Every once in a while I like to peruse the aisles at Whole
Foods because they carry so many interesting and exotic foods that I’m not
familiar with. It was on one of those
leisurely trips that I came across cocoa nibs in the bulk section. Sure I’ve heard of cocoa nibs, but I’ve never
eaten or cooked with them, so I decided then and there to change that.
When I got home I could barely contain my excitement as I
unpacked my groceries. I removed the cocoa
nibs, put a few in my mouth and bit down…
Ugh, not at all what I expected! I tried it again, and again hoping they would
taste good. They were bitter and
reminded me more of coffee beans than chocolate. Not horrible, but not really that good.
Then I was at a loss as to what to do with these nibs, so
there they sat, for weeks.
My friend Kiran who writes one of my favorite blogs had been
in the same dilemma, and she had dreamt up Coconut Zucchini Cocao Nib Cookies and encouraged me to come
up with something.
So when I wanted to make something sweet using leftover
pizza dough and ricotta cheese I remember the neglected cocoa nibs, I sprinkled
a few on a spoonful of ricotta just to taste…and it was amazing!
The sweet creamy ricotta with a touch of floral honey made
the cocoa nibs taste like rich dark chocolate!
All that was left to do was to wrap it up in some pizza dough
and bake it. The result Ricotta &
Cocoa Nib Surprise Roll; “surprise” because of the fact that you don’t know
what’s in the center until you pull it apart, and “surprise” because cocoa nibs
are way yummier than I ever would have guessed!
Ricotta & Cocoa Nib Surprise Rolls are super easy to
make and because they’re not too sweet they’re perfect to serve for breakfast
or coffee.
Mix some ricotta cheese with a little honey, a touch of vanilla extract and an egg. |
Using cooking spray or brushing on olive oil, grease just 8 of the cups of a regular size muffin tin. |
The dough should come up just over the top of the muffin
cups.
They dough will want to shrink back down, but it's very
forgiving so you can just pull it back up as you fill the cups.
|
It's best to fill the cups one at a time, because of that shrinking dough; so fill a cup with 2 1/2 Tbsp. of the filling. |
Then pull and gather the sides up. |
Pinch the dough close right above the where the filling rests. |
This is how I filled my pan, but in hind sight I would have used the cups on the perimeter of the pan because they browned the dough better. |
Brush some good olive oil on to each roll, completely coating the dough. |
RICOTTA & COCOA
NIB SURPRISE ROLLS
Makes 8
1 cup Ricotta cheese
2 ½ Tbsp. Honey
1 Egg
¼ tsp. Vanilla extract
¼ cup Cocoa nibs
½ lb. Pizza dough
1 Tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil
1.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2.
In a medium bowl mix together the ricotta,
honey, egg, vanilla extract, and cocoa nibs.
Set to the side.
3.
Grease 8 cups of a muffin tin with cooking spray
or brush with olive oil.
4.
Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and roll each
piece into a six inch circle. A square
will also be fine, just be sure that the dough is big enough to come just over
the top of the muffin cup.
5.
Line each of the greased muffin cups with a
piece of the rolled out dough.
6.
I find this part easiest to do one at a
time. Spoon about 2 ½ Tbsp. of the
ricotta filling into the center of a dough lined cup (you may need to hold the
dough to keep it from slipping, but it’s very forgiving), pull all the sides up
and pinch the dough together right at the top of the filling. It will look like a Beggar’s Purse. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
7.
Brush the tops with the extra virgin olive oil.
8.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes; until the tops are
deep golden brown, and when lifted from the pan the dough on the bottom is
cooked. You may need to lay a sheet of
aluminum foil over the rolls if tops begin to get too dark before the bottoms
are done.
Note: a can of refrigerated pizza dough can be used, but
there will enough dough to make 10 rolls.
Either increase the recipe for the ricotta filling by 25 % (recommended), reduce the amount of filling that goes into each cup to 2
Tbsp., or fill the dough with your favorite cheese.
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This recipe was shared at:
These things are so fun, all knotted up and cocoa nib-ed out! The perfect roll for Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteThese rolls look great! Next time I am at whole foods I'll have to check out those cocoa nibs.
ReplyDeleteThese rolls are indeed a delicious surprise!! I'm glad you finally did something with the nibs. Yum :)
ReplyDeleteHoly Moly - Yum. They would be so increbible straight out of the oven. Crave!!
ReplyDelete