When I spent three weeks in Trieste doing research for my cookbook Flavors of Friuli, Pasticceria Penso had not yet begun producing chocolates. It was only when I returned for a brief visit five years later, with my 4-year-old son in tow, that I first saw their brand new line of cioccolatini. My baker friend Antonello gave us a couple to try: milk chocolate with hazelnut for my son and dark chocolate with caramel and sea salt for me.
Since I didn’t take any photos in their shop that day, I’ve had to rely on the bakery’s Facebook images to recreate their chocolates. I tried to replicate most of them as accurately as possible but did take some creative license with one in particular. I ended up making eight flavors, which I describe in further detail below.
Except where stated otherwise, I used Premo burnt umber polymer clay for the chocolate base. Toppings were adhered with translucent liquid Sculpey before baking. With the exception of the two coated in soft pastels, I used a matte varnish to give the chocolates a subtle sheen.
From left to right, we have:
Hazelnut
To make the chopped hazelnuts, I mixed Premo ecru, white, and translucent clay and baked some roughly formed round, flat shapes. I painted these with various shades of brown acrylic paint before chopping them into tiny pieces.
Dark chocolate
To recreate the coating of cocoa powder on these dark chocolates, I dusted the raw clay with brown soft pastels. I wanted them to remain as matte as possible, so to seal in the powder I used Helmar Crystal Kote Matte spray varnish.
Raspberry
Penso had one variety in their photos that had a decorative white splatter on top. I decided to make it red instead of white, just to add a bit more color to the array. I created the veneer by adding a touch of black clay to the burnt umber to make it slightly darker. I rolled it out very thin and gently splattered it with some red acrylic paint. Once dry, I used the veneer to cover the base of plain burnt umber clay.
Sea salt caramel
For the sea salt flakes, I baked a small log of Pardo white translucent and grated it with a mini cheese grater.
Lemon
Penso had one type of dark chocolate in their photos with a diagonal line imprinted into the top as decoration. It clearly could be any flavor, but I’ve designated this one as lemon because it’s my favorite flavor of chocolate!
Milk chocolate
To make a milk chocolate color, I mixed burnt umber and white clay. The powdered sugar coating is white soft pastels. Like the dark chocolates above, I used Helmar Crystal Kote Matte spray varnish to seal in the powder.
Pistachio
The pistachios were left over from my gelato project. They were made from a cane of Premo Spanish olive, wasabi, and ecru clay. (Only the green shows in these whole nuts, but I originally made a cane so that I could have the option of halving or chopping some of them.)
White chocolate
Penso also had photos of a chocolate with what looked like white and dark chocolate swirled bark on top. For this one, I made a thin veneer of white and burnt umber, mixed just enough to get a marbleized effect. Similar to the raspberry chocolate above, I covered the base of burnt umber clay with the veneer.
As with my previous projects, I filled some boxes, glued on ribbons, and attached the sticker labels.
Here are some pics of the chocolates displayed in the shop.
