Recipe - Arancini Dolci with chocolate melt

Introduction to the recipe

It's not correct to call them arancini or arancine. Although traditional, the sweet arancini (with chocolate and ricotta inside) are a less known variant of the classic arancino with meat ragù .

The variant that we propose today goes even further. We call them " Ficocelle pasquali" (easter ficoccelle) or " arancini with melted chocolate". In short, they are a pure sin of gluttony, in this tutorial we will call them Arancini for convenience.

To try absolutely!

Sweet

Easy

80 grams

Dessert

Ingredients for about 24 ficoccelle (80 grams)

For the rice:

500 grams of rice ("Roma" and "Originario" rices, mixed in equal doses)
500 ml of milk
500 ml of water
80 grams of butter
170 grams of sugar
1 cinnamon stick

For the finishing touch:

100 grams of flour
180 ml of water
2 eggs (optional)
150 grams of bread crumbs
Pistachio nuts

For the filling:

100 g of dark chocolate drops (recommended especially for casting) or Hazelnut cream (recommended as stuffing). If you prefer, you can also opt for white chocolate.
250 grams of ricotta (if you want)
40 grams of sugar

Preparation of rice and filling

Rice

How to prepare the rice:

Put the water and milk in a pan with the butter, the vanilla stick engraved for long and sugar. When it comes to a boil add the rice and mix well
Cover and cook over low heat until the rice absorbs everything and is cooked but al dente
When cooked, stir in, pour the rice on a cold surface and spread evenly to allow rapid cooling
When the rice has cooled, it is ready to prepare the ficoccelle

It is important that the rice is quite dry and cold.

Important

follow these 3 steps if you want to make arancini containing chocolate and ricotta. Alternatively you can simply fill them with Hazelnut Cream, and in this case you can go directly to the arancino shape!

The filling

Put the ricotta in a bowl and work it with a fork
Add the sugar and a pinch of cinnamon and beat it with a hand mixer
Add the chocolate chips to the ricotta mixture and stir them in well
Put the ricotta mixture in a pastry bag. This will make it easier to fill the ficoccelle
Shape the ficoccelle and put in the freezer a couple of hours before passing the ficoccelle in the batter

Shape the ficoccelle

Buy the Arancini Maker

1 - Fill the base of the Arancinotto with rice and use a spoon to pack it down firmly.

2 - Put the lid on the base and insert the plunger as far as it will go.

3 - Remove the plunger and spoon your filling into the central hole, packing it in with a teaspoon to ensure there is a generous amount.

4 - Cover the top with a thin layer of rice and press it down using the other end of the plunger.

5 - Take the cover back off of the Arancinotto and gently remove your arancino.

Frying

The finishing touch

Put the ficoccelle in the batter and in the bread crumbs as follows:

In a bowl, place the flour
Add the egg and water and beat well with whips
When the batter is smooth and dense, pass the ficoccelle
Immediately after having passed them in the batter, pass the ficoccelle in bread crumbs

Frying

Fry in plenty of oil until golden brown, to ensure your ficoccelle fry up perfectly, use one of the following oils: peanut oil, olive oil, or palm oil.
Heat the oil to the ideal temperature, 190°C, either in a frying pan or by setting the temperature on your deep fryer.
If using a pan, you can make sure that the oil has reached the proper temperature by dropping in a bread crumb. If it sizzles, then the oil is ready.
Immerse the ficoccelle gently in the oil, only a few at a time, so as to prevent the temperature of the oil from falling too low.
When they are done, place the ficoccelle on absorbent paper, then serve.

The Chocolate

After having cooled for a few minutes, dip the arancini in the melted chocolate or, as we did in the video, let the chocolate run on the arancino. In this case we recommend the real melted chocolate instead of è hazelnut cream, in order to make the outer layer solidify.
Drop on the arancino the pistachio grain when the chocolate is still wet enough to handle it.
Place on absorbent paper and serve.

Enjoy your meal !

Varation

In general, arancini \ ficoccelle like these are also passed in sugar. In this case the presence of chocolate could make more complex execution, but is not certainly forbidden to try it!

Bonus idea

It is possible to enrich the rice with a little chocolate making the ficoccelle more colorful and tasty.