Amaretti pudding | Piedmontese bonet

Amaretti pudding (bonet) recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Begin with milk.
  Bring milk to the boil and then let it cool.
• - Prepare caramel.
  Heat 100g (3 1/2 ounces) sugar in a thick-bottomed pan and 50 ml (1 3/4fl oz) water in another pan.
  Stir sugar constantly until brown.
  At this point add boiling water being careful not to splash it.
  Stir thoroughly, turn off the stove and let your caramel cool.
• - Prepare all biscuits.
  Chop finely all amaretti using the food processor.
  Crumble ladyfingers preferably with your fingers.
• - Begin to add some ingredients to the milk.
  Pour milk into a bowl, add biscuits and stir.
  Add lemon zest, coffee, cocoa and rum too.
  Stir again accurately.
• - Beat eggs with sugar.
  In a separate bowl beat whole eggs with the remaining sugar until creamy and frothy.
• - The last step.
  Preheat oven to 180°C (350°C).
  Caramelize the molds you've chosen: a plum cake or a large ring mold or uni-portion molds.
  Add your egg-and-sugar mixture to milk and mix thoroughly.
  Pour this mixture into the molds.
  Your pudding must be baked in a bain-marie. Put the molds in a bigger deep baking dish, transfer in the oven and then fill the bigger pan with water halfway. Make sure the molds are securely in and the water does not bubble to prevent your pudding becomes too hard, even if it is very unlikely to happen.
  Bake for 30-40 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the pudding must be dry when pulled out.

Just before serving

• - Let your pudding cool and then turn it out on a serving plate.
  Serve at room temperature garnished as you can see on the photo if you like.

Note

Tips

• - If you want you can prepare handmade savoiardi following my recipe.
• - Chill your pudding if you have any portions left.
• - If you want to garnish your pudding you must have more amaretti than 100g (3 1/2 ounces)
• - Bonet (which is pronounced in Piedmont bunèt) was born in the Langhe land, south of Piedmont.
  Its name in dialect means crushed hat.
  The most important restaurants serve bonet cake as individual portions or ring pudding.
  Difficult for Carlo and me, although we live in Piedmont, to find a recipe convincing for type of ingredients, dosage, taste and especially the final result. Anyway, what I show you here is a successful recipe.

Menu planning

• - You can make bonet all year round. Most restaurants in Piedmont have bonet in their menu card.
• - This savoiardi-and-amaretti pudding closes very well a typical lunch or dinner party, Piedmont-style especially if based on meat and salami.

Healthy eating

• - Bonet isn't certainly a low-calorie sweet and even sugars aren't a joke. For this reason it can't be considered a dessert in the usual family menu.
  On the contrary fats are moderate.
• - I think we should go back to the good and wise habits of our parents and grandparents who prepared sweets for special occasions only. For breakfast they were content to baked goods with a low caloric value. They weren't rich in sugar too.

Loretta

What's the right wine ?

My husband and I generally pair Malvasia di Castelnuovo Don Bosco (red dessert wine of Piedmont) to this Piedmontese pudding. Don't match Asti (sparkling wine).