Roasted hazelnut and dark chocolate ‘tira-matzu’ for Pesach

This is my Pesach spin on the Italian classic. Matzah makes a brilliant replacement for the classic sponge biscuits — it will work with smaller matzah crackers or larger sheets. Break them up to fit into your serving dish. You can spread the chocolate cream if you don’t want to pipe it.

Method

• Preheat the oven to 160°C.
• Roughly chop the hazelnuts or you could crush them by laying them under a large knife and pressing down on the flat side. Or blitz in a food processor until roughly chopped.) Scatter the nuts in an even layer on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and cook for 7-10 minutes.
• In a small heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water, ensuring the bottom of the bowl doesn’t come into direct contact with the water. Once melted, fold in the mascarpone.
• Combine the double cream, icing sugar and salt, whisk until you reach soft peaks. Fold this into the chocolate mixture and fill a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle.
• Brew the coffee and empty into a shallow dish along with the liqueur, if using.
• Dip the matzah crackers into the coffee for 15-30 seconds before flipping over (longer if using the larger sheets of matzo). The matzah should be softened but not soggy.
• In a deep casserole dish, make a layer of soaked crackers then piped chocolate cream and then roasted hazelnuts. Repeat 2 or 3 times.
• Refrigerate for 4 hours to allow the matzah to soften further and absorb the flavours.

Instagram: @hamletsbakery