Bonet

[di reston]

Bonet - delicious chocolate pudding

6 large eggs
1 pint milk
cup sugar, and water to make a syrup
3 serving spoons of cocoa powder (dark)
8 oz amaretti

Make a caramel with the sugar and water
Separate the eggs and beat together with the sugar.
Soak the amaretti and the cocoa in the milk
beat the egg whites to snowy peaks, as for meringue

coat a rectangular bread tin with the caramel and allow to cool.

Fold together the other ingredients. Pour into the bread tin.

Cook in a bain marie for 30 minutes, or until fairly firm to the touch.

un mold onto a rectangular dish, and decorate the top with a straight line of crisp amaretti down the centre. You can put brandy or rum in if you want, but I prefer just the flavour of dark chocolate, almonds and caramel.

This is very easy to make, and is always a great favourite at any dinner party.

di reston

 

[Addie]

Bonet - delicious chocolate pudding

6 large eggs
1 pint milk
cup sugar, and water to make a syrup
3 serving spoons of cocoa powder (dark)
8 oz amaretti

Make a caramel with the sugar and water
Separate the eggs and beat together with the sugar.
Soak the amaretti and the cocoa in the milk
beat the egg whites to snowy peaks, as for meringue

coat a rectangular bread tin with the caramel and allow to cool.

Fold together the other ingredients. Pour into the bread tin.

Cook in a bain marie for 30 minutes, or until fairly firm to the touch.

un mold onto a rectangular dish, and decorate the top with a straight line of crisp amaretti down the centre. You can put brandy or rum in if you want, but I prefer just the flavour of dark chocolate, almonds and caramel.

This is very easy to make, and is always a great favourite at any dinner party.

di reston

You need to post clearer directions. Beat what with the sugar. Each direction should be on a line of its own. Just letting you know. How much sugar. One cup, two or more?

Not criticizing. I notice you come from Italy. English can be difficult. Otherwise, it sounds like a delicious recipe.

 

[di reston]

I note what you say. The original recipe is in Italian, and I translated it exactly as it was presented to me by an Italian friend of mine. Nobody's perfect!

 

[di reston]

Oops! I should have said separate the eggs, and beat the eggs with the sugar, and beat the whites to snowy peaks, but I just translated the text exactly as it came. I personally understood what was meant.

di reston

 

[Addie]

Oops! I should have said separate the eggs, and beat the eggs with the sugar, and beat the whites to snowy peaks, but I just translated the text exactly as it came. I personally understood what was meant.

di reston

I understand completely what you did. But a lot of times we get brand spanking new cooks who have just entered their first kitchen and was introduced to the stove. So they usually have a hard time trying to read and follow a recipe.

I really did try to not offend you. But sooner or later someone or even a new cook would have come back wanting more complete instructions. I have seen it happen before. They try to follow the directions as written and then report what a total failure it tuned out to be.

Your recipe sounds delicious and I would hate to see it get bad reviews down the line.

 

[di reston]

I absolutely agree with you - here is the re-run of the recipe, set out so as to make it easy to understand and easy to make. Absolutely no offence taken - you were right to make your point. May I also say that I gave this recipe to a very good friend of mine who is a food journalist. She does quite a lot for American magazines, and when the theme is something Italian, I always help her out. She said this dessert was an absolute wow!

Here we go:

Bonet (the North West Italian dialect word for 'pudding')

Oven temperature at 160°C

6 large eggs, separated
1 pint fresh milk
3 ounces of best quality cocoa powder
8 ounces crunchy amaretti - don't try anything else, it's just not as good.
1 cup sugar and 2 cups of sugar to make a syrup

Untensils: 1 2lb rectangular bread tin

Mix the crumbled amaretti in a bowl with the milk, and add the cocoa powder.
Make the caramel by boiling the sugar and water together and boiling it until you get a rich brown caramel colour and then swirl it round the surface of the bread tin.
Now beat the egg yolks with the sugar, and then whip the egg whites into firm snowy peaks. The 'peaks' will form when you pull the whisk out of the mix.
Next, fold the crumbled amaretti mixture, the beaten egg yolks and sugar and the whipped egg whites together.
Pour into the loaf tin and cook on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 - 40 mins, or until the pudding is firm to the touch.
Allow to cool and turn out onto a serving dish. The caramel will have become runny, like it does when you make a crème caramel.

The traditional decoration is a line of crunchy amaretti arranged in a straight line down the long centre of the bread tin shape. Alternatively, you can crumble more amaretti over the whole surface.

Hope this fits the bill this time!

di reston

 

[Addie]

I absolutely agree with you - here is the re-run of the recipe, set out so as to make it easy to understand and easy to make. Absolutely no offence taken - you were right to make your point. May I also say that I gave this recipe to a very good friend of mine who is a food journalist. She does quite a lot for American magazines, and when the theme is something Italian, I always help her out. She said this dessert was an absolute wow!

