And on the eigth day of the 12 Days of Cookbooks I give you Domenica Marchetti’s Big Night In: More Than 100 Wonderful Recipes for Feeding Family and Friends Italian-Style.

Domenica Marchetti is a cookbook author of Italian background who has very quickly become one of my favourites. I also own her book The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy and believe me when I say it has kept me company during the chilly fall!

Her recipes are excellent and well written and Big Night is no exception. This is a big, warm book about feeding a crowd of people, something that’s good for all of us to do from time-to-time, especially over the holidays!

The book is geared to cooks of all sorts with a heavy emphasis on bright flavours, abundance and comfort. It’s traditionally laid out as it starts with Appetizers and Soups and Salads. It’s followed by Pasta, Rice and Savory Tortes and then Main Courses. The content is rounded out with Vegetables and Side Dishes and then Desserts. There’s even a brunch menu at the end for those who entertain large crowds early in the day!

I, of course, decided to showcase a recipe from the Desserts section. Because you can never make enough crostata in your life, I made the Jam Crostata using strawberry jam.

A simple and rustic tart, this is a perfect example of the kind of cooking and baking that Marchetti offers with her recipes. This was a most satisfying crostata and I look forward to making it again.

I’m also really looking forward to having some people over and trying more of the recipes.

Hope you pick this up for the person in your life that loves to feed a crowd!

Ciao!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone. She also added her own modifications and changes.

Can I just say that I completely LOVED this challenge!

After missing the last two Daring Cooks challenges and not having much success with the October Daring Bakers’ challenge, it was such a pleasure to try making cannoli.

This was a first for me. I’ve never tried cannoli at home mainly because, to be honest, I’m not a huge cannoli fan. They’re okay, but they wouldn’t be my first choice when it cames to Italian desserts.

And I think I now know why.

After making the cannoli shells on my own, I can see that most of the cannoli shells that you buy at the store and even at bakeries, pale in comparison.

The recipe that Lisa provided created a shell that was crispy and light, with a faint hint of Marsala that was so pleasing.

And the filling was rich and luscious.

Perhaps what made this most worthwhile is that I finally got to use the cannoli molds that I purchased several years ago. I purchased them to use in making rolled cookies like tuiles, but I think in all this time I’ve only used them once.

While I considered rolling out the dough myself, I wimped out and used my pasta machine (thankfully Lisa included that in the instructions).

It was a breeze to roll out the dough with the machine. I wrapped the circles of dough around the molds and fried those babies up.

They looked so lovely coming out of the oil that I had to resist the urge to remove them from the mold right away. I found that if you let them cool down a bit, they slide of easily.

I didn’t do anything really fancy with my filling. I flavoured it with cinnamon and vanilla extract and as for the shells, I dipped the edges in melted bittersweet chocolate and then in ground pistachios.

These were just so delicious. The shells were so crispy they shattered when you bit into them. The filling was creamy and perfect and the chocolate and pistachios were just the right touch.

In the course of frying the cannoli shells, a few came off the mold because I hadn’t secured them properly but no worries, I used the shells to make cannoli stacks as Lisa suggested.

Thank you so much to Lisa for hosting. That’s another challenge to cross off the list!

Ciao!

So I know that summer is over in many parts of the world but for those of us that are beginning the long trek through fall and winter, it’s never too early to start planning ahead!

My Magazine Mondays submission for this week is actually a dish that I prepared before I left for vacation in August. It’s a trio of ice creams from the January 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine: Almond, Chocolate, and Pistachio Spumoni.

Spumoni is not a happy word for me because it reminds me of a flavour of ice cream that we’d buy when I was a kid from the local gelateria. It was a mix of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice cream and had candied fruit thrown into it. It was horrid so when I first saw the word “spumoni”, I was a bit put off but then when I actually saw the flavours and also saw that there was on candied fruit in the recipe, I bookmarked it.

Perhaps one day I will tell you about my hate-on for candied fruit. One day. Just not today.

To get myself in the mood for my vacation to Italy, I whipped up the three flavours of custard, froze them and brought them to work. They were a hit with my personal favourite being the Almond flavour. The hardest part of the recipe was making sure that I started it early enough so that I could freeze all three batches in my ice cream machine (they have to frozen separately, obviously).

Remember, Magazine Mondays, is my weekly round-up of a magazine recipe that I’ve bookmarked but haven’t gotten to yet. You’re free to participate in what I like to call this non-event. Just send me the link to a magazine recipe you’ve posted. And remember, you don’t have to post it on a Monday. It can be any day of the week.

This week, I’m joined by the following MMers who got around to trying some magazine recipes:

Patricia of Brownies for Dinner made a gorgeous Brown Butter Pound Cake from the October 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine.

Our regular contributor Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy made Franks & Beans Cornbread Casserole.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Mushroom, Garlic and Gorgonzola Stuffed Bread from the Sept-Oct issue of Tallahassee magazine.

And our most loyal fan, Wandering Coyote of ReTorte, made Onion Bialys from Canadian Living.

Have a fabulous week, everyone!

Ciao!

As much as I love being busy with my blog, Magazine Mondays and The Daring Kitchen, there is a downside.

Unfortunately, I don’t often have a lot of time to read other blogs and that is a shame because I know I’m missing a lot.

When I do have some time to visit other blogs, I’m always amazed at the creativity and beauty that I see out there. You can imagine how inspiring I find the blog Junglefrog Cooking by Simone. Not only is the photography GORGEOUS, but I love the variety of food that Simone presents.

It was through Simone’s blog that I came across a cooking group that I’ve become infatuated with. The group is called Cooking Italy and was started by the lovely Angela of the blog Spinach Tiger.

The purpose of Cooking Italy is very simple. The idea is to explore Italian cooking through the formidable Marcella Hazan’s book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. This book holds a very special spot on my bookshelf and when I read about Angela’s group, I couldn’t resist asking to join. The only requirements are that you own a copy of Hazan’s book. Angela sets the cooking schedule one month in advance by choosing four dishes, and sometimes a bonus dish. To join, you can e-mail Angela at spinachtiger{@}me{dot}com.

While I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to make four dishes from the book every month, I’m going to try my best to make at least a few of them. I decided to start with the Italian Chocolate Mousse from p. 599 of Hazan’s book, which was a bonus dish from September. I was so tempted by Simone’s mousse, I had to make it myself.

As is the case with all of Hazan’s recipes, the instructions are clear and direct and fool-proof. This was by far the best chocolate mousse I have ever made.

I could write more but the mousse is calling …

Ciao!

For the recipe, you can visit Simone’s blog.

The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Before I left for Italy, I knew that Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon would be hosting the September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge and that she would be putting forth vol-au-vents (and puff pastry) as the challenge for DBers everywhere.

In the flurry of getting ready for my trip, I didn’t really think much about it until … ummm … yesterday when I was like, “Oh yeah. Vol-au-vents. Puff pastry. Yeah. I should get on that.”

I could look it up but am, quite frankly, too lazy and tired to do so right now but I believe that vol-au-vents means something like flying in the wind or on the wind. Or something like that. Someone will correct if I’m wrong, I’m sure.

In any event, I made like the wind yesterday and threw together a batch of puff pastry and can I just say that I was thanking Steph all along because truly, I adore making puff pastry.

