Chocolate Mini Fritters with Hazelnut Croquant

Who wouldn’t love them. I often treat myself to a croissant filled with nuts and nougat. Therefore, I decided to bring up my favourite flavour, right in the Carnival Season – Chocolate Mini Fritters with Hazelnut Croquant.

I have already made classical donuts filled with marmalade and Dutch sweet donuts filled with raisins.
This time I was aiming for rather a fast alternative and no yeast recipe. The key is to knead a dough to a perfection and also have the consistency of a chocolate-nutty ganache. The dough consistency is more like a crispy fritter – Angel Wings Recipe. Coat the fritters in the cinnamon sugar or cover with a lovely vanilla glaze. Small kisses of heaven, let’s start!

My Mini Fritters are suitable for kids from the age of 3 plus, because of the allergen presence: chocolate and nuts. Focus on the quality products and offer as an afternoon’s treat. So yummy!

Total Time: 1 hour

The Chocolate and Hazelnut Ganache

First, preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Put the hazelnut onto a small baking tray lined with some baking paper. Bake in the oven for about 7 minutes until the nuts darken and the skins start falling off. Take them out and transfer into a colander. Shake, so the skins get loose.

Next, throw the cleaned hazelnuts back into the tray lightly grease with 1 tablespoon of oil.

Meanwhile, dissolve 60g of caster sugar in 60ml of water in a small deep pan on medium heat. Bring it to boil and cook for about 4 minutes until it darkens to a golden caramel.

Then, take off the heat and mold over the hazelnuts. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

In a steam bath melt the chocolate. Start adding the cream and mix, so the texture comes together. Once the chocolate is melted enough, take off the heat and set aside.

Place the hazelnuts into a blender and blend until you get a smooth texture. Then, add it into The Ganache and let it cool down entirely. Fill it up into a decorating bag and set aside. Do no refrigerate otherwise the ganache thickens a bit too much.

The Dough

In a large and wide mixing bowl place sugar with butter. Mix.

Next, add 1 egg. Mix until incorporated and then, pour the milk in.
Stir in salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Gradually start adding the flour with baking powder, few at a time. Once The Dough comes look like more homogenous texture, add the rest of the flour. Bring it together and transfer into a working board.

Knead well until it gets to a smooth non sticking Dough. Then, roll it out into a rectangular shape.

Cut small rounds/ovals of 3cm. Continue until there is no Dough left.

Heat up the oil in large frying pan and deep-fry the fritters. Flip twice until they are baked through and golden on top. Transfer onto paper towel to absorb the extra fat.

The Vanilla Glaze and The Topping

In a small mixing bowl whisk the icing sugar, splash of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Sprinkle the small serving plate with ½ cup of caster sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Presentation

Once The Mini Fritters are all baked, coat them generously in the cinnamon sugar or spoon The Vanilla Glaze over them.

Next, pipe The Chocolate and Hazelnut Ganache from the bottom of each fritter until you see the chocolate coming out of them. Enjoy immediately with a cup of tea.

Makes around 50 small fritters.