Gianduiotto

Turin's ingot of hazelnut chocolate: the toasted Langhe hazelnut ground to a paste with chocolate and sugar, born of the Napoleonic cocoa shortage and moulded into the little three-cornered gianduiotto

Origin: Italy

From the journey of Hazelnut.

Gianduja is the most consequential marriage of hazelnut and chocolate in the world, and it was born of scarcity. When Napoleon's Continental Blockade of the early nineteenth century cut off the supply of cocoa and made chocolate ruinously dear, the confectioners of Turin, in the heart of Piedmont, stretched their precious chocolate by grinding into it a paste of the one thing they had in abundance: the superb local hazelnut of the Langhe hills, the Tonda Gentile. The result was gianduja, a chocolate softer, smoother, and more fragrant than any before it, and in 1865 it was moulded into the gianduiotto, the little three-cornered ingot wrapped in gold or silver foil that became the emblem of Turin confectionery. The same insight, carried further, gave the world the spreadable hazelnut-chocolate cream that Pietro Ferrero of Alba developed after the Second World War, the ancestor of Nutella. To make gianduja at home is to recreate that founding idea: toasted hazelnuts ground to a smooth, oily paste and worked into melted chocolate and sugar, set firm and cut into the little ingots. The flavour, deep, nutty, and mellow, is unmistakable, and it is the taste of Turin.

Ingredients

250 g hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
100 g icing sugar
200 g dark chocolate (about 55–60% cocoa), chopped
50 g milk chocolate, chopped
1 pinch flaky salt

Method

Put the warm toasted hazelnuts in a food processor with the icing sugar and blend, stopping to scrape down the sides, for 5 to 10 minutes, until the nuts release their oil and turn from a meal into a smooth, runny, glossy paste.
Melt the dark and milk chocolate together gently, in a bowl over barely simmering water or in short bursts in the microwave, until smooth. Stir in the pinch of salt.
Stir the warm hazelnut paste into the melted chocolate until completely smooth and glossy. The mixture should be pourable; if it is stiff, warm it very gently.
Pour the gianduja into small ingot or bar moulds, or into a parchment-lined tray, and tap to level. Leave to set at cool room temperature (not the fridge) until firm.
Turn out the gianduiotti (or cut the tray into ingots) and wrap each in a small square of foil, in the Turin fashion. Store in a cool place.

Notes

The classic ratio for gianduja is roughly equal weights of hazelnut and chocolate, with sugar to taste; more nut gives a softer, more fragrant paste, more chocolate a firmer snap. Use the best hazelnuts you can, ideally Piedmontese, and toast them well, as their flavour is the whole point. The same gianduja mixture, made a little softer with a spoonful of neutral oil, becomes a spreadable hazelnut-chocolate cream in the manner of the one Ferrero made famous.

The Gastrographer

Name: Gianduiotto
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 30
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 250 g hazelnuts, toasted and skinned; 100 g icing sugar; 200 g dark chocolate (about 55–60% cocoa), chopped; 50 g milk chocolate, chopped; 1 pinch flaky salt

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control