It’s not that I think my puff pastry is all that great. I mean it’s good, but I’m by no means an expert and I’m sure that my puff pastry would be judged as serviceable, at the very best.

But the act of making it is one of the most beautiful baking experiences. All afternoon long, as I rolled and turned, I kept thinking to myself: “This is what I love.”

A quiet Saturday afternoon, a hot cup of tea, flour, butter and a rolling pin. It’s the best day I’ve had since I got back from Italy.

I decided to fill my little puff pastry nests with a cold, dessert filling. For that I chose Italian Chocolate Mousse from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. I chose this chocolate mousse because it’s actually a recipe that I’m making along with my new friends in a new group that I joined.

Love new groups!

I actually found out about this group, called Cooking Italy, from Simone of Junglefrog Cooking (Love Simone!!!). On Simone’s blog I read about this group that cooks recipes from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. The group was created by the lovely Angela of the blog Spinach Tiger.

Once upon a time when I first started this blog, I remember thinking that I wanted to spend a lot of time really studying Hazan’s book. Of course, that hasn’t happened. While I do refer to it time-to-time, I haven’t used it nearly as much as I should and that’s a shame because Hazan is truly a treasure when it comes to Italian cooking.

I e-mailed Angela and she very graciously said I could join the group. So expect to see a lot more Hazan around here!

I’m going to do a separate post about the chocolate mousse but in the meantime, it was lovely in the little pastry nests. I caramelized some sugar and let it harden and then added some crushed caramel pieces to the top just for a bit of crunch.

So thank you so much to Steph, for choosing this challenge and for helping me remember why I love baking so much. And thanks to Simone for introducing me to Angela who’s helping me rediscover Marcella.

Ciao!

Here’s a photo journal of my vol-au-vent efforts. You can find the recipe on Steph’s blog.

We begin with a mass of flour, butter, salt and water … and a game of tic-tac-toe.

Bash a block of butter. Say it 20 times really quickly.

One day I would like to receive a love letter filled with butter.

My first turn. So pretty.

Dough rings.

And voila! Vol-au-vents!

Last week I mentioned in my Magazine Mondays post that the March 2008 Food & Wine issue had an excellent feature called “How to Cook Like You Own an Italian Villa”. I tried many of the recipes and loved them all. By far, however, the recipe for Jam-Filled Mezzaluna Cookies was my absolute favourite.

I try so many new recipes in a year, both from magazines and cookbooks. And I would say that in a year, there’s probably only a handful of times where I come across a recipe that becomes part of my recipe family.

And this recipe has now been officially adopted.

While they’re more than a cookie, these treats are buttery pieces of pastry heaven meant to enclose the jam of your choice.

They were incredible. I don’t know what else to say about them other than to say that when I bit into one, warm out of the oven, I just had this image of eating one of these lovely treats with a steaming espresso at the kitchen table in our little house in Italy.

It was love at first bite.

As with all Magazine Mondays, I’m always happy to share with you links to posts from other food bloggers who have squared off against their magazine piles. Here’s who made a dent:

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Roasted Garlic and Sundried Tomato Bread from Canadian Living.

My Jenny of All Things Edible made Brownies from The Brownie Project.

Janie of Panini Girl made Pea and Parmeson “Wanton” Ravioli from Gourmet magazine.

Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy made Golden Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting.

Amy I. of Playing House made Vanilla Bean Shortbread from Cooking Light.

Andreas of Delta Kitchen made Asparagus Pizza.

Here’s a photo journal of the Jam-Filled Mezzaluna Cookies:

I had a lot of fun rolling out this very tender dough. I used a 4-inch tart ring to cut out the pastry circles.

I used some lovely cherry preserves to fill the cookies.

I very gently sealed the cookies.

I placed the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. I brushed them with egg wash and sprinkled on sugar. The recipe instructs that you sprinkle on sliced almonds but I omitted that step.

Ciao!

In the last instalment of my little series about the joy of having rediscovered breakfast, I bring you a breakfast item that is perhaps more nourishing to the soul than the body, but nourishing nevertheless.

When people talk about “good” food or “healhy” food, I always start to squirm because I believe that something can be classified as “good for you” or “healty for you” and make you absolutely sick.

Case-in-point, I have always heard it said that All-Bran Buds are very good for you and that may, in fact, be the case. Unfortunately, All-Bran Buds disgust me beyond belief. I don’t know if it’s the texture or the taste or a combination of both, but I would positively never eat again if I had to eat those for breakfast every morning (with apologies to the good people at Kellogg’s). So yes, I might be having a “healthy breakfast”, but what is the benefit to me if said breakfast leaves me unhappy and dissatisfied?

Honestly, I don’t see much merit in that.

I left this particular post to the last for my series because while the subject of this breakfast might hold very little bodily nourishment, it is manna to my soul.

What you see pictured above is what in Italian we call, Ciambellone. I’m not posting a link because depending on where you find yourself in Italy, ciambellone can refer to many different things. When we would go to Italy and we’d visit my paternal grandparents, my grandmother would serve ciambellone for breakfast. A cross between a bread and a dry cake, we would have large slices of ciambellone in the morning with our milk and coffee.

How many childhood breakfasts began this way? The foundation of every Italian child’s breakfast had to be a mug of hot milk with a few drops of espresso. As you got older, the espresso content increased so that the milk to espresso ratio was relatively equal. But as a child, a few drops of espresso, enough to colour the milk, already made you feel like you were almost grownup.

And so onto this foundation, my grandmother would lay the ciambellone. In this age of refined, sugary sweets, I’m not sure how many children would actually like ciambellone. Since we were not exposed to store-bought cookies as children, homemade cookies and cakes were the pinnacle for us.

While I love my fancy cakes and while I am the first in line for the incredible confections of a pastry chef, this home baking of my childhood resonates so deeply.

And to this day, my favourite breakfast (next to pancakes), is a mug of steaming, frothy milk and espresso with the dry, flavourful cookies my maternal grandmother used to make expressly for dunking. And while ciambellone is not something we baked (the one my paternal grandmother served us in Italy was always bought from the bread store), the very idea of it just makes me feel whole and happy.

I cracked open the great Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
and made some minor adaptations to her recipe for this beautiful bread/cake.

I enjoyed making this so much that I kneaded it by hand. The added elbow grease just made the end result that much more desirable. My changes are subtle but even if you own the cookbook and follow the original recipe, you will not be disappointed unless you’re expecting a moist cake. This is a cake for dunking. Period.

I’m not sure what the nutritional value is, however, that is not the point. This makes your stomach and your heart happy, and surely there can be nothing healthier than that.

Ciao!

Ciambellone
Adapted from Marchella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Note: The cake will keep for a week as long as it’s tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or sealed in an airtight container. I think it tastes better the older it gets and it’s more enjoyable to dunk it!

1 stick butter (8 tbsp.), unsalted
4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 1/2 tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt
zest from one medium orange (finely grated)
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup whole milk, lukewarm
2 extra large eggs (you can use large but you may need some extra water)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup warm water

Line a baking sheet with parchment and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and let cool slightly (for about 5 minutes).

Heat the milk and set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and zest in a bowl and whisk together, set aside.

