Eastern European Chocolate Dessert Recipes

This is an easy no-cook, no-bake dessert that the kids can help make. This would make a terrific edible gift especially if wrapped in a pretty box.

This is another crosscultural dessert that uses Eastern Europe's bounty of almonds. The top can be gussied up with chocolate ganache and chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Eastern Europeans are huge chocolate and coffee fans. And in a show of national pride, they will argue that theirs are far superior to any other country's. This easy, three-ingredient recipe for rich, dark chocolate truffles packs a double kick of caffeine. A couple of these with, perhaps, some chocolate-dipped strawberries and you have a decadent dessert.

These chocolate-dipped strawberries are easy to make because the chocolate doesn't require tempering. I used to be a snob, thinking that coating chocolate was inferior. Well, now that coating chocolate has improved over the years, I'm a big fan.

This easy, foolproof chocolate mousse recipe can be made with semisweet or milk chocolate, and prepared up to two days in advance. The oil helps to keep the chocolate from seizing. Serve it in parfait glasses or dress it up by placing scoops of mousse between thin cookies for a napoleon effect. This recipe is perfect for an intimate dinner for two, but it can be doubled or tripled to good effect.

This decadent Hungarian trifle recipe is known as somloi galuska (shom-loh-ee gah-LOOSH-kah), and is made with three different-flavored sponge cakes, pastry cream, raisins, walnuts, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.

Hungarian Esterhazy torte is a rich dessert consisting of chocolate buttercream sandwiched between four layers of sponge cake. It is purportedly named after 19th-century Prince Esterhazy of Hungary, of a family close to Austrian royalty (and all their fabulous desserts!).

Dobosh Torte, also known as drum torte, is a rich Hungarian sponge cake consisting of seven layers filled with rich chocolate buttercream and topped with caramel. It was invented by and named after Hungarian (some say he was Austrian) pastry chef Jozsef C. Dobos in 1884.

This traditional recipe for Hungarian Chocolate Mousse Cake has a delightful history. Rigo Jancsi was a famous Hungarian gypsy violinist. In 1896 while in Paris, Jancsi played for Prince Josef and Princess Klara. Fascinated by his swarthy good looks, she fell in love. Klara left her husband and children to follow Jancsi who divorced his wife. The affair didn't last but the cake Rigo created with a confectioner in Klara's honor did.

This flourless chocolate cake recipe is perfect anytime but especially for Passover because it contains no flour, which, along with other leavening agents, is forbidden by the Torah during the eight days of Passover.