NonnarioRicettario d'Italia

Modica, Sicilia

Cioccolato di Modica

Modica's grainy, cold-worked chocolate

Modica's chocolate, worked cold and a PGI since 2018: cocoa mass melted gently, never above 50 °C, with sugar stirred in so that its crystals stay whole, then set in small bars with sloping sides.

EU-codifiedSources checked in October 2026
Course
DolciDesserts
Serves
5
Hands-on
44 min
Cooking
5 min
Resting
3 h+
Image coming soon

In breve

In short

Also called Cioccolato di Modica IGP, Cioccolata di Modica, cioccolato modicano, cioccolata modicana and Modica chocolate.

  • Vegetarian
  • Vegan
  • Gluten-free
  • Cocoa mass and sugar: cocoa mass is 50–99% of the bar, with no added cocoa butter, vegetable fat, milk, emulsifier or vanillin.
  • The cocoa mass is melted in a bain-marie or a melter-temperer, never above 50 °C at its heart, and the sugar is stirred in without stopping.
  • Never conched: the sugar crystals stay whole, and the bar is grainy, almost sandy, and crunchy.
  • Poured into moulds with sloping sides, at most 100 g a bar, and tapped for 1–3 minutes to level it and bring up the air.
  • Cooled, turned out and wrapped within 12 hours, each bar on its own, away from damp.

La provenienza

Where this recipe comes from

Chocolate has been made in Modica, in the province of Ragusa, since at least the eighteenth century, when it was made in the houses of the town's noble families: the archives of the Grimaldi family record chocolate makers, ‘cicolateri’, working aromatic batches of cocoa there in 1746. In the nineteenth century the monasteries and religious houses of the area ate it and often made it, and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the town's cafés became chocolate workshops. It was worked by hand, with a half-moon slab and a cylindrical stone rolling pin, the ‘valata’ and the ‘pistuni’ drawn on its logo. Local tradition credits the Spanish, who ruled Sicily, with bringing to the County of Modica the Aztec way of grinding cocoa on a stone heated from below, the metate; the documents begin in the 1700s. It was a sweet of winter and above all of Christmas, flavoured traditionally with cinnamon or vanilla, and it goes into the town's cooking too, from chocolate ravioli to lamb, rabbit, caponata and the sweet impanatigghie. By the late 1980s only two or three makers were left; since then a series of small firms has grown into what the specification calls a chocolate district. The Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia called its flavour unrivalled.

‘Cioccolato di Modica’ has been a PGI since 2018, by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1529, and its consortium calls it the first PGI chocolate in Europe: only chocolate made in the municipality of Modica under the specification, and inspected, may carry the name. The specification defines it as cocoa mass worked with sugar: cocoa mass makes up 50–99% of the bar and sugar, white or cane, refined or unrefined, the rest. Spices, natural flavourings, fruit and nuts and salt are allowed; colourings, preservatives, emulsifiers, vegetable fats, vanillin and milk are not. No cocoa butter is added and the chocolate is never conched: the cocoa mass is melted only in a bain-marie or a chocolate melter-temperer, at no more than 50 °C at its heart, and the sugar stirred in, so that its crystals do not dissolve, and they give the bar its grainy, almost sandy bite. The bars weigh at most 100 g and have sloping sides; they hold at least 50% cocoa solids and 25% cocoa butter, and at most 2.5% moisture.

The specification's method suits a home kitchen as it stands: of the ways it allows, this page uses the bain-marie rather than a chocolate melter-temperer, taps the moulds by hand and cools the bars at room temperature, and it leaves out tempering, which the specification permits but does not require. What it does not give is a household batch. The proportions on this page, 60% cocoa mass to 40% sugar, in five bars of about 95 g, are our own choice within its range, and they have not yet been tested in a home kitchen; the temperature we aim for (40–45 °C, under the specification's 50 °C), the moulds and the setting time are our guide too, and every step has a check to judge it by. Made outside Modica, it is chocolate in the Modica manner, not Cioccolato di Modica.