Add the melted butter and the milk and mix until you have a slightly wet mixture. It will still look dry.

Separate one of the eggs (set aside the yolk). Put the other egg and the egg white from the separated egg into the flour mixture. Remove a bit of the set aside yolk and place it in a small bowl (you will use this as an egg wash). Put the remaining egg yolk in the mixture.

Begin gathering the mixture together. If it’s still dry and doesn’t come together, start adding water. I find I always have to add water for this to come together. I usually add about a quarter of a cup of warm water. What you’re looking for is a dough that comes together and has the consistency of a lumpy dough. It will not be smooth.

Once it’s come together enough that you can roll it into a rope, do so. You can make the rope as long or as short as you like. I usually make mine about 10 to 12 inches. The length and thickness of the rope is up to you. Mine tends to be a couple of inches thick at least. Bring the rope together in a ring and seal the connected ends carefully.

Brush the ring with the leftover egg yolk and place in the oven. In my oven, I bake this for 40 minutes so that it’s nice and golden but the original recipe indicates that you should bake it for 35 minutes.

Enjoy!

Today is the Epiphany. In the Christian holiday tradition, it’s the day that the three Magi visited the Baby Jesus. In other holiday traditions it’s also referred to as the Twelfth Night, the end of the Christmas season. In Italy, the eve of the Epiphany is the day that La Befana, a wizened old woman, travels throughout Italy rewarding well-behaved children with presents and punishing misbehaved children with lumps of coal.

As a child, I remember being horrified at my father’s stories about La Befana. I remember thinking how lucky I was to be growing up in Canada where we were visited by sweet and harmless Santa Claus. Of course now that I’m older and I understand more of the folklore behind La Befana, I sometimes wish that I could be in Italy to take part in so many of the traditions that continue through the holiday season, beyond Christmas and New Year’s.

As the years go by, I sometimes find myself dissatisfied with how we celebrate the “holiday season” because we tend to focus on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and forget that in actual fact, the holiday season is a time that spans the period between Christmas and the Epiphany. It’s supposed to be a time of light and joy. Being of an Italian background, there are so many customs and traditions, now long abandoned, that mark each day of the holiday season. Sometimes I feel that in the desire to satisfy the commercial aspect of the holidays, we forget that really, we’re supposed to be having fun throughout this entire period.

So I wanted to commemorate the Epiphany and La Befana this year for two reasons.

First of all, as I get older, rather than constantly complain about how much this or that sucks, I’ve decided that I should shut up and actually do something to change what I don’t like. And since I don’t like how we seem to focus on the wrong things during the holidays, I’ve decided to not complain (for a change) and do something about it.

While I didn’t get a visit at all from La Befana (not sure what I would have done with a lump of coal anyway …), I did put out a little La Befana doll ornament that I have and I also ensured that all our Christmas decorations remained up. We have dutifully lit the Christmas tree and will enjoy its lights for one last time before the beginning of the Christmas season next December (never too early to start planning …).

But the other way that I’ve chosen to make a change is by actually baking for this special day. The cookies pictured above are called La Befana’s Stars and they’re from Gina DePalma’s amazing cookbook: Dolce Italiano. If you’re interested in baking and in Italian sweets, I strongly urge you to make this book yours.

These cookies also give me the opportunity to mention a very good cause associated with this book. In September 2008, Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy, Jenn of The Leftover Queen and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso hosted an event called O Foods for Ovarian Cancer. I heard about the event through a post on the event by the Happy Cook on her blog My Kitchen Treasures.

The event highlighted the important battle against ovarian cancer and also highlighted Gina DePalma’s own battle with the disease. Gina has been bravely documenting her journey on her site.

While I was unable to take part in the event, it was never far from my mind and so I wanted to make these cookies as a way of showing my support for this tremendous effort on the part of food bloggers everywhere.

Epiphany is a word that doesn’t just refer to a religious holiday, it’s also a word that’s used to describe the sense of having a revelation or of discovering something new. It can mean that something finally makes sense or that you finally realize or truly get something.

I hope 2009 is a year of epiphanies for all of us!

Ciao!

Go figure!

For this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays, I’m featuring a recipe that I came this close to dumping in the food waste bin.

When I bought the 2007 April/May issue of Taste Italia, I immediately bookmarked a recipe for Apricot Almond Shortbread (Frollino di albicocca e mandorla).

For starters, the title is slightly misleading. This dessert is a cross between a cake and a pie of sorts. While the photo was very enticing, I disliked the recipe almost as soon as I started making it. To begin with, there are a lot of steps and I found the directions a bit confusing.

The worst part of the recipe for me was the topping, which was disastrous. The topping is a meringue of sorts that you spread on the dessert after baking it a for a bit. You then put it back in the oven to bake the topping. My topping spread all over the place and it just came out of the oven looking like a disaster.

After letting it cool, I took a long look at my creation and thought, “There is no way I can serve this to anyone.” I almost threw it out but then remembered that there were quite a bit of almonds, egg whites and fresh apricots in there and tossing it didn’t seem very cost-effective.

So I let it cook completely, did some damage control to the topping and filled in the top with apricot jam.

Feeling somewhat better, I brought the dessert into work on the same day that I brought in the Peach and Almond Tart from a few weeks ago. I expected everyone to like the peach tart much better but in one of those strange twists, it seemed most people actually preferred the apricot dessert.

Go figure!

To be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever be making this one again, but it just goes to show, you never really do know how a dessert may turn out.

Have a great week everyone!

Ciao!

Note: Click here for the recipe for the Apricot Almond Shortbread. This week, I’m joined in my Magazine Mondays post by Oakley Rhodes of the blog Lemonbasil with her gorgeous White Chocolate Panna Cotta with Dark Chocolate Sauce.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of making a Cassata alla Siciliana in the company of some truly wonderful and insane people: Lis, Helene, Ben, John, Marce, Chris, Stephanie, Kelly and Mary (our Tanna, our Sara and our Laura couldn’t be with us). We were also joined by a very sane and nice Halley who incredibly was not frightened off by us!

On Monday, I brought the cassata to work and repeated over and over to my coworkers that the cassata sponge was bathed in rum syrup.

Bathed in rum syrup.

Bathed in rum syrup.

Rum syrup-bathed.

Bathed in rum syrup.

Towards the end of the day I noted that some of my coworkers were beginning to look at me a tad strangely so that’s when I decided that perhaps I should stop saying “bathed in rum syrup” with such gusto.

I mean just because I’d like to be bathed in rum syrup, it doesn’t mean everybody else does!

Ciao!

Note: The recipe for the Cassata alla Siciliana is from Gina DePalma’s first-rate book Dolce Italiano. Lis published her version of the recipe so you can check it out. And many thanks to Lis for such a wonderful choice!

Mamma mia! What happened? June was supposed to be all Italian and then it whizzed by faster than a Roman teenager on a Vespa!

Not that I can complain all that much, mind you. I’ve spent the month enjoying many wonderful meals and best of all, over the past ten days or so, I’ve also been enjoying the fruits of our vegetable garden.

Yes, I’d say Italian June has been quite tasty.

But such a tasty month should end with a lovely little sweet, I think. While I firmly believe my mother’s amaretti are the best, I could not resist trying the amaretti in Maxine Clark’s Easy Italian.

