to taste that buttery flavor typical of this dessert, but in this specific case you can add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the dough. It will blend perfectly with the cacao and the butter, making this chocolate crostata crust buttery, flaky, and extra delicious.
Chocolate Crostata with Cherries Jam
Course: DessertsCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy6
servings10
minutes25
minutesIngredients
200g Butter (room temperature)
80g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
370g All-purpose flour
30g Cacao powder
250g Cherries Jam
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk butter with sugar until smooth and creamy. Then add the egg and keep whisking until it perfectly combines with the other ingredients.
- Now using a pastry beater attachment or a spoon, stir together the rest of the ingredients: flour and cacao powder. Mix it well until evenly combined.
- Make a ball out of the crostata dough and cover it with cling film. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. After 30 minutes let the dough rest at room temperature for 5 minutes and start kneading it with your hands (this will warm the butter a bit and you will be able to roll it out).
- Divide the dough into half and then roll each part out using a rolling pin. Cover a pie dish with one crostata’s disc, and prick it with a fork (pricking the bottom of the pie helps the steam to circulate, so the base doesn’t puff up in the oven and doesn’t break while baking).
- Spread a jam layer on the bottom of the crostata.
- Use the other disc to decorate the crostata with intertwined strips
- Bake the cake for about 30 minutes and let it cool before serving.
- If you have dough leftovers use it to make chocolate cookies 🙂