Provenance
The dish itself is protected by an EU specification (TSG, PDO or PGI) that fixes how it is made.
Defined by
European Union
Reference
PGI ‘Cioccolato di Modica’, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1529; production specification published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 258 of 6 November 2018
Sources
Modica, Sicilia

Ingredienti

Ingredients

5 servings

The chocolate: our amounts, within the specification's shares

Equipment

  • Kitchen scale
  • Heavy knife and a dry chopping board
  • Heatproof bowl, glass or steel, and a saucepan it sits on
  • Silicone spatula
  • Thermometer for the chocolate, a probe or instant-read one: essential here
  • One bar mould with sloping sides for each serving (five for this batch), each large enough for a 100 g bar: silicone, tin or small rectangular foil trays, or any mould lined with baking paper
  • A small tray or board to carry the moulds and knock them on the worktop
  • Baking paper, for wrapping

Preparazione

Method

About 4 hours, nearly all of it waiting: 15 minutes to check the label, chop, weigh and set out the moulds, 5 to heat the water, 11–20 to melt the cocoa mass and stir in the sugar, 5 to fill the moulds and about 2 to tap them, then at least 3 hours to set (longer in a warm kitchen) and 10 minutes to turn the bars out and wrap them. Once they have set, the specification gives you 12 hours to wrap them: you can fill the moulds in the evening and wrap the bars the next morning. The batch makes five bars of about 95 g; each serving here is one bar, and the servings control makes more or fewer. The quantities are ours, within the specification's shares, and have not yet been tested in a home kitchen.

  • 44 minhands-on
  • 5 mincooking
  • 3 hresting, at least

Before you start

  1. Hands-on 2 min

    Check that the label has one ingredient, the cocoa mass itself (cocoa mass, cocoa liquor or cocoa beans), with no added cocoa butter, no cocoa powder, no sugar, no emulsifier such as lecithin, no vanillin, no milk and no other fat, and that the nutrition table shows at least 43 g of fat per 100 g.

    Check One ingredient, cocoa mass, with no added cocoa butter or cocoa powder; the fat is 43 or more per 100.

    Tip Our guide: the specification wants at least 25% cocoa butter in the bar, and all of it comes from the cocoa mass. At 60% cocoa mass, a cocoa mass with 43% fat gives 25.8%: 42% would just do (25.2%), and the extra point allows for the rounding on labels.

    Tip The specification adds no cocoa butter, so a cocoa mass topped up with cocoa butter or cocoa powder will not do, even if its label says 100% cocoa.

    Tip The specification forbids emulsifiers, vegetable fats, vanillin and milk, so a chocolate with any of them on the label will not do.

  2. Hands-on 10 min

    Chop the cocoa mass into small pieces, about 1 cm, and weigh 300 g into the dry heatproof bowl. Weigh 200 g of sugar into another bowl.

    Check Pieces of about 1 cm, none much bigger, in a bowl that is completely dry.

    Tip Our guide: small, even pieces melt quickly at a low temperature. Cocoa mass sold as drops or buttons needs no chopping.

    Tip Cocoa mass is hard: use a heavy knife, and keep your fingers clear.

  3. Hands-on 3 min

    Set the moulds, one for each bar, on the small tray or board. They must be clean and completely dry; do not grease them.

    Check Dry moulds, one for each bar, on a tray you can lift with one hand.

    Tip Our guide: flexible moulds (silicone or foil) are the easiest to peel from the bars; a rigid mould works best lined with baking paper.

    Tip No fat goes on the moulds: the specification allows no added fat in the chocolate.

  4. Cooking 5 minTemp 60 °CHeat medium, then off

    Put water in the saucepan, about 4 cm deep or enough for the base of the bowl to just touch it, and heat it until it steams and the first tiny bubbles form on the bottom, about 60 °C. Turn off the heat.

    Check The water steams but does not simmer, and a thermometer in it reads about 60 °C.

    Tip Our guide: water at about 60 °C, off the heat, melts the cocoa mass gently and cannot take it far past the temperature you want, so the centre stays well under the specification's 50 °C while you stir.

Melting and mixing

The specification's limit is 50 °C at the heart of the mass: keep the thermometer in hand, and keep every drop of water and steam out of the bowl.