They’re amaretti, but with a bit of a twist in that the recipe calls for pine nuts to be included in the cookie dough.

I’m a relatively new convert to the religion of the pine nut. It was not part of the nut family that I grew up with, which consisted mainly of almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts. I remember tasting the pine nut for the first time and being strangley captivated by it’s butteriness.

As with my mother’s amaretti, these little beauties are very easy to make and are a very pleasant way to end a meal and to bid farewell to what has been a tasty month.

May July be just as sweet!

Ciao!

Amaretti with Pine Nuts
From Easy Italian: Simple Recipes for Every Occasion by Maxine Clark.

Note: Unfortunately I did not have enough pine nuts to use in the cookie dough so I only sprinkled them on top. I used blanched almonds for the entire dough. You can use a pastry bag to pipe out the cookies or you can just use a spoon and carefully spoon drops of the dough onto baking sheets.

2 cups whole blanched almonds
1/2 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. orange extract (optional)
a handful of pine nuts (for sprinkling)
icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

In either a blender or food processor, grind the almonds with about a tablespoon of sugar until they are very fine.

In a bowl, beat the egg whites (with a mixer or by hand) until they are foamy. Begin adding the remaining sugar, a little at a time, and continue beating the egg whites until they are very stiff (stiff peaks form).

Gently fold in the nuts and then add the almond and orange extract (be careful not to overmix so that you don’t deflate the mixture).

Using a tablespoon, carefully spoon rounds of dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheets. Leave a few inches between each cookie.

Sprinkle some of the pine nuts over each cookie and bake for about 30 minutes. The cookies will be firm and lightly golden when they’re done.

Let cool completely before dusting with icing sugar and serving.

Enjoy!

One cannot choose a cookbook as the Flavour of the Month and then allow the whole month to pass without saying even one thing about said cookbook.

That just won’t do.

Especially when one has chosen such a special, pretty little cookbook as the Flavour of the Month for March 2008.

As often happens in life, while searching for one thing, I came across another even better thing. As I scoured www.amazon.com for a certain book I was looking for, I hit upon Maria Bruscino Sanchez’s Sweet Maria’s Italian Cookie Tray and what a delightful find it was!

This slim little volume should not fool you, though. It carries more baking wisdom in its little pocket than many books three or four times the size carry. And it’s full full full of the kinds of recipes that you find handwritten on old pieces of paper tucked away in kitchen drawers. Except in this book the recipes actually have identifiable measurements like cups and tablespoons as opposed to “a handful of this” or “two fingers worth of that”.

I didn’t know who Maria Bruscino Sanchez was when I bought the book so I looked her up and found out that she’s a baker with a business of the same name located in Connecticut. Sanchez is the author of three other cookbooks that I was unable to locate because they’re exceptonally hard to find! On a whim, I decided to e-mail her and lo and behold she sent me a lovely e-mail in response informing me that all four of her books will be available in a bound volume in the fall of 2008.

Yes! The cookbook monster is appeased.

In the meantime, I’ve been keeping this book close at hand to leaf through during the few quiet moments that I’ve had over the past month or so. And while I didn’t have time to try a recipe, Mama Cream Puff came to the rescue and made the very first recipe in the book: anginetti.

I asked her to make these because they reminded me very much of a simple lemon cookie that my grandmother would often make. The recipe consists of eggs, milk, lemon extract, sugar, vegetable oil, flour and baking powder. The baked cookies are topped with a glaze of icing sugar, lemon extract and water.

Simple.

And delicious.

Ah, the joys of accidental stumbles! You just never know what treasure you’ll find.

A wonderful weekend to all!

Ciao!

The Cream Puff is back! I had a lovely week in Florida where I spent a few days in Miami followed by a cruise that took me to Key West, Cozumel and then back to Miami.

Towards the end of it, though, all I could think about was coming home and baking! Let the Christmas baking begin!

Before that happens, however, I must clear up a bit of business otherwise known as your homework assignment. I must confess I’m a bit embarrassed. Either I was really tired and really in need of a vacation before I left or I seriously underestimated all of you. I never imagined it would be so easy to figure out that the dessert pictured in my last post was indeed a tiramisù!

After reading Lis’ amazing and funny post about tiramisù wherein she shared her experience of making tiramisù using a recipe I’d given her, I had a serious craving for the stuff. Lis’ mouth-watering photos didn’t help! Since her bringing some to me was out of the question (although that would be my fondest wish … Lis … ), I decided it was time to make it.

It’s not that I don’t like tiramisù, it’s just that I think it’s become a bit of a clichè. And let’s not even get into the atrocities that people commit against this dessert by doing things like making it with fake whipped cream instead of mascarpone.

Shudder.

Anyway, I present to you my family’s tiramisù recipe. The beauty of this particular recipe is that it’s entirely up to you. You can bend it and shape it to suit your own tastes.

As for the homework assignment, you all get an A+, but the A++ goes to Suganya of the beautiful blog Tasty Palettes. Wow, is it a beautiful blog! Congratulations to Suganya and thanks to all of you for handing in your homework.

Now get baking!

Ciao!

Tiramisù
Treasured family recipe.

Note: You will surely find as many variations of the tiramisù recipe as you will find people of Italian background. For my family’s recipe, the main components are espresso, mascarpone, eggs, sugar, ladyfinger cookies, liquor and cocoa. How you marry these ingredients is ultimately up to you. Experiment and find the combination that you like best. This recipe will make one 2-layer tiramisù that will fit into a container that’s about 9 x 13 inches or a bit smaller. Alternatively, you can make individual tiramisùs. For this recipe, I used 16 plastic mini wine glasses.

5 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
1 tub of mascarpone (500 grams), at room temperature
8 tbsp. sugar (5 tbsp. for the cream mixture and 3 tbsp. for the espresso)
2 to 3 cups espresso (it’s best if it’s lukewarm)
2 to 3 tbsp. liquor of your choice (my favourites are brandy or Frangelico)
ladyfinger cookies (you will need about 35 to 40 ladyfinger cookies)
cocoa for dusting

Brew the espresso and then pour it into a large, shallow bowl. Add the 3 tbsp. of sugar and the 2 to 3 tbsp. of liquor and stir. Taste and adjust the flavour (add more liquor or alcohol of you want). Set aside and let cool a bit.

Place the egg yolks and the 5 tbsp. of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. With the paddle attachment, beat at high speed until the eggs have doubled in volume and the mixture is very light in colour (usually 5 to 8 minutes).

Add the mascarpone and beat on medium-high speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy (usually 3 to 4 minutes).

If you have another bowl for your stand mixer, then put the egg whites in that bowl. If not, put the mascarpone mixture into another large bowl and wash the stand mixer bowl very well. Dry it and then put the egg whites in that bowl. Beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Remove one third of the beaten egg whites and add them to the mascarpone mixture. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Add the remainder of the egg whites and gently fold them in.

Begin assembling the tiramisu’ by dipping your ladyfingers in the espresso mixture and creating a layer across the bottom of your container. When dipping the ladyfingers, don’t dip them for more then a few seconds or they will become too soggy.

Spread half the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers and then sprinkle with cocoa.

