Armando Scannone and his chocolate desserts

In this Puro Chocolate article you will discover the best-known traditional Venezuelan and European desserts made with chocolate that the late Venezuelan gastronome Armando Scannone rescued in his red and blue books of My kitchen, in its own way, “in the manner of Caracas”.

Chocolate is one of the ingredients that could not be missing in the hundreds of recipes for traditional Venezuelan and European desserts "in the manner of Caracas", which Armando Scanone he rescued and reflected in his famous red and blue books so that they could be reproduced just as he remembered them in aromas, textures and flavors by the most inexperienced chef.

Of the more than one hundred dessert recipes, including cakes and Creole farming, that appear in the red book My Kitchen, the Caracas way, a recipe book that in addition to maintaining the memory of Venezuelan cuisine, with its Caracas touch, offers a method that, when followed to the letter, makes all the recipes come out, nine are made with one of the most famous ingredients in the world, chocolate.

1. chocolate candies
2. Chocolate cream in a bain-marie
3. chocolate pastry cream
4. Black in “chocolat Gourmet” shirt or chocolate pudding with English cream
5. chocolate cheese
6. Chocolate sauce
7. Chocolate hazelnut cake
8. marble cake
9. Chocolate cake with templates (chocolate marquise)

Although desserts with chocolate began to be made in Venezuela from the mid-twentieth century, (it was not a tradition in our country to use this ingredient in the kitchen, with the exception of drinking it hot in a cup), families like Scannone's, in which their parents were Italians and brought their culinary knowledge from Europe, they were already preparing beforehand.

An example of this is the famous Black shirt dessert, a style of chocolate pudding with cream that has a tradition in France and Italy, of which a Creole adaptation was made and whose first recipe was published by Scannone in 1982 in his red book that we share next:

Negro en Camisa “Chocolat Gourmet” or chocolate pudding with English cream

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of butter to grease the mold
• 300 grams of semisweet chocolate
• 2 cups of water
• 300 grams of sugars
• 300 grams of butter or 20 tablespoons
• 6 egg yellows
• Egg whites 6
• 3 tablespoons flour

Preparation

1. With the two tablespoons of butter, grease a metal mold 18 centimeters in diameter by 10 centimeters high.
2. A metal container, slightly larger than the mold, with about 5 centimeters high of water to boil, is placed on the fire, where the mold is going to be put to cook in the oven, that is, in a bain-marie.
3. The oven is preheated to 400 degrees.
4. In a pot, put the chocolate in small pieces, the water and the sugar. Bring to a boil, lower the heat a little and cook stirring for about 30 minutes, until it thickens and falls in the form of a sheet from a wooden spoon.
5. Immediately off the heat, add the butter, stirring until the fat is no longer visible on top. Continue beating while adding the egg yellows one by one.
6. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites to the point of sighing and mix them with the chocolate with an enveloping movement. Finally, the flour is mixed with an encircling movement and added through a wire strainer in the form of rain.
7. Pour the mixture into the mold, put it in the container with the boiling water and immediately put everything in the oven. It is baked for 25 minutes. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and continue baking until a needle inserted comes out dry, about 15 more minutes.
8. It is removed from the oven. Let it cool down and put it in the fridge. When it is going to be served, it is turned over on a slightly deep tray after putting the mold for a few seconds in hot water and bathed with the English Cream prepared as follows:

Ingredients for the English cream

• 4 cups of milk
• 8 egg yellows
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Preparation

1. Put the milk, the yellows, the sugar and the flour in a pot. Mix well with a wire whisk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly vigorously and do not circulate until it has the consistency of thick cream and adheres to the spoon when lifted and turned.
2. Remove from the heat, add the vanilla and continue stirring in the same way over a container with ice water until cool so that it does not cut
3. Pour into a container through a strainer

Armando Scannone's blue book chocolate desserts

Similarly, of the more than one hundred dessert recipes that appear in the blue book My Kitchen, in the manner of Caracas, a recipe book in which Scannone introduces dishes adapted to the gastronomic changes of Venezuelans, with international and creative recipes own, there are 15 with chocolate.

1. raw chocolate cream
2. cocoa candy
3. Hazelnut macaroons with chocolate
4. Chocolate cake
5. chocolate cake
6. cupcakes with chocolate
7. Chocolate Covered Hazelnut Cake
8. Chocolate cake with cassis
9. chocolate cake with orange
10. Chocolate cake with nuts (morenitas or brownies)
11. Meringue cake with apricot jam and chocolate
12. Chocolate bread cake
13. chocolate cheesecake
14. Chocolate cream cheese cake
15. chocolate waffles

And so that you can enjoy one of these Scannone recipes, we have decided to share with you the chocolate cake with nuts, also known as morenita or brownie:

Chocolate cake with nuts (morenitas or brownies)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 of flour to grease the mold
• 250 grams of dark or semi-sweet chocolate
• 1/2 cup of milk to melt the chocolate
• Whole eggs 3
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3/4 of cup of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 / 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup or 100 grams of chopped walnuts

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a deep pooc mold of about 20 x 20 x 5 centimeters. It sets aside.
2. Put the chocolate and the milk in a small saucepan and cook over a low heat until the chocolate melts. It sets aside.
3. In the container of an electric mixer, put the eggs and sugar and beat until they acquire a light yellow color. Add the butter and melted chocolate and beat for 2 or 3 minutes.
4. In a flour sifter, put the flour, baking powder and salt and, apart, sift them into the blender container and stir with an enveloping movement.
5. The nuts are stirred and the mixture is poured into the mold. Put the mold in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until a needle inserted comes out clean.
6. Remove the pan from the oven, let it rest for 15 minutes, remove the cake from the pan and turn it over onto a tray. Let it cool.
7. If you want "Morenitas" or "Brownies" cut, once cold, into 5 x 5 centimeter pieces, that is, divide the cake into 4 x 4.

The legacy of Armando Scannone in the Venezuelan cuisine

With the publication of his red, blue, yellow, green and orange books, Armando Scannone leaves Venezuelan homes with one of the most important culinary legacies of the last two centuries in our country, a series of recipe books that collect our Venezuelan flavors with a writing method that does not allow errors in its preparation and results.