  1. Hands-on 8–15 minTemp 40 °C–45 °CHeat off: the heat of the water aloneOfficial text

    Melt the cocoa mass only in a bain-marie or a chocolate melter-temperer, keeping the heart of the mass at no more than 50 °C.

    Check Completely melted, smooth and flowing, with no lumps, and the thermometer in the centre reads 40 °C–45 °C.

    Tip Our guide: set the bowl on the pan of hot water and stir often with the spatula, checking the centre with the thermometer. Aim for 40 °C–45 °C: in Modica the mass is worked at about 40 °C.

    Tip Our guide: if the water cools before everything has melted, put the pan back on low heat for a moment, and off again well before the mass reaches 45 °C.

    Tip When you lift the bowl, wipe its base dry: a drop of water makes melted chocolate seize into a stiff, dull paste.

  2. Hands-on 3–5 minTemp 40 °C–45 °COfficial text

    Once it has melted, add the sugar, stirring without ever stopping, until the mass is well blended and of an even consistency.

    Check An even, thick, glossy paste with no streaks of dry sugar. A little rubbed between your fingers feels gritty with sugar crystals, as it should. The thermometer reads 40 °C–45 °C, never above 50 °C.

    Tip Our guide: add the sugar in three or four goes and keep the bowl on the warm water as you stir: cold sugar cools the paste, and it stiffens as it cools.

    Tip Do not try to dissolve the sugar: its crystals are what make the bar grainy.

    Tip Ground spices, natural flavourings, fruit, nuts or salt go in here, with the sugar: see the variants. Our guide: nuts or fruit take the place of part of the sugar rather than going on top of it, or the bar may fall below 25% cocoa butter.

Moulding

  1. Hands-on 5 minOfficial text

    Portion the mixture into the moulds.

    Check Each mould holds about 95 g and none more than 100 g, weighed on the scale, and the paste still flows enough to settle.

    Tip Our guide: set each mould on the scale and spoon in about 95 g, or pipe it from a piping bag. Five bars of 95 g use 475 g of the 500 g, leaving a little for what clings to the bowl.

    Tip Our guide: if the paste stiffens before the moulds are full, set the bowl back on the warm water for a minute, stirring, never above 50 °C.

    Tip The specification allows the chocolate to be tempered before moulding; this page does not temper it.

  2. Hands-on 1–3 minOfficial text

    Straight away, tap the moulds with quick, rhythmic shakes by hand for one to three minutes, so that the mixture settles to an even height in each and any air bubbles rise to the surface.

    Check The top of each bar is flat and level, the bubbles have risen and burst, and no new ones appear.

    Tip Our guide: lift the tray about 2 cm and let it drop flat on the worktop, again and again, for about 2 minutes, so that the moulds jump.

    Tip Do it at once, while the paste is still warm and fluid.

Setting and wrapping

  1. Rest 3 hOfficial text

    Leave the chocolate to cool at room temperature.

    Check The surface no longer looks wet, a corner pressed with a fingertip is firm and does not dent, and the moulds feel cool, not warm.

    Tip Our guide: a cool, dry place away from the stove and the sun, ideally below about 20 °C. By our estimate the bars are firm after about 3 hours; this batch has not been tested, so go by the check. Untempered chocolate sets slowly: in a warm kitchen it may take much longer, even overnight, and one home recipe leaves its bars in the moulds for a whole day.

    Tip The specification also allows cold rooms at 5 °C–15 °C and 40–55% humidity. A home fridge is colder than that, and cold bars gather condensation when they come out, the damp the specification guards against: this page leaves them at room temperature.

    Tip Pale streaks of cocoa butter on the surface are allowed by the specification.

  2. Hands-on 10 minOfficial text

    Turn the bars out of the moulds and wrap them, each in its own wrapper, within twelve hours, at most, of cooling.

    Check Each bar comes out whole, a brown block with sloping sides; broken, it shows the sugar crystals clearly.

    Tip Our guide: peel silicone or foil away from the bar; turn a rigid mould over onto a board and tap it.

    Tip Our guide: wrap each bar in baking paper and keep them in a dry place, away from heat and light. Handle them as little as you can: warm fingers mark the surface.