Repeat with a second layer of ladyfinger cookies and the remainder of the mascarpone mixture. Dust with cocoa once again and then refrigerate. It’s best if you can refrigerate it for at least 4 hours to allow it to set.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: tiramisu

I’m always happy … no wait … make that THRILLED whenever I find someone who is as addicted to cookbooks as I am!

You can imagine how pleased … no wait … make that THRILLED I was Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction introduced herself to me. Not only is she a fellow Italian Canadian, as her blog name would suggest, she is as much in need of a 12-step program for the rehabilitation of a cookbook problem as I am!

During the summer, Liliana and I were e-mailing each other back and forth when the subject of a certain cookbook came up. The cookbook in questions was a new one, scheduled to be out in the fall, by Gina DePalma of Babbo fame.

I first learned about Gina DePalma several years ago when I found a recipe for Cannoli in Food & Wine magazine. The recipe, by DePalma, was the first I’d ever seen from here and I was fascinated to read about her success.

Naturally, Liliana and I circled the publication date on our calendars. As it turns out, it took a bit longer for the book to hit Canadian bookstores so I only recently received my copy of Dolce Italiano, one of the finest examples of cookbooks dedicated to Italian sweets.

If you’re a baker, a dessert lover, or if you have a pulse, you need to go and get this book!

In our excitement, Liliana and I decided that we’d pick a recipe from the book and post about it today. We settled on the recipe for Grappa-Soaked Mini Sponge Cakes because what Italian doesn’t love grappa.

Really.

The recipe was very straightforward and as the recipe notes explain, this is a variation on one of the most classic elements of Italian dessert, pan di spagna.

The grappa syrup was delicious, although the grappa flavour isn’t very strong as most of the alcohol does burn off while the syrup is cooking. The little cakes are just so pretty and everyone enjoyed them with a bit of whipped cream.

I won’t share the recipe because I didn’t adapt it any way. But I strongly encourage you to check this book out if you can. You won’t regret it.

Liliana, thanks for being my partner in this latest cookbook escapade!

Ciao!

Technorati tags: grappa, pan di spagna, cake

I sometimes find myself looking at the calendar in astonishment after I realize how quickly the months slip by. Is it really two months until Christmas?

And is October really almost over (already) without my having written once about my Flavour of the Month, Father Giuseppe Orsini’s Italian Baking Secrets?

Of course I’ve mentioned this cookbook a few times already, but I have yet to actually tell you about it.

Who is Father Giuseppe Orsini? Based on what I can gather from the biographical information in the book, he’s a Roman Catholic priest who has an enormous passion for baking and in particular for Italian baking.

Italian Baking Secrets is a collection of all those handwritten recipes you find stashed away in tins or tucked into books. The book is straightforward and charming in its simplicity. While there are some bread recipes towards the beginning of the book that required multiple steps, most of the recipes are ones that I could imagine my grandmothers making. Just a few ingredients and there you go, the perfect cake or the perfect cookie to dunk in your coffee.

I bought the book after seeing it on a shelf at Toronto’s The Cookbook Store. I didn’t take any time to read through it I just picked it up and walked immediately to the cash register.

Had I actually spent some time looking through the book, I would have noticed a few inconsistencies. For some reason there are a few recipes that are repeated in different sections of the book. And the measurement units used for ingredients are not always consistent. But these minor peculiarities somehow add to the book’s overall effect. It really is like those handwritten recipes scribbled onto bits of paper!

One of the recipes in the book that caught my eye was a recipe for cookies called crumiri. If I close my eyes, I can almost see my little self sitting at a table at my aunt’s house in Italy having breakfast. Our breakfasts in Italy, especially as children, didn’t consist of oatmeal or cereal, but rather huge mugs of hot milk coloured with espresso. Those mugs were accompanied by cookies or bread onto which we would spread butter and homemade jam.

That was breakfast.

My favourite, of course, were the cookies. I remember they’d come in these colourful bags and I would love to read the story of the cookies printed on each package. For some reason, the ones I remember the most are the crumiri.

In my memory, they are golden and crumbly with a not-too-sweet flavour. They taste of vanilla too. But most of all, I remember their shape and texture. The adults around me would say that they are shaped like horseshoes but to me they look like little boomerangs with ridges on them.

In my memory, I wonder what would happen if I actually threw one across the room. Would it boomerang back? But of course I would never do this as I can just imagine the stern look on the face of my aunt …

Memory is an incredible thing. In the wake of my 34th birthday, I laugh at how often my friends and I will joke that our memories are “going”. I will forget grocery lists, what I told my brother yesterday, that 10:00 meeting and my keys.

And yet, I will see a recipe for a cookie and remember the exact texture of that very same cookie when I ate one years and years ago.

I can still remember the taste.

Hard on the heels of that memory, is the realization that I suppose it doesn’t really matter that I sometimes forget the grocery list.

But to forget the memory of my little self eating cookies and slurping warm milk under my aunt’s watchful eye, somehow, that would be unbearable.

Ciao!

Crumiri
From Italian Baking Secrets by Father Giuseppe Orsini.

1-3/4 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar (I like to use vanilla sugar)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla or almond extract (if you’re not using vanilla sugar)
2/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, using a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes. The mixture should be very light in colour.

Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition.

Mix together the flour, salt and cornmeal and add slowly to the butter mixture, with the motor running on low speed. As soon as the flour mixture is added, add the extract (if using).

The cookie dough will be thick. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped tip (3/4 of an inch to an inch in width).

Pipe the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets in whatever design you like. The cookies shouldn’t be longer than 3 or 4 inches and should be spaced 2 inches apart.

Bake until the cookies are golden around the edges, anywhere from 12 to 14 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: crumiri

Good evening, my friends!

There are just a few hours left before the deadline for SHF #35 passes. Get your entries in by midnight tonight. For those of you that may not make the deadline, just let me know and I’ll see if I can’t give you a bit of a Cream Puff reprieve!

I give you my final creation for SHF #35: The Beatiful Fig.

It’s a sweet focaccia topped with fresh figs and walnuts that have been drizzled with Grand Marnier and sprinkled liberally with brown sugar. Once baked, I blessed each fig with a dollop of mascarpone and then drizzled the entire mess with gorgeous honey!

For those of you that have already contributed to SHF #35, I thank you for your brilliance!

Ciao!

Technorati tags: sugar high friday, SHF #35, figs, mascarpone, focaccia

Have you ever looked at a plate of pasta, your very favourite pasta, and thought back to the first moment that you tried it? Or how about the first time you tasted the richness of a tiramisu’ or the crisp bite of a biscotto?

Being born in an Italian family means that I actually have few recollections of the first time I tasted most dishes. I was probably eating pastina (soup with pasta), polpette (meatballs) and amaretti (almond cookies) before I could even talk! Still, though, I do have some memories of the first time I tried a dish. I still remember the first time I tried a pizza baked in a wood-burning oven and I can still taste the crispness of that crust!

Food and memory feature prominently in this post and its thanks to my dear Cath of beautiful blog A Blithe Palate. Several months ago, Cath approached me the opportunity to have a sneak peek at Faith Heller Willinger’s soon-to-be published book, Adventures of an Italian Food Lover.

