Istria is known for its truffles. All the top varieties can be found there: the summer black aestivum, the winter black melanosporum, and the white magnatum pico. In fact, this is where, in November 1999, local caterer and truffle hunter Giancarlo Zigante and his dog Diana dug up a monster weighing 1.3 kg, which holds the Guinness World Record for largest truffle. Zigante named his discovery “Millennium” and had it cast in bronze before eating the original as the main dish at a dinner he hosted for around 100 guests. The tourism industry taps heavily into this fungal manna. Visitors to the Istrian peninsula are offered truffle hunts. Stores sell truffles preserved every which way, and the usual derivative truffle oil, truffle cream, truffle spread, truffle sauce, truffle hot sauce, truffle salt, and even truffle gin. Restaurants follow suit and happily serve truffle in and on everything: catch of the day in truffle sauce, beef carpaccio covered with shaved truffles, polenta with truffle and cheese, pasta (the Istrian fuži, or any other shape you fancy) in a truffle cream sauce, and even chocolate cake with truffle!

This is how, at Konoba Vela Vrata in Beram, I tasted a chocolate cake that reminded me of a brownie (maybe with a bit more flour), drizzled with honey and truffle oil, and topped with shaved summer truffles for good measure. I don’t remember if there was also truffle in the cake, but it definitely packed the strongest truffle taste of all the dishes we had during that meal. The chocolate-olive oil cake itself is indeed an Istrian specialty, and I found a sample recipe here.

Beram - Konoba Vela Vrata - Chocolate Cake with Truffles

Here’s my take on a similar dessert but with the truffle flavor pushed to the side, in a truffle-honey ice cream, and with a parmesan streusel sprinkled on top. Truffle honey isn’t honey gathered from some mystic truffle flower; it’s simply regular honey combined with a truffle product (e.g., truffle oil). For that reason, you’ll want to read the ingredients carefully and look for a brand that actually uses some of the real fungus (such as this one). I assume that different brands make truffle honeys of different intensity, so you may need to tweak the proportions a little (the truffle flavor shouldn’t be overpowering).

The result is a rather divisive dessert: the sweet elements (the cake, the ice cream) hide the salty twists (the olive oil, the truffle), and the savory bits (the streusel) contain a hint of sweetness. Many of my tasters found the ice cream to be outright disgusting, and the streusel a total mismatch — everyone loved the cake, though. So you decide: either skip the ice cream and the streusel and make just another chocolate cake, or embrace the unknown and prepare the full recipe. I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!

Chocolate-Olive Oil Cake and Truffle-Honey Ice Cream

Yields 12 servings
Total preparation: 14 hours
Active preparation: 1 hour

Truffle-honey ice cream

600 g heavy cream
50 g sugar
1.5 g ice cream stabilizer
85 g (about 5) egg yolks
60 g truffle honey
60 g honey

Bring the heavy cream to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
Meanwhile, combine the sugar and ice cream stabilizer in a bowl. Add the egg yolks, and beat to a ribbon.
Slowly pour the heavy cream over the egg yolk mixture while stirring with a rubber spatula. Return the mixture to the saucepan, and cook on low heat until it reaches 85 C / 185 C, constantly stirring with the spatula, to make a custard.
Strain the custard into a bowl using a conical sieve. Add the truffle honey and mix with the spatula, then cover with plastic wrap and let cool over iced water. Once cold, transfer the bowl of custard to the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, then to the freezer for 30 minutes.
Churn the custard in an ice cream maker, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to the freezer for at least 8 hours.