Pirâmides de Chocolate — Rita Nascimento's Formula
This is Rita Nascimento's zero-waste formula published by Bertrand: unfilled cakes gradually bound with syrup, cocoa and apricot jam, scented with fennel and cinnamon, shaped into cones and coated in chocolate. A published home test of the same recipe reports about eight pieces, but the author's version reproduced by Bertrand gives no yield. It also stops short of the chantilly-and-cherry finish documented for the pastry-counter archetype.
- Yields
- The author gives no yield; one published test of the same formula made about 8 pyramids
- Prep
- Preparation time not stated; includes 10 min in the freezer and final chilling until set
- Cook
- No baking; the syrup is heated just to the boil, with no duration stated
Ingredients
- 100 ml / 3.4 fl oz Water for the syrup
- 100 g / 3.5 oz Sugar for the syrup
- 400 g / 14.1 oz Unfilled cake or mixture of unfilled cakes
- 150–200 ml / 5.1–6.8 fl oz, depending on the dryness of the cake Cold sugar syrup prepared above
- 15–25 g / 0.5–0.9 oz Cocoa powder
- 50–75 g / 1.8–2.6 oz Apricot jam
- 1/2 tsp Ground fennel seed
- 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp Rum, optional
- 145 g / 5.1 oz Chocolate for the coating
- 5 g / 0.2 oz Coconut oil for the coating
Method
Make the syrup: combine the 100 ml water and 100 g sugar in a saucepan, heat just until it boils, remove and cool completely. The source gives no boiling time.
Process the 400 g of unfilled cake or cakes into even crumbs. Add the fennel, cinnamon and the lower stated amount of cocoa; mix.
Gradually add the apricot jam, optional rum and 150 ml of cold syrup. Knead, adding more cocoa, jam or syrup within the stated ranges only if the texture requires it. The mixture should be pliable like modelling clay but not sticky.
Divide the mixture into portions. First roll each into a ball, then taper one side into a tall cone—the traditional shape called a ‘pyramid’.
Put the cones in the freezer for about 10 minutes, just until firm.
Melt the 145 g chocolate with the 5 g coconut oil in short microwave bursts, stirring between each, or over a bain-marie, until smooth.
Coat each cone in chocolate and shake gently to remove the excess. Set on parchment and refrigerate until the coating has hardened.
Sources for this recipe
The quantities and method were checked against the references below. Family recipes may vary; where no single official formula exists, we present a representative practical version and say so plainly.
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