  3. Hands-on 2 min

    Break a bar into small pieces to serve.

    Check It breaks with a crunch; on the tongue it is grainy, almost sandy, then melts well, sweet with a bitter note.

Press “I’m here” on the step you are on, and again when it is done.Tap the pin on the step you are on, and the tick when it is done. Timers keep running while you scroll.

Da sapere

Good to know

WhenQuando
A sweet of winter, and above all of Christmas; over time it has come to be eaten in the other months of the year too. Every year the town holds its traditional Chocomodica. Source
KeepingConservazione
Wrapped within 12 hours of cooling, each bar on its own, and kept dry: damp brings a risk of mould and dulls its brown surface, and unwrapped it picks up other smells. Source
VariantsVarianti
  • With cinnamon, vanilla or chilli: Ground spices stirred in with the sugar: cinnamon, vanilla or chilli, at least 0.02% of the bar (0.1 g in this batch), or nutmeg, at least 0.01%; other spices are allowed at 0.02% or more. Vanilla means the spice itself: vanillin is not allowed. Source
  • With nuts, citrus, flavourings or salt: Almonds, hazelnuts or pistachios, at least 5% of the bar; citrus fruit, at least 2%, dried or dehydrated fruit included; natural flavourings of citrus, wild fennel or ginger (at least 0.02%) or jasmine (at least 0.01%); salt, at least 0.02%. Other natural flavourings (at least 0.02%) and fruit (at least 2%) are allowed at the maker's choice. Our guide: added on top of this batch, nuts or fruit can take the cocoa butter below the specification's 25% (5% of nuts brings it to 24.5%), so let them replace part of the sugar: 30 g of nuts (6%) with 170 g of sugar, or 15 g of dried citrus (3%) with 185 g, keeps the cocoa mass at 60% of the bar. The limit: with a cocoa mass of 43% fat, the cocoa mass must stay at least 58.2% of the bar. Use dried fruit, not fresh: fresh fruit brings water, which seizes the paste. Source
  • As a drink: Besides being eaten as it is, Modica chocolate is melted in water and drunk. Source

Errori comuni

Common mistakes

  • Letting the cocoa mass go above 50 °C: it is the specification's limit, and careful control of the temperature is what keeps the sugar crystals whole.
  • Melting the sugar with the cocoa mass from the start: the specification melts the cocoa mass first and adds the sugar after.
  • Trying to dissolve the sugar, or using icing sugar: the bar must be grainy, with crystals you can see and feel.
  • Using a chocolate with added cocoa butter, vegetable fat, lecithin, vanillin or milk, or cocoa powder: the bar is cocoa mass and sugar.
  • Letting a drop of water or steam into the bowl: the paste seizes into a stiff, dull mass, and the bar may hold no more than 2.5% moisture.
  • Stopping stirring while the sugar goes in.
  • Skipping the tapping: the bars keep their air bubbles and an uneven top.
  • Setting the bars in the fridge: they gather condensation when they come out, the damp the specification guards against.
  • Leaving the bars unwrapped, or in their moulds for more than 12 hours after they have set.
  • Making bars of more than 100 g.

Fuori dall'Italia

Cooking it outside Italy

  • Cocoa mass is the roasted, ground cocoa bean with nothing added: pasta di cacao or massa di cacao in Italian, also sold as cocoa liquor or 100% cocoa. In the US it is chocolate liquor, sold as unsweetened or baking chocolate: buy one whose label has a single ingredient, chocolate, unsweetened chocolate or chocolate liquor, with no added cocoa butter, cocoa powder or flavouring.
  • A US nutrition label gives the fat per serving: divide it by the serving size in grams; the result must be at least 0.43. US chocolate liquor must hold 50–60% fat, so a single-ingredient one passes.
  • Granulated sugar is ordinary white sugar; cane sugar, refined or unrefined, is allowed too. Not icing (powdered) sugar, which leaves no crystals.
  • Bar moulds with sloping sides are sold for chocolate; small rectangular foil trays do the same job.

Il menù continua

What to cook next

Dalla stessa regione

From Sicilia

All 3 recipes from Sicilia →

Piatti simili

Similar dishes