Choco and orange gingerbread pie (advent calendar pie)

Is there something that has the power to make you happy just hearing about it?

A kind of passpartù that can change the day?

I got it! It’s Christmastime (I know I’m not original at all but this is the truth!)

    I confess, however, my huge contradiction: I love bright lights, xmas trees, glitter and markets, on the other hand I hate decorating the Xmas tree, I don’t like typical Christmas spices and I suffer a lot, a lot of cold!

    Ahahahah! It’s true!

    Fortunately, the power of Christmas spirit is so great that I gladly do my best to satisfy my friends and family’s wishes, and this is what I did with this cake:

    a gingerbread pie flavored with spices, stuffed with orange marmalade and a butter and dark chocolate cream that by comparison Lindor will seem light!

    I wanted to decorate it with numbered biscuits, a sort of countdown to Christmas 2021 which, I’m sure, will be even more special with my little Giada.

SERVES 8 people (26x26cm)

ready IN 1h 15’

INGREDIENTS:

18 oz all-purpose flour

9 oz butter (cold)

1 pinch salt

8 oz confectioner’s sugar

2 eggs, beaten

3 teablespoons cinnamon powder

2 teaspoons ginger powder

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Butter and cocoa to taste

All-purpose flour to taste

3 meringues + confectioner’s sugar in equal parts

1 tablespoon water

7 oz chocolate, melted

1 tablespoon cocoa powder dissolved into 2 tablespoons hot water

9 oz butter at room temperature

1 1/2 oz confectioner’s sugar

1 pinch salt

1 orange marmelade jar

2 meringues

STEP 1: MAKE THE CRUST

Place all-purpose flour on the pastryboard. Make a hole in the centre and place eggs into it. Start blending with a fork and gradually add all-purpose flour, sugar, cubed butter, cinnamon, ginger and salt.Knead by hand to get a ball, then wrap the dough into clingfilm and put it into the fridge for 20 minutes.Altetnatively put all ingredients in a mixer and mix for 15-20 seconds.

Cut 3/4 dough off and add cocoa, kneading.

At the end of this step you will have two dough balls: a smaller one of light brown color and a larger one of dark brown color.

Wrap them both in plastic wrap and keep them in the refrigerator as you go through the recipe.

STEP 2: COOK THE SPICY CRUST

Butter and dust the pan with bitter cocoa (I used a 26×26 cm square mold). Keep it aside.

Remove the darker pastry from the fridge, remove the film and place it between two sheets of parchment paper.

Butter and dust the pan with bitter cocoa (I used a 26×26 cm square mold). Keep it aside.

Remove the darker pastry from the fridge, remove the film and place it between two sheets of parchment paper.

With the help of a rolling pin, form a square a couple of centimeters wider than the pan in which you will bake the cake (this will help you to create the side edges).

Remove the surface parchment paper and gently turn the pastry square into the pan making it adhere to the pan: both on the bottom and on the edges.

Also remove the second sheet of parchment paper and, using a knife, cut away the excess dough in order to obtain a uniform edge on all sides.

Lightly press with your fingers or the blade of the knife to draw some kind of pattern on the edge.

Bake the pastry in a preheated oven at 180 ° C for 40 minutes. While cooking it will tend to rise, so pay attention and pierce it with a fork if necessary.

If you prefer, you can also bake it covered with a sheet of parchment paper + dried legumes or rice as you can see in the photo (this will help to prevent it from rising during cooking).

STEP 3: MAKE THE NUMBERED COOKIES

Now take the lighter pastry out of the refrigerator and remove the film that wraps it.

Dust the pastryboard with flour and roll thinly out the dough (about 0.5 cm).

Use cookie cutters to create the day boxes (I chose a square and a star).

Please, let’s be superstitious! do not make only 24, but make some more cookies in case some burned in cooking or had some kind of unexpected.

Bake the biscuits in a preheated oven at 180 ° C for about 15 minutes.

N.B .: It is very important to calculate in advance the size of the boxes compared to the size of the cake in order not to risk not having enough space to insert them!

I used a square pan 26×26 cm for the cake, while the mold for the boxes measures 2×2 cm.

N.B.2: if you have some dark dough left over from the previous step, you can reuse it here.

STEP 3: DECORE THE COOKIES

Blend the meringue.

Add confectioner’s sugar and water

and mix.

If the icing gets too liquid, add a little icing sugar, if it is too dry, add a few drops of water (little at a time!).

Transfer the icing to a pastry bag with a simple piping (the round hole) and carefully draw the numbers 1 to 24 on the cookie boxes. I also do some duplication for safety!