Here we go:

Bonet (the North West Italian dialect word for 'pudding')

Oven temperature at 160°C

6 large eggs, separated
1 pint fresh milk
3 ounces of best quality cocoa powder
8 ounces crunchy amaretti - don't try anything else, it's just not as good.
1 cup sugar and 2 cups of sugar to make a syrup

Untensils: 1 2lb rectangular bread tin

Mix the crumbled amaretti in a bowl with the milk, and add the cocoa powder.
Make the caramel by boiling the sugar and water together and boiling it until you get a rich brown caramel colour and then swirl it round the surface of the bread tin.
Now beat the egg yolks with the sugar, and then whip the egg whites into firm snowy peaks. The 'peaks' will form when you pull the whisk out of the mix.
Next, fold the crumbled amaretti mixture, the beaten egg yolks and sugar and the whipped egg whites together.
Pour into the loaf tin and cook on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 - 40 mins, or until the pudding is firm to the touch.
Allow to cool and turn out onto a serving dish. The caramel will have become runny, like it does when you make a crème caramel.

The traditional decoration is a line of crunchy amaretti arranged in a straight line down the long centre of the bread tin shape. Alternatively, you can crumble more amaretti over the whole surface.

Hope this fits the bill this time!

di reston

Excellent! Even I can follow that. My son married a girl from Naples. I have heard her often referred to our chocolate pudding as bonet.

 

[Souschef]

Di,
I can appreciate the translation problem. My son married a Czech lady, and I asked for the recipe for their holiday bread. I got it in Czech, translated it, change from metric measures to US, then from weights to volumes (grams to tablespoons), and then made it. It was supposed to be a braided bread, but came out of the oven looking like a huge dog biscuit!
It tasted good, however.

 

[taxlady]

Di,
I can appreciate the translation problem. My son married a Czech lady, and I asked for the recipe for their holiday bread. I got it in Czech, translated it, change from metric measures to US, then from weights to volumes (grams to tablespoons), and then made it. It was supposed to be a braided bread, but came out of the oven looking like a huge dog biscuit!
It tasted good, however.

 

[di reston]

There are so many aspects to translating! Very often, to get the real meaning of what's been said or not, and what's implied, and not written! Also, how it's interpreted at the other end

The Bonet recipe says: Cocoa powder. This should be pure, unsweetened cocoa powder, not the drinking chocolate kind.

The recipe doesn't mention sugar. Sugar in this recipe isn't necessary, as the crunchy amaretti provide all the sugar necessary to make the dish, as well as a small note of bitter almonds, and the caramel, which compensates the lack of sugar in the pudding itself. The flavours all balance out.

Raising agent isn't necessary because the whipped egg yolks and egg whites
in the dish are raising agent agent enough.

Hopefully now, anyone wishing to make this delicious dessert won't be in the dark!!

di reston

 

[ShellyCooks]

Hello De Reston~
Just read your recipe for Bonet. I am 100% Italian. All my grandparents are from the Piedmont area of Northern Italy. My grandmother made this dessert for holidays, but it never had chocolate or amaretti in it. It was just sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla. She "burnt" the sugar first in the pan before adding the other ingredients. I wonder about the name "Bonet". It is very French sounding. My grandmother called it Bonetto.

 

[di reston]

I can assure you that round here, and as far as I know, everywhere else now in this area, makes Bonet in the manner I described - the recipe was given to me by my neighbour, who is pure blood Piedmontese Italian, and whose family has lived in the same house for over five generations! I have no reason to doubt her, or you either, come to that - Piedmont is a very large province, and local recipes very from place to place - I would be intrigued if you would post your recipe so I can try that as well!

di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde

 

[Katie H]

Hello De Reston~
Just read your recipe for Bonet. I am 100% Italian. All my grandparents are from the Piedmont area of Northern Italy. My grandmother made this dessert for holidays, but it never had chocolate or amaretti in it. It was just sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla. She "burnt" the sugar first in the pan before adding the other ingredients. I wonder about the name "Bonet". It is very French sounding. My grandmother called it Bonetto.

The name's derivation partly comes because the Piedmont region was at one time ruled by the French and the word, bonet, means "bonnet" or hat. Supposition is that it is termed such because a mold to make bonet is shaped a bit like a chef's hat.

As with many regional dishes, there can be alternate ways/ingredients. I find that to be true with recipes within my own ethnic family.

However bonet is prepared, it's bound to be delicious.

 

[ShellyCooks]

Thanks for the information, Katie. I totally agree.

Di Reston ~ I think I have figured out why my grandmother made Bonet without cocoa and amaretti. Katie is right about France once owning the Piedmont region. I believe the village my grandparents came from was influenced by France. The Bonet that my grandmother made was very similar to the recipe for French Creme Brûlée. Also, instead of referring to rabbit as coniglio (Italian), she called rabbit lapin, the French word for rabbit. So, that is probably why she did not make the traditional Italian Bonet.