Faith Heller Willinger is a food writer based in Florence, Italy. American by birth, Willinger married a Tuscan man and settled in Italy, although “settled” isn’t probably quite the right term. Fueled by a burgeoning love of food and wine, Willinger began exploring Italian food with a passion that is to be admired. And she saw Italian food in the unique way that only someone who is new to it can see it. Her experiences are documented in a number of books, most notably Eating in Italy.

Adventures of an Italian Food Lover is a difficult book to describe. When I first received a galley copy, I was deeply curious especially after a conversation with Cath who described it as unlike any cookbook she’d ever seen. In fact, to simply call it a cookbook is grossly unfair.

Willinger’s latest work truly is an adventure. Memory-filled narratives introduce each recipe. The pages of the book are graced with the artwork of Willinger’s sister, Suzanne. And the recipes themselves are both recipe and introduction to a new set of friends for the recipes all originate from people that Willinger has met during her food travels.

Imagine that. Imagine compiling a set of recipes from your friends and your family. How special would that be?

This book is so engaging. I read it from cover to cover in three days, something I’ve never done before with a “cookbook”. I have a feeling that if you could see it, you’d probably do the same!

The main reason behind receiving a copy was preparation for a very exciting event that Cath and I will be hosting based on Adventures of an Italian Food Lover. Within the next month or so, a number of bloggers in this community of ours will be receiving a copy of Willinger’s book and they’ll be charged with the task of choosing a recipe and preparing it for whomever they wish. They’re posts on the book will not be a book review, but rather an account of their experience sharing the dish they made.

For myself, as soon as I saw the recipe for Lucia’s Walnut Cake, I was incredibly drawn to it. First of all because it is so unique and unusual in the way that many Italian sweets are. It’s a “cake” made of egg whites, sugar and walnuts. No flour.

But I was also drawn to the recipe because I could imagine sharing it with my paternal grandmother, Pia. I don’t think I’ve ever really spoken much about my Nonna Pia. I met her only a few times in my life although I was fortunate enough to spend several months with her each time. She was the sort of woman that would put us “modern women” to shame.

She had six children, she was a farmer, she cooked over a fire, she had hands that were stronger than any man’s, she could hike into the hills forever and never get tired, she was intelligent and kind, she could protect her family and find a way to survive with next-to-nothing … she was formidable!

But there are two things that I remember most about my grandmother. I remember her beautiful, long grey hair that she would plait and then tie in a knot. And I remember the simple but delicious food she made. In particular I remember her plum jam and the simple cakes that she baked for us to enjoy with our morning coffee. Nothing fancy, just simple, wholesome food.

And for some reason when I saw the recipe for Lucia’s Walnut Cake, I knew that it would be the sort of cake I could share with my Nonna Pia. It’s something delicious out of almost nothing.

I hope that when Adventures of An Italian Food Lover is published in July, you’ll pick up a copy and meet all of Willinger’s charming friends. And I also hope that you’ll stay tuned for the blog event based on the book.

In the meantime, I hope you find a new food adventure every day!

Ciao!

You can read Cath’s post here.

Technorati tags: faith heller willinger, italy, italian food, lucia’s walnut cake

After the excitement of baking for a bridal shower at the beginning of May, I could not have possibly imagined what was to happen next. I was barely over the high of baking (and being paid for it) when I had what I consider to be an opportunity of a lifetime.

I had lunch with Dorie Greenspan.

Dorie is the author of many incredible cookbooks including Baking with Julia, Paris Sweets and the recently pubished Baking: From My Home to Yours. In April, Dorie was awarded the James Beard Foundation award in the Baking and Dessert category, and deservedly so.

Dorie was in Toronto for the Santé: The Bloor-Yorkville Wine Festival. As soon as Dorie e-mailed me to let me know that she’d be in town, I knew I had to make time to meet with her.

After a few e-mails, we agreed to meet at the Avenue bar and lounge in the Four Seasons Hotel for lunch. I arrived early and chose a table by the window. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I fidgeted in the chair and kept fussing with my top. I looked at the menu. I looked outside. I tried to imagine what it would be like saying hello to Dorie.

And then there she was. And the very first thing she did was give me a huge hug. Within seconds, I felt like I’d known Dorie forever. She is as sweet and charming in person as she is in her cookbooks.

Over the course of almost two hours, we talked about everything from living in Paris to creating recipes. With a wonderful sense of humour, Dorie imparted so much wonderful advice and encouragement. I told her about the Daring Bakers and how much baking meant to me.

I find myself at a point in my baking where I’m trying to figure out how to create recipes of my own, but I don’t want to fail. Dorie very wisely pointed out that it’s okay to try something and chuck it if it doesn’t work out. It was a liberating piece of advice! I was amazed by Dorie. Her energy and her presence were infectious.

Best of all, Dorie signed my copy of Paris Sweets, a book that I hold most dear!

But before I knew it, I had to return to work. I would have loved to have spent the rest of the afternoon with Dorie and walked over to The Cookbook Store. Gracious as ever, Dorie sent me on my way with another hug and a smile.

As I made my way back to work, I could hardly believe that I’d just had lunch with Dorie Greenspan. When I got back to work, a number of my colleagues were eagerly awaiting the details as I’d told them about the lunch. I got to relive it all and it was no less exciting and unbelievable.

In the days that followed, as I reflected on Dorie’s words, I had this overwhelming urge to bake for her. That may sound silly, but baking is the best way I know to share my appreciation. I have a little theory that we bakers share a generosity gene and I think Dorie proves that. Her selflessness, her willingness to share what she knows and give advice, I think it’s all because of that little bit of baking DNA!

For Dorie, I decided to bake one of my most favourite little treats. They’re called Pasticcioni (plump pastries) and are from Viana La Place’s dear, sweet cookbook, La Bella Cucina. They’re plump little cakes filled with a dollop of pastry cream and baked. While the original recipe advises to eat them while warm or the day that they’re baked, I actually like them if they’re a few days old. They’re lovely dipped in espresso and then bitten into to find the pastry secret inside. Sometimes, I also like to tuck a perfect blueberry or raspberry inside each one as a little treat.

Technorat tags: dorie greenspan, paris sweets

During the winter, I wrote a post about rice pudding and how I find it one of the most comforting dishes imaginable. A mere spoonful of rice pudding will cure whatever ails me and I suspect that it’s the same for so many other who enjoy this dish.

For this reason, as I looked through Jamie Oliver’s beautiful cookbook, Jamie’s Italy, I could not help but be drawn to the recipe for Torta di Riso. Imagine a rice pudding or risotto baked in a tart shell and you will begin to see what Torta di Riso is. I’ve seen recipes for rice cakes as dessert before, but I’d never seen a recipe for rice baked in a tart shell. And of course I knew right away that I’d have to try it.

What I did not know, nor could I have foreseen, was how quickly April would fly by! While I had initially resolved to try so many recipes for Jamie’s Italy, the fact is I’ve only been able to try a handful. But no matter. That handful has more than convinced me of the beauty and worthiness of this cookbook.

Never mind the gorgeous photos, the book is filled with recipes that sing of Italy and all that is great about Italian food. While many of the recipes were not possible for me to try as at this time of year we simply don’t have access to the fresh fruits and vegetables the recipes called for, I already have a list as long as my arm of dishes that I look forward to trying in the summer when we are overwhelmed by fresh produce from our gardens.

