Merry Christmas!
During this unsettling time, the certainty of the cappelletto at Christmas comforts me (Caplét = stuffed pasta of the Romagna tradition). The menu is the same every year and includes a main and a second course, always dry cappelletti and with broth and rabbit, rigorously prepared by the grandmothers. One of the two makes, as per family tradition, a very rich mascarpone of which maybe one day I will post the recipe. I say maybe because it's the recipe I'm most jealous of, I've never eaten a mascarpone like that anywhere else, it's a little family secret.
Anyways: mascarpone, pandoro and panettone, nougat, panpepato, these are usually the desserts on the table at the end of Christmas lunch.
This year we were given a pandoro stuffed with mascarpone, cream and red currant flavored with coffee, very tasty. Obviously we got a lot left over, none of us is anymore of the age to be able to afford to shove down kilos of Pandoro and expect that the pants won't tighten at the waist.
With that said, it was distributed equally among family members like the other sweets and so I got rid of a lot of it. After a couple of days in the fridge, however, you get tired of seeing it always in the same shape and you don't really want to finish it, so I made it into chocolate-covered balls. It would have been a shame to waste it and mascarpone doesn't keep for long.
To form the balls, I did nothing but manipulating pandoro briefly with my hands to mix the components well. Mascarpone and cream acted as a binder keeping everything together. If you only have pandoro as a leftover you can add jam and make some cake pops, or you can add a little milk, enrich it with dried fruit, chocolate chips, coconut why not. Really anything you have on hand will work for this recipe.
For convenience, I made the balls last night and placed them in the freezer, this morning I melted the chocolate and dipped the balls, in this way they won't break once dipped and the chocolate will set faster. You can decorate them with what you like best and that you have on hand.
The quantity of the balls will depend on how much pandoro or panettone is left over and how big you will make them. I was able to make 4 big ones.
The truffles are obviously good, the pandoro was good before, having only added some chocolate it can only get better. They are tasty, nice looking and make you want to eat them. This pandoro in disguise will certainly not be left over again!
Recipe
Preparation time 10 minutes + rest
Baking time / minutes
Servings depend on the amount of pandoro / panettone left over
Ingredients
Pandoro/panettone leftover
Jam/cream/milk of your liking
Chocolate dip
Dark chocolate q.s.
White chocolate q.s.
Method
1. Knead the leftover pandoro with your hands and form balls of the desired size. Place on a tray covered with parchment paper and place in the freezer for at least 1 hr
2. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie or microwave
3. Dip the balls into the chocolate and let it set completely
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