Name: Gluten Free Cariocas – Greek Walnut-filled Chocolates
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 30
Ingredients: 500 g gluten-free Schär’s Marble Cake; 300 g coarsely chopped walnuts; 200 g melted butter; 200 g sweetened concentrated milk or syrup from spoon sweet dessert; 60 ml cognac or liqueur; 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder; 1 tsp vanilla extract optional; 400 g chocolate couverture cut into small pieces; 3 tbsp sunflower oil

Cariocas are the traditional sweet of city of Xanthi at Northern Greece. But since it is not easy for everyone to go to Xanthi, and I don’t know if you can find gluten-free Cariocas there. So, you can make your own homemade Cariocas.

It is an easy dessert and you can make it using as a base from cakes, birthday cakes, tarts, tsoureki (sweet bread), cookies, kourabiedes (Christmas Cookies) or whatever dessert you have that left or for some reason a recipe has not worked out properly.

The basic recipe I’m giving you is with Schär’s gluten-free Marble Cake and makes about 25-30 carioca pieces. I consider them an ideal treat for school, at the office or at a party.

Yields30 ServingsDifficultyBeginner

Prep Time15 mins

Tip: Check off the ingredients you have used in the recipe or note the ingredients you have and add the rest to you shopping list to buy them. - Attention: All ingredients must be checked that are Gluten-Free and without traces of gluten.

500 g gluten-free Schär’s Marble Cake

300 g coarsely chopped walnuts

200 g melted butter

200 g sweetened concentrated milk or syrup from spoon sweet dessert

60 ml cognac or liqueur

6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract optional

for coating

400 g chocolate couverture cut into small pieces

3 tbsp sunflower oil

Abbreviations: g=grams • kg= kilograms • cup=250 ml • tsp= teaspoon=5 ml • tbsp= tablespoon=3 tsp=15 ml • ml= millilitre= (1ml=0.034 fl oz / 1fl oz=29.6 ml) • l=litre/liter=1000ml

In the food processor grind the cake well.

After grind, the walnuts. I prefer the walnuts coarsely chopped and visible in the cariocas. But if you want you can grind them until they become powder.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Remove it from the heat.

Add the sweetened concentrated milk or syrup from spoon sweet dessert. I had an orange spoon sweet and I think that the combination of chocolate and orange elevates the taste.

Add the liqueur and vanilla extract to this mixture and mix it well. And set it aside.

Put all the solids in a bowl: the crumbled cake, coarsely chopped walnuts and unsweetened cocoa powder and mix them.

Add the liquid mixture to it and mix well until all the ingredients are well mixed together.

Put it on a parchment paper and roll it up into a long narrow roll and wrap it tightly.

Place it in the fridge for 3 hours so that it freezes well and you can cut it into slices. Alternatively, you can put it in the freezer for 1 hour.

When it is cool enough, take it out of the fridge or freezer and cut it into slices of of around 1 centimeter / ½” (The width of your pinkie finger is about 1 centimeter.). Makes about 25-30 slices.

In a bain-marie (no special equipment is needed, just place a metal or pyrex bowl over a pot of boiling water) melt the couverture with the oil/butter, stirring it well until our chocolate mixture is smooth.

With the help of food tweezers or forks, dip the cariocas into the melted chocolate so that we have an even coating.

Place them in a baking tray with a sheet of greaseproof paper underneath or on a rack.

Once our slices are frozen they will cool quickly and the couverture coating will set quickly. Alternatively, we can put them in the fridge to cool down.

When the chocolate has stabilized on the outside, optionally wrap them one by one in aluminum foil or parchment paper as a treat.

Ingredients