Chocolate Mountains Recipe – German Granatsplitter

Author:
is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

My Chocolate Mountains Recipe I show you in this article.

We also know this popular sweet pastry under the name “Mountaineer”.

In Germany the name is Granatsplitter, that’s not flattering.

I have prepared for you a year-round and a Christmas variant for the most beautiful time of the year.

So let yourself be surprised and seduced to baking!

I wish you lots of fun and good luck!

1. Recipe Chocolate Mountains

But now quickly to the bakery, I wish you good luck!

Chocolate Mountains

Baked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 50
Calories 518
Total Time 75 Min.
Preparation Time 30 Min.
Cook Time 15 Min.

Simple guide for the preparation of chocolate mountains

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Chocolate Mountains Recipe Picture
Chocolate Mountains Recipe Image © Thomas Sixt

Ingredients

Shortcrust Pastry Bases

1 sachet vanilla sugar
40 g powdered sugar/ iced sugar
100 g butter (I use cold butter, for vegan variant margarine)
150 g flour (I use gluten-free flour!)
1 pinch Salt

Creme for Filling

80 g dark chocolate
180 ml milk (I also like to use soy milk)
2 sachets vanilla sugar (I like to use the pulp of a vanilla pod)
6 tbs powdered sugar/ iced sugar
2 pinches Salt
25 g starch
80 g Coconut fat (I also like to use butter!)
3 tbs rum (For children I use rum aroma)

Filling Inlay

150 g ladyfinger biscuit (I also like to use other biscuits, gingerbread pieces …)

Glaze

150 g chocolate

Instruction

Shortcrust Pastry Bases

to sift flour
Sieve flour

Prepare dough

Put the ingredients for the shortcrust pastry in a bowl and knead quickly.

Shortcrust
Wrap the shortcrust pastry in foil and let it rest.

Let dough rest

Place the shortcrust pastry on cling film and wrap it up.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out the shortcrust pastry
Roll out the shortcrust pastry.

Roll out dough

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out after 5 minutes.

Cut out the rolled out shortcrust pastry
Cut out the rolled out shortcrust pastry.

Cut out

Cut out round cookies.

Bake shortcrust pastry bases
Place the shortcrust pastry bases on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake.

Bake cookies

Bake the biscuits in the oven at 200 °C for approx. 8 minutes, then allow to cool.

Filling

Cut chocolate
Cut the chocolate into small pieces, it will melt faster in the milk.

Cut chocolate

Cut the chocolate into small pieces.

Melt chocolate
Melt chocolate

Prepare filling

Mix the cold milk, vanilla sugar, icing sugar, salt and starch in a saucepan until smooth and bring to the boil over medium heat and stirring continuously.

Stir in the chocolate until it has melted.

The mass for the filling from shrapnel
Shrapnel filling compound.

Füllung aufschlagen

Decant the filling mass and cover the surface directly with cling film.

No skin can form.

Stir the soft coconut fat or butter briefly until creamy.

Add the cold filling and whip until smooth.

candied cherries chopped
Candied, chopped cherries.

Add ingredients

You can now add candied fruit, candied cherries, marzipan, gingerbread pieces or sponge cake to the filling according to your personal taste.

Fill and Cover

Brush shrapnel with the filling
With these instructions you can prepare the filling according to your personal taste.

Apply filling

Coat the cooled short pastry bases with the filling and apply generously.

Place the biscuits on a grid and place a baking tray with baking paper underneath.

Cover the shrapnel with chocolate
Pour chocolate icing over the grana chips.

Glazing

Cut the chocolate for the coating into small pieces and melt slowly in a pot or water bath at low heat.

Pour the almost cooled chocolate over the prepared mountaineers and allow to cool.

Shrapnel recipe picture
Shrapnel is also called mountaineer and is a popular evergreen confectionery.

Serve

Serve the mountaineers directly or keep them in a cookie jar.

Enjoy!

2. Nutritional Information

3. Tips for Preparing Chocolate Mountains

German Granatsplitter consist of the bottom, the filling, the chocolate pouring and optionally the decorative elements.

Here is a first idea for the order of preparation to ensure that everything works well:

After the first overview we want to have a closer look at the topic of the filling. There are variants here!

As a rule, you prepare the shortcrust pastry bases first. © Thomas Sixt Food Photographer

4. Fillings and Variants for Chocolate Mountains

You can prepare the mountaineer filling in different ways, two of which I would like to present below in addition to the recipe….

4.1 Filling from Sponge Cake and Cake Rests

This is a very simple variation, use sponge cake or marble cake to make a juicy filling. An example recipe consists of: 250 g cake leftovers, 1 tbsp cocoa, 2 tbsp icing sugar, 2-4 tbsp rum, 80 g candied fruit and optionally 1-2 tsp cinnamon or gingerbread spice at Christmas time.

The filling mass may be moist, depending on how dry your cake leftovers are, you can add some milk to the mass.

With these instructions you can prepare the filling according to your personal taste. © Thomas Sixt Food Photographer

4.2 Filling with Ganache

For the ganache I pour 150 ml cream into a pot and boil it up. Then add 300 g finely chopped chocolate. I stir in the chocolate and let it melt. Then I chill the ganache. Before spreading I whip the chocolate cream once.  If you wish, you can then refine your mixture with biscuits or sponge cake. During the Christmas season you can also add cinnamon and candied fruit.

Insider tip for the filling… add the pulp of a vanilla pod to the ganache and add 50 g soft butter when whipping. The aroma of this filling catapults you directly into the confectioner’s heaven.!

The pulp of the vanilla pod gives the filling an irresistible, fine aroma! © Thomas Sixt Food Photographer

4.3 Filling for Christmas

At Christmas time I add cinnamon or gingerbread spice to the filling. Instead of sponge cake, I use small pieces of gingerbread or speculoos as a firm filling.

Insider tip Christmas filling: Add marzipan! Cut the marzipan into small pieces, if you add icing sugar, the marzipan cubes will separate better!

Gingerbread pieces are excellent for filling chocolate mountains. © Thomas Sixt Food Photographer

5. Further Recommendations

Comments, Cooking Questions and Answers

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