We all love chocolate! The articles and recipes we can make with it are endless. This time in our recipe we will match chocolate with a treasure of the Greek land, the extra virgin olive oil.

In our country and in the Mediterranean diet in general, olive oil is used very often. But what about confectionery? Extra virgin olive oil with its high nutritional value is an ideal substitute for butter. That is why in our new sweet article we will find traditional sweets from various parts of Greece, but also modern creations that contain olive oil, we will make our own extremely delicious chocolate mousse with the award-winning Greek extra virgin olive oil OLEOSOPHIA and whiskey and we will learn a lot of information about olive oil from olive oil sommelier Marianna Devetzoglou.

Doing our research we tried to identify typical traditional sweets from different parts of our country. We found several examples, since the tradition loves olive oil and we chose some indicative ones. The book Πατροπαράδοτες Ελληνικές Συνταγές (1994). (1994) helped us a lot in our research.

Fasting sousamopita (sesame pie) of Thrace

Sousamopita is a sweet cake made with thin phyllo sheets and stuffed with sesame seeds, sugar and cinnamon. To make it, prepare a fluffy dough with olive oil and open it into thin sheets. Also, when setting the dessert, sprinkle the leaves one by one with olive oil. Sousamopita is also made in other parts of Greece, such as in the area of Serres, where it is considered a Christmas cake.

Bobota

We read that bobota was the bread of the poor, a sweet pie eaten during the German and Italian occupation of Greece. At that time the people lived on what the Greek land offered them, one of which was corn. According to a traditional recipe we found, the bobota is made with corn flour, orange juice, olive oil, sugar, raisins, walnuts, brandy, lemon zest, soda and cinnamon. It can be consumed plain sprinkled with icing or moistened with a simple syrup of sugar and water.

Cretan fasting stafidopita (raisin pie)

Satisfying and nutritious, stafidopita is suitable for the fasting period. It is not a cake with raisins, but a pie. It is made with olive oil, orange juice, sugar and flour and is flavored with cinnamon, cloves, orange zest and in some recipes it also contains mastic. Raisins are added ground or cut into pieces.

Asia Minor kanelopita (cinnamon pie)

Kanelopita when baked fills the house with aromas. It is made with olive oil, sugar, milk, eggs, flour, soda and flavored with plenty of cinnamon. It is also made in a fasting version with olive oil, sugar, orange juice, flour, baking powder, soda and of course cinnamon or even nutmeg. To the recipe we found are added raisins, chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.

Diples from Kalamata

They are made with eggs, olive oil, sugar, an alcoholic beverage, flour and vanilla. All the ingredients are kneaded and opened into a thin sheet which is cut into strips. The strips are poured into hot oil and immediately folded into their characteristic shape with the help of two forks. Then they get moistened with syrup and sprinkled with walnuts and cinnamon. They are Christmas delights in Greece, to slowly get in the mood!

Lalagia from Mani

The custom says that lalagia should be made on Christmas Eve with sourdough or brewer’s yeast, flour, olive oil, a little salt and honey. Tradition connects them with the goblins, as a treat to make them more favorable for their home. When the first one is cooked, they throw it out the door together with a lit torch and say: fleas and mice outside, friends and family inside!

Many other traditional sweets are made with olive oil. But modern confectionery also focuses on tradition and traditional products.

Oil cake

This is a category of cake that uses olive oil instead of butter. This category is called chiffon cakes. Due to the lack of solid fats such as butter or margarine it is difficult to incorporate air into the mixture. This function is undertaken by the egg whites, which are beaten into a meringue separately and then incorporated into the mixture. One of the advantages of oil cakes is that due to their moisture they do not dry or harden like the classic butter cakes.

Ice cream with olive oil

A special ice cream that is becoming more and more popular is the ice cream with olive oil. In many recipes it is combined with pistachio. It is an iced dessert with all the nutrients of extra virgin olive oil. The secret of its success is to use high quality extra virgin olive oil.

Chocolate mousse with olive oil

Modern confectionery turns to tradition, in a creative way. The most common dessert is chocolate mousse with olive oil. Recipes combine it with coffee, honey, lemon salt, orange zest, brandy, walnuts and much more depending on the creativity of each confectioner. We will try to make such a mousse too!

Let’s go to our kitchens, then, to prepare a healthy and light chocolate mousse with extra virgin olive oil. We used the monovarietal Manaki extra virgin olive oil OLEOSOPHIA, which has been awarded the GREAT TASTE Award in 2020 and the OLYMPIA AWARD 2020! The olive oil blended perfectly with the chocolate, thanks to the balanced taste and aroma of OLEOSOPHIA olive oil, characteristics due to the Manaki variety that thrives in the olive grove of the Maggina family in the village of Kalentzi, Corinth.

