What do you think is in a cocoa snail? As it's one of our favourite sweets, I make it quite often at home. Mine have the following ingredients: whole wheat flour, honey, butter or coconut oil depending on if it's vegan or not, cocoa, yeast, water, and sometimes I sprinkle cinnamon. That's it. And nothing else.
Yesterday I spent part of my day making videos with Edua Ravasz, who and I came up with a great program. We're doing a series on real food, and we've been shooting the footage for that.
Yesterday morning we were on the topic of grains-bread-flour-baked goods, and I thought I'd look for examples of what a cocoa snail in a shop is made of.
I didn't have to look very long. I'll share the first one that popped up. No company name. Seriously, there's so much in there. The ingredients are in Hungarian, but you can feel the quantity. And rest assured: this is like no real food.
At the same time, I'm sharing my own cocoa snail recipe. This is the simpler version. I make the more complicated one with puff pastry, but since that takes more time, I prefer to make this one. Minimum three servings at a time. I freeze two of them, and one is eaten about immediately.
(And since this is the place to advertise: the recipe is in my cookbook, and there's a puff pastry version in there, too.)
50 dkg wholemeal wheat flour
2,5 dkg yeast
10 dkg butter or 8 dkg coconut oil
5 dkg honey
2-3 dl water
I pour the flour into a mixing bowl. Make a small indentation in the middle with my fist.
Crumble the yeast into the indentation, mix with a little lukewarm water and flour, and then let it rise.
Mix the flour with the butter and honey and add enough water to make a springy dough. I knead thoroughly. The dough should not be too soft, or the cocoa puffs will run out.
I cover the dough and leave it to rise until it is 2-3 thick.
Meanwhile, I prepare the filling
6 dkg butter or 5 dkg coconut fat
10 dkg of wholemeal durum wheat flour or, if you don't have it to hand, wholemeal wheat flour
3 teaspoons of cocoa powder
2 dl water
15 dkg honey
Melt the butter over a low heat. Add the flour and stir constantly until lightly browned.
Remove from the heat. Add the cocoa powder and mix until smooth.
Add the cold water and stir.
Return to the stove and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. If it is very thick, I can add a little more water.
While still warm, I add the honey. The cocoa cream should be thick but spreadable.
I put it in a cold place and wait for it to cool.
I flour the board and rolling pin and stretch the dough into rectangles.
Spread the cream over the dough so that it doesn't extend all the way to the edges of the dough. At this point I can sprinkle with extra cinnamon.
I roll up the dough.
I brush with watered sour cream or egg whites.
I put the rolled up dough on a cutting board and put it in the freezer for an hour or two.
When it is not soft any more, I slice it with a sharp knife and place the peaces on the greased baking tray.
I leave to rise for a few minutes!
Bake in a preheated oven at 180-200 °C until light brown.
