The Romantic homemade Baci Perugina are one of the worldwide famous chocolate praline from Perugia, Italy.
In Italian “baci” means kisses. There is nothing more romantic than a hazelnut combined with gianduia chocolate. Everybody in Italy tried at least once in her life a Bacio Perugina, but probably not everybody knows how easy it is to prepare them at home.
Homemade Baci Perugina, simple and easy
The recipe to do the homemade Baci Perugina is simple and easy: make a dough with chocolate and hazelnuts, let it cool down, roll the dough in a small ball, add a nut on top, and cover them with melted chocolate! As always, look for high quality ingredients, because the simplest the recipe, the better ingredients you need.
They are perfect as a Valentine gift to your daughter, wife, dad, grandchildren, grandparents. Make them with the melted chocolate you prefer: bitter, milk, white, and even ruby!
You are just a few steps away from eating them, so follow our story!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (160 g) gianduia chocolate stick*
- 3/4 cup (150 g) hazelnuts and chocolate spread (Nutella or similar)
- 1 1/4 cup (120 g) ground toasted hazelnuts
- 26 whole toasted hazelnuts
- 1 1/4 cup (200 g) dark chocolate 50%**
Instructions
- Melt in the microwave the gianduia chocolate that you cut in small pieces.
- Add the spread and mix together.
- Add the ground hazelnuts and mix.
- Refrigerate until the dough is smooth so you can knead it with your hands. Don't let the dough to become too hard; if this happens, let the dough rest at room temperature.
- Make small balls (1 inch diameter) and add a whole hazelnut on top of each ball (push the nut a little bit so it sticks to the chocolate).
- Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Melt the dark chocolate (or any other chocolate you choose for the covering).
- With a tong soak the small balls in the melted chocolate and then arrange them on parchment paper (if you don't have a tong, put the small balls on the parchment paper and pour the melted chocolate on top). Let them cool down.
- While the chocolates cool down, cut some parchment paper in small pieces and write the love message.
- Cut the aluminium foil in small squares (6/7 inches side).
- Once your chocolates are cold enough, put them in the aluminium foil with the love message (the written part not in contact with the chocolate!).
- Enjoy or give them away as a love message to your beloved ones!
Notes
*you can also use milk chocolate **The typical covering is made out of bitter chocolate, but you can unleash your creativity and use extradark, milk, white or Ruby chocolate!
Out of curiosity: from a punch to a kiss!
The original name of the famous Bacio Perugina was Cazzotto, that in Italian means punch!
In 1922 the young businesswoman Luisa Spagnoli created this praline with hazelnuts crumbs leftover from other pastry preparations. She added a whole hazelnut on top and she named it Cazzotto.
The story says that the chocolates got their name from the shape, not particularly nice to see and like a close hand with the knuckle on top.
Sooner the entrepreneur Giovanni Buitoni named them Kisses, a more sellable brand, definitely sweet and romantic. And so the Baci Perugina were born!
Thanks to an affective advertising campaign, they became the worldwide famous love chocolates!
The Bacio Perugina was also the symbol of the love relationship between Luisa Spagnoli and Giovani Buitoni.
If you haven’t tried the Baci Perugina yet, you should also know that inside every chocolate you will find a small piece of paper with a cute love aphorism. This idea was Luisa Spagnoli’s. She used to write love messages to her lover, Giovanni Buitoni, wrapping them up with a treat baked for him.
Also, the packaging of Baci Perugina, with the typical silver paper and the image of two lovers hugging each other in a prolonged kiss, probably was a romantic touch from Luisa Spagnoli. The image was designed by Federico Seneca, futurist painter and graphic designer.
Definitely the idea of Baci Perugina was successful: a century went by and we still are looking for the small love message while we eat a delicious chocolate!
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Ciao!
Martina and Elisa
