Parrozzo – Abruzzo chocolate cake for Christmas
Parrozzo is a traditional chocolate Christmas cake from Pescara in the Abruzzo region. Here in an extra moist version with marzipan.
There’s an entertaining story connected with this traditional Christmas cake from Pescara in the Abruzzo region. The cake was invented by a baker in Pescara, who wanted to make a sweet version of the peasants’ corn bread called pane rozzo. He substituted corn with eggs and almond flour, shaped a mound resembling round bread and covered it with chocolate to imitate the burned crust. He called the cake parrozzo and invited the poet Gabriele d’Annunzio around for a tasting. Afterwards D’Annunzio composed “La Canzone del Parrozzo” in honour of the new cake. The poem is written en dialect, but for those who can read it, the text is here:
“È tante ‘bbone stu parrozze nove che pare na pazzie de San Ciattè, c’avesse messe a su gran forne tè la terre lavorata da lu bbove, la terre grasse e lustre che se coce… e che dovente a poche a poche chiù doce de qualunque cosa doce…”
My version of the Abruzzo chocolate cake is not arched. And almond flour has been substituted with marzipan, but that does not make this Parrozzo any less appealing. And both the bakeries in Pescara and I make it throughout the year.
Ingredients
100 g ground almonds
100 g marzipan
5 eggs
80 g butter
100 g sugar
100 g flour
2 tbsp corn starch
200 g dark chocolate
Preparation
Separate the eggs and whisk the whites stiff.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar until white, and fold in ground almonds, flour, corn starch and grated marzipan
Melt the butter in a casserole and pour it into the cake mixture
Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture
Grease a spring pan form and cover it with parchment paper
Pour in the cake mixture and bake at 180 C/ 360 F for 25 minutes
Cover the cake with alu foil and bake for another 10 minutes to prevent the surface from turning dark
Leave the parrozzo for 1 hour to cool. Remove the spring pan form and cover it with chocolate melted in a bain marie water bath.
More Italian Christmas cakes
Buccellato – Sicilian Christmas wreath
Pangiallo – A Christmas cake from Rome
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Ooh, this looks yummy! I’m not a fan of chocolate cake, but cake *with* chocolate is a completely different ballgame. Might have to give this one a go …
I like it. It’s a good no-nonsense cake with a few, really good ingredients.
One thing that i love of Italian cuisine, is that it is mostly originated from recipes of the poor, and still it can be delicious.
That is one think that marks a huge difference with French cuisine, for instance.
One thing I don’t like, is that it is not that easy to find local specialties outside the region they originate from, except for evergreens like panettone or similar.
I’m not an “abruzzese”, and I discover now existance of the Parrozzo. It is a pity. Now I’m craving for chocolate.
I agree with your observation on the difference between Italian and French cuisine, though I haven’t thought about it like that before. Interesting. And good luck with digging up some chocolate.
Reading the recipe and just looking at the cake makes me wish you could just drop by for a late afternoon visit with coffee and cake – with you of course bringing the cake.
I’d enjoy that:)
Oh, I can not wait to try this one! It may be #4 in my Great Blog Cook-a-thon! This is a new variation for me – I have never made one that contains marzipan. I bet it is quite moist. I have used either ground almonds or almond flour. Thanks a million!
I use marzipan, when I’m too lazy to crack all the almonds needed for a cake like this (Buying almonds is a no go with booming almond trees, so this is a nice little act of self-deception). Anyway, I find marzipan has other advantages like a better moistness.
Looks delicious! Love that there’s hardly any flour in it as well.
If you tolerate almonds, I think you can replace all the flour with almond flour. It should only make the cake better.