I remember watching Jamie Oliver’s first programs on The Food Network. It’s interesting to see how this chef has grown and matured. Jamie’s Italy is a very clear sign of that growth. While many would look at the recipes and call them simple or plain, I believe that he has succeeded in capturing the essence of some of the best dishes representing the various regions he visited.

Italian food is so varied that it’s impossible to encapsulate regional cooking in one book. But with Jamie’s Italy, Oliver features some of the most beautiful and worthy dishes out there. And of course the photos are tremendous. It’s not just the food that stars in the photography, but it’s also the people.

I wanted to end April, and my focus on Jamie’s Italy as the Flavour of the Month, on a very high note and I’m happy to say that the Torta di Riso accomplishes that. Like so many of Jamie’s recipes this one is open to improvisation. Essentially you’re making a sweet risotto that you partially cook and then pour into a par-baked tart shell. After baking until firm, you end up with a very unique Italian treat - a firm rice filling in a buttery crust.

I followed this recipe to the letter and did not make any variations so I won’t post the recipe. However, I invite you to pick up a copy of Jamie’s Italy and see firsthand that no matter where you are, Italy is close at hand.

Ciao!

Technorati tags:torta di riso, jamie oliver

One of the (few) advantages of being late for a food blog event is that you get to enjoy the efforts of other food bloggers long before you have to worry about your own post. I am glad to see that the world is indeed in love with what I like to refer to as Hazelnut Gold, otherwise known as Nutella.

As for my own post, let’s just say that I’m fashionably late for World Nutella Day hosted by Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Shelley of At Home in Rome. Better late than never is what I say.

Having read so many of the entries about World Nutella Day, I think we’ve pretty much covered the history/origins/significance of Nutella to food bloggers and the world at large. There is, however, one crucial bit of Nutella lore that has not been covered.

It is the age-old Nutella question:  do you spread with a knife or a spoon?

There are very few things that will get me as worked up as this little query. And while I realize that a knife is featured oh-so-prominently on the label of Nutella jars, I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that Nutella is to be spread with a spoon.

Never, ever use a knife! Never! The only reason there’s a knife on the label is that on the particular day the photo was taken, there were no spoons. Perhaps it was during the year of the Great Italian Spoon Shortage. I don’t know. What I do know, is that to use a knife to spread Nutella, is to sink a knife deep into the heart of Cream Puff.

And why would you want to hurt Cream Puff?

Nutella should always be spread with a spoon. Using a knife is an indication of stinginess of spirit. I mean how much Nutella can you possibly pile on to the thin blade of a knife?

A spoon is a different story. You can sink it deeply into the jar and with a gentle twist of the wrist you can scoop up a glorious creamy mound of the stuff. Then, slowly, you bring the spoon to a waiting slice of bread. You begin by smearing on as much of the Nutella as you can. Of course some of it will be caught in the spoon’s gentle indentation.

This brings me to what I call the Moment of Nutella Thrill, for now you have a choice. You can either pop the spoon in  your mouth and enjoy the appetizer to your Nutella sandwich. Or, you can use the corner of the bread to scoop out the bit of Nutella that remains in the spoon. Either way, you’ll feel that little thrill as the moment of Nutella consumption is near.

So please, put away the knives and embrace the spoons.

Happy belated World Nutella Day!

Ciao!

Technorati tags:  nutella, world nutella day

Today is the great Julia Child’s birthday! To be honest, I probably would not have known that had it not been for Lisa of Champaign Taste who sent me an e-mail several weeks ago, inviting me to participate in an event to mark this occasion.

Like countless others, I am a fan of Julia’s and greatly respect the impact that she’s had on the world of food. I doubt there are many cooks or chefs who are as universally recognizable as Julia Child.

To be very honest, my history with Julia does not go back very far. As a child, my only awareness of her relates to some vague memories of a blooper show that showed her bungling a chicken all over the place. I seem to recall an uncle trying to imitate her distinctive voice, but beyond that, there wasn’t much Julia Child in my life while I was growing up.

The seeds of my respect for Julia were planted about five years ago, when my mother presented me with a copy of Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. At the time, the Overburdened Bookshelf didn’t even exist and my cookbook collection consisted of a handful of cherished items. The first time I looked through the book, I was smitten.

Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home was quickly followed by Baking with Julia, a book that to this day is a constant source of inspiration and even comfort (nothing makes you feel better on a rainy day than looking through this book). And shortly after, I had the good fortune to see a few episodes of Julia’s wonderful "Cooking with Master Chefs" series on PBS. How could you not love that delightful woman in her charming little kitchen, proving time and time again that the act of preparing food fulfills some of our most basic human needs?! Joy, desire, satisfaction, warmth, fun … it can all be had in the kitchen.

I have not tried a significant number of Julia’s recipes, but at this time of year, and for this occasion, I decided to try the recipe for Cantuccini from Baking with Julia. While we are only a little more than halfway through summer, the fact is that the start of school is only a few weeks away. While my school days are long behind me, it’s hard not to experience that familiar feeling in the pit of your stomach as the first day of school approaches.

As a child, school day mornings all began the same way:  with a mug of warm milk coloured with a few drops of espresso and Italian cookies. Italian children everywhere are introduced early to milk and coffee (latte e cafè in Italian). The union of milk and coffee, blessed with cookies for dunking, is a tradition in Italian homes both in and out of Italy. I chose cantuccini because they are exactly the type of cookie we’d have in the morning. Drier than biscotti, cantuccini are not very sweet and are perfect for dunking.

In fact, I’m going to make myself a mug of milk and espresso, grab a handful of cantuccini and leaf through Baking with Julia. And as always, I will be amazed.

Ciao!

Cantuccini

Adapted from Baking with Julia by Julia Child.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsps. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1-1/2 cups whole, blanched almonds
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir. Add the almonds and mix well.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be dry.
5. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and begin gathering it together. Knead it for a few minutes and you will see that it will slowly come together into a firm dough. Keep some flour handy in case it sticks.
6. Divide the dough in half and shape it into two 12-inch logs. Transfer the logs to a baking sheet lined with parchment.
7. Bake for 30 minutes. The logs will rise a bit and will be golden and lightly brown on the bottom.
8. Transfer the logs to a wire rack and let cool completely.
9. Once cool, slice the logs, on the diagonal, into quarter-inch slices. Lay the slices, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
10. Bake for an additional 10 or 15 minutes, or until the cantuccini are dry and lightly golden.
11. Let cool completely. Cantuccini can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.
12. Enjoy!

Technorati tags: cantuccini, julia child

Lest I be accused of being a big baby, I will not go on (and endlessly on) about how hot and humid this summer has been. Suffice it to say it’s all this Cream Puff can do to keep her pâte à choux from deflating and her pastry cream filling from just melting away. Sarah of The Delicious Life could not possibly have made a better choice for theme for this month’s edition of Sugar High Friday. “Ice ice baby” indeed!

While I initially thought about making an ice cream dish so that I could use my brand spanking new ice cream maker, circumstances ruled in favour of a dish that required no stove or small appliances. Even the slight noise from an ice cream maker is enough to put us all on edge in this weather. Instead, I opted for the simplest and perhaps most refreshing of sweets: the granita.

