Chocolate crostata with pears and amaretti

When a dessert I make is labeled as "special", "delicious", "THE cake to be made over and over again" by noone else but my husband, then it certainly deserves to be shared here on my blog. He doesn't usually have big words for desserts simply because he has a tooth rather for savoury stuff than for sweets. But I guess I touched his one week sweet point - chocolate. And who wouldn't fall on his knees in front of a delicious slice of crostata like this, even while dieting? (^__^  a little devil on my shoulder is laughing hard now).
Since he asked me to prepare one to take to his office today, and since I know he'll have a little difficulty explaining how it is made and distinguishing between a cake and a crostata, between the dough and the filling, although I tried explaining it, here's a recipe to make things easier for him.

I hope you'll give it a try as well, because it's really worth it. A delicious, crunchy shell filled with chocolate and amaretti that melt while baking into a soft cream and topped with pears. And if you don't like amaretti, don't worry at all, you won't even know they are in there, but yet they'll give it a real kick.

Wish you a Happy Easter!

Chocolate crostata with pears and amaretti

Dough:
* 160 g Philadelphia Milka cream cheese
* 160 g flour
* 80 g softened butter


Filling:
* 2 pears
* 10-12 amaretti cookies
* 75 g dark chocolate
* 1-2 TBspoons of jam (pear, peach or other)

Put the sifted flour into a bowl. Add the flaked softened butter and Milka Philadelphia at room temperature. Start mixing with a fork and then quickly bring everything together with your hands.
Wrap the dough in a piece of plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge at least 1 hour (it will keep well overnight or even for a couple days).
For the filling, roughly crumble the amaretti cookies into a small bowl. Add the finely chopped chocolate and enough jam or marmelade of your choice to get a slightly moist mixture.
Roll the dough out very thin (about 3 mm) into a circle on a piece of baking papir.
Put the filling evenly on top of the dough leaving an empty 3-4 cm edge.
Slice or dice the pears and arrange them on top of the filling (you may also mix the diced pears directly into to the chocolate and amaretti mixture).
Fold the empty edge of the dough over the filling.

                                            

Transfer the crostata together with the baking paper onto a baking sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Crostata al cioccolato, pere e amaretti


Frolla:
* 160 g formaggio Philadelphia Milka
* 160 g farina "00"
* 80 g burro ammorbidito


Ripieno:
* 2 pere abate
* 10-12 amaretti
* 75 g cioccolato fondente
* 1-2 cucchiai di marmellata (di pere, limone, pesche, ecc.)


Per la pasta, mettete la farina in una ciotola. Aggiungete il burro ammorbidito tagliato a pezzettini e il formaggio Philadelphia Milka a temperatura ambiente. Cominciate a mescolare il tutto con una forchetta e poi impastate velocemente con le mani per ottenere una pasta morbida e omogenea.
Avvolgetela con la pellicola alimentare e lasciate in frigo almeno 1 ora (anche tutta la notte o per un paio di giorni).
Per il ripieno, sbriciolate grossolanamente gli amaretti, unite il cioccolato sminuzzato finemente e un paio di cucchiai di marmellata a vostra scelta, giusto quanto serve per avere un ripieno leggermente umido.
Stendete la pasta con un mattarello sopra un foglio di carta da forno formando un disco sottile (circa 3 mm).
Distribuite il ripieno al centro in uno strato uniforme lasciando il bordo di circa 3-4 cm libero.
Distribuite le pere tagliate a fettine o a dadini sopra il ripieno (potete anche unire i dadini di pera direttamente nel ripieno). Ripiegate il bordo della pasta sopra il ripieno.
Trasferite la crostata insieme al foglio di carta di forno su una placca da forno e cuocetela nel forno già riscaldato a 180°C per circa 30 minuti.
Prima di servire cospargetela con lo zucchero a velo.

Čokoladna crostata s kruškama i amarettima


Tijesto:
* 160 g  krem sira Philadelphia Milka
* 160 g mekog brašna
* 80 g omekšalog maslaca


Nadjev:
* 2 kruške
* 10-12 amaretta (keksića)
* 75 g tamne čokolade
* 1-2 žlice pekmeza po želji (od kruške, breskve, limuna, itd.)


Za tijesto, stavite brašno u zdjelu, dodajte na komadiće narezan omekšali maslac i sir sobne temperature. Počnite miješati vilicom, a zatim kratko izmijesite rukama da dobijete glatko i mekano tijesto. Omotajte ga prozirnom folijom i stavite u hladnjak na barem 1 sat (ili preko noći, pa čak i par dana).
Za nadjev, namrvite grubo rukama amarette. Dodajte im sitno nasjeckanu čokoladu i pekmez, koliko je potrebno da dobijete pomalo vlažnu, povezanu smjesu.
Tijesto razvaljajte tanko (oko 3 mm) u krug, na komadu papira za pečenje.
Rasporedite nadjev preko tijesta, ali tako da ostavite slobodan rub od 3-4 cm.
Kruške narežite na ploške ili kockice i rasporedite ih preko nadjeva (kockice možete umiješati izravno u nadjev od amaretta i čokolade).
Preklopite slobodan rub tijesta preko nadjeva.
Premjestite crostatu zajedno s papirom na pleh za pečenje i stavite peći u pećnicu prethodno zagrijanu na 180°C oko 30 minuta.
Ohlađenu crostatu po želji pospite šećerom u prahu.


P.s. količine navedene u nadjevu su okvirne, po želji možete staviti malo više amaretta i čokolade za bogatiji nadjev.  Tijesto također možete podijeliti na dva dijela i napraviti dvije manje crostate.