Our recipe

Chocolate mousse with extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients for chocolate mousse

Couverture chocolate	140 gr
Extra virgin olive oil	75 ml
Eggs	2
Water	15 ml
Sugar	60 γρ.
Whiskey	half a shot
Rock salt	1 tsp
Ηeavy cream	200 ml

How to make the chocolate mousse

First, beat the heavy cream until it becomes thick like yogurt and set it aside.

Finely chop the couverture and place it in a large bowl on top of a pot of boiling water (bain marie).

Once the couverture is melted, leave it for a few minutes to drop its temperature and then add the extra virgin olive oil and whiskey.

Make a pâte à bombe (the base for the mousse): Put the eggs, water and sugar in a bowl and mix with a hand whisk. Place the bowl on top of a pot of boiling water (bain marie) and beat constantly until the mixture reaches 74°C. Then beat the mixture with the mixer until fluffy and cool.

Gradually pour the couverture-olive oil mixture into the egg mixture and mix carefully with a spatula.

Finally, add the whipped cream to the mixture, stirring with a spatula in a circular motion, being careful not to lose its volume.

Fill glasses or bowls and put them in the fridge for 2-3 hours for the mousse to set. If you want, sprinkle the surface with a pinch of salt or crumble or grated biscuit. Find our recipe for crumble in our older article.

Enjoy everyone! And now…

Let’s get to know OLEOSOPHIA better!

OLEOSOPHIA is the result of a love story that united two families – the love between George and Marianna, who now wish to communicate their family’s values and introduce Manaki to the world. 

The Manginas family is based in the village of Kalentzi, in the Corinthian region and the local variety they are blessed with is the Manaki variety. It is a variety characteristic of the area of Corinth and Argolis, in Greece, making it a local variety used for the production of fine extra virgin olive oil. It is considered a sensitive variety, which does not prosper in other locations, and this is exactly what makes OLEOSOPHIA different. The Manaki EVOO has a soft and smooth profile, with rich aroma, discreet bitterness and a medium pungency while the main notes (but not limited) found in Manaki are grass/green notes and tomato – a sensory profile that is easy to use in your kitchen and makes it well accepted amongst consumers.

The family produces the monovarietal, early harvest Manaki EVOO OLEOSOPHIA, from handpicked manaki olives collected in October and the OLEOSOPHIA cultivar blend, a unique combination of varieties based on Manaki, from handpicked olives collected by mid-November the latest. OLEOSOPHIA EVOO is ideal for everyday use as well as an excellent choice for a gift to your friends, family and business partners. The OLEOSOPHIA products are found in delicatessen and fine food shops in Europe, USA and Australia while the family’s network keeps expanding. 

Furthermore, OLEOSOPHIA has been awarded with the Health Claim and Olympia 2020 Award for its monovarietal phenolic content further reinforcing its profile, as it may be consumed as a health supplement. At the same time, all OLEOSOPHIA products (monovarietal Manaki and varietal combination based on Manaki) have received GREAT TASTE 2020 Award from the prestigious and worldwide known food competition. Finally, OLEOSOPHIA’s minimal design and approach aims to communicate nature’s powerful simplicity, making it ideal for everyday use as well as a personal or corporate gift. OLEOSOPHIA is a family product, meaning consumers can reach out to our family, speak with us and get to know us in order to build trust and reliability.

Marianna is a certified Olive Oil Sommelier who loves olive oil and Mediterranean lifestyle and works to communicate this passion and knowledge to consumers around the world, aiming to help them achieve better quality of life. She completed her certification course with the Olive Oil Times Education Lab & the International Culinary Centre in London while she keeps expanding her knowledge and widening her horizons. She is also a member of the Registry of Certified Olive Oil Sommeliers and a member of Women In Olive Oil (WIOO), a dynamic all-women network with the vision of bringing change and growth in the olive oil industry.

The family’s olive grove is open to visitors and olive oil lovers to explore the magic of the olive trees, connect with nature and experience a unique olive oil tasting session with the Olive Oil Sommelier. The OLEOSOPHIA team organises olive oil tours and tastings where visitors learn about the olive trees, the cultivation, the variety, the olive oil production process and experience olive oil tasting, becoming olive oil sommeliers for a day, under the magnificent shades of the olive trees. An authentic and unique experience that we highly recommend! 

Find more about OLEOSOPHIA by following them on social media where they make a lot of live sessions and discuss many interesting topics (IG and FB: @oleosophia) or reach out at info@oleosophia.com

We are very happy for another article in which we used and presented an excellent Greek company of traditional products. One of the goals of our website is to promote the wonderful products of the Greek land and to acquire knowledge about them. Our goal is to promote them to our readers in Greece, but also abroad through our translated articles. Stay tuned for many more “sweet” topics!

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