Granita is an Italian concoction that is traditionally associated with Sicily, but that can be found throughout Italy. While slightly more complicated recipes for granita can call for the use of an ice cream maker, the homiest version involves some water, some sugar, the flavour of your choice and your kitchen freezer. I must admit though that while my thoughts had been traveling in the general direction of a granita for this round of SHF, I did not fully make this decision until I happened to come across a recipe for a Meyer Lemon Granita in Viana La Place’s La Cucina Bella.

A delightful book, La Cucina Bella is a volume that has come to represent all of what I love best in my favourite cookbooks. It’s part cookbook, part memoir, part social commentary, part travel book and as the title would suggest, it has its eye on the beautiful cuisine of Italy.

La Place includes a recipe for a granita made with Meyer Lemons, which she says more closely mimic the taste of Italian lemons than your average, humble supermarket variety. While I could have gone out in search of Meyer Lemons as I do know a few places in Toronto that sell them, excuse my ineloquence, but it’s just too freakin’ hot. Instead, I followed La Place’s recommendation, used regular lemons and increased the sugar slightly to accommodate for the more tarty flavour.

The key to a successful granita is to ensure that before you start, your sugar is fully dissolved in the water. If it isn’t, the flavour of the granita will be uneven. Also, you must stir the granita as directed by the recipe. I stirred mine every half hour on the half hour! Of course part of this diligence was likely due to the fact that I enjoyed standing with the freezer door open and the cold air hitting my face but that’s neither here nor there.

La Place mentions in her book that granita is traditionally eaten with brioche and can even be enjoyed for breakfast on particularly hot mornings. While I am always interested in the practice of consuming brioche, regardless of time of day, I wanted something a bit more splashy so that I could serve my granita for dessert. I resorted to an old standby: strawberries stuffed with sweetened mascarpone.

Basically you take the best strawberries you can find, wash them and dry them and carefully split them open, being sure not to cut them all the way through. In a small bowl, whip together some mascarpone (at room temperature) with a bit of sugar (to taste) and lemon zest. Because I look for every opportunity to practice my piping skills, I piped the mascarpone filling into the strawberries. But you can just as easily spoon it in. For added effect, dip your strawberries in sugar (or vanilla sugar if you have it) just before stuffing them.

Okay. You know what. I have to go now. I seem to have developed a massive craving for granita al limone with mascarpone-stuffed strawberries.

Stay cool, people. Stay cool.

Ciao!

Granita al Limone con Fragole Ripiene di Mascarpone (Lemon Granita with Mascarpone-Stuffed Strawberries)

Adapted from La Cucina Bella by Viana La Place.

For the granita:

• 3 cups spring water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice

1. In a measuring cup, combine 1 cup of water with the sugar. Stir to dissolve.
2. In a metal pan large enough to accommodate the liquid, combine the sugar water with the remaining two cups of water and the lemon juice. Mix well and put in the freezer.
3. Every 30 minutes, stir the mixture with a fork. As the ice crystals form, you will have to use the fork to break up the granita.
4. Once it is completely frozen and you have a pan full of ice crystals, spoon the granita into a container with a tight fitting lid. This will keep in the freezer for several days.

For the strawberries:

• 1 cup mascarpone, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 6 to 8 strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and split crosswise (not all the way through)

1. In a bowl, combine the mascarpone, vanilla sugar and lemon zest until smooth.
2. Place the mascarpone cream in a piping bag fitted with a star tip, or use a spoon to fill the strawberries.
3. Dip each strawberry in extra vanilla sugar.
4. Gently open each strawberry and either pipe or spoon in the cream.
5. Serve with the lemon granita.
6. Enjoy!

Note:  Check out the incredible Ilva’s post for SHF #21 on her blog, Lucullian Delights. She made granita al caffe e cardamomo, which is delightful indeed!

Technorati tags:  sugar high friday, SHF, lemon, granita, strawberries, mascarpone

When I was a little girl, I loved going to big Italian weddings for two reasons. The first was the chance to see the bride. I was a timid child, so I was wary of approaching the bride in her all her white tulle glory, yet the sight of her was always special.

But the second reason, and the one that was far more exciting, was the chance to receive and open the bomboniera, the customary gift handed out by the bridal couple. It’s not that I cared so much about the gift, it’s that I wanted the chance to get at the confetti that, by tradition, had to accompany the bomboniera.

Confetti are sugar-coated almonds. Italians use them to mark special occasions from baptisms to weddings to anniversaries. But the confetti that accompany bomboniere are certainly the most special. The sugar-coating is usually white in colour and the confetti are wrapped in tulle, usually in a small sac. The confetti must always be odd in number in order to ensure that the marriage is indivisible. It is most common to receive five confetti, which represent love, fidelity, longevity, fertility and happiness.

Confetti are perhaps the best symbol of how important almonds are to the traditions and cuisine of Italy, in particular Southern Italy where the almond tree abounds. While it’s unclear where the almond originated, it’s believed that the almond is native to Asia or Africa. Besides Italy, almonds are cultivated in many countries including Greece, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the United States, where the major almond producer is California.

Rich in Vitamin E, the almond is part of the rose family (Rosaceae) and is closely related to the peach. There are two types of almonds, bitter and sweet. While sweet almonds are more widely-consumed, bitter almonds are valued for their essential oils. However, bitter almonds can be dangerous because they contain prussic acid, which, if consumed in large enough quantity, can be lethal. Prussic acid is destroyed when almonds are heated prior to being used for such purposes as the extraction of their oils.

Almonds lay claim to an important role in my family’s baking. The most tangible example of this would be amaretti. For those of you who have never come across amaretti, they are cookies made of either ground almonds or almond paste. Their name means "little" and "bitter", in reference to their small size and to the bitterness of the almonds. For every Italian family that you meet, you will undoubtedly come across a different version of amaretti. Everyone has their favourite favourite version and everyone swears that their amaretti are the best.

My family is no exception. We have a collection of amaretti recipes, all of which make appearances during special occasions and holidays. My favourite amaretti, however, are the ones my mother makes most often. The recipe comes from her mother, who in turn got the recipe from a close family friend. While many people in my family circle make these cookies, none are superior to my mother’s.

These particular amaretti are made with ground almonds, sugar and cocoa, which is not a common addition to a recipe for amaretti. These cookies are a bit larger than your average amaretti, although you can make them smaller if you like. They are the type of cookie that improves with age. Freshly baked, they are soft, chewy and fragrant. As the days pass, the amaretti harden slightly and the almond flavour becomes more assertive. These are pretty cookies that never look out of place on a dessert plate. And best of all, they will keep for a long time (at least a week), which means you can enjoy them with a cup of espresso over the course of many afternoons.

As with all treasured family recipes, my mother’s amaretti have become so much more than just a special cookie. They have marked so many of my family’s milestones. But most importantly, they’re from my mother.

And they are so dear to my heart.

Ciao!

My Mother’s Amaretti

Treasured family recipe.

• 1-1/2 pounds almonds, finely ground (plus extra whole almonds to garnish cookies)
• 2 cups granulated sugar (plus 1 cup extra sugar to roll the cookies in)
• 1-1/2 tbsp. cocoa
• 4 eggs
• 3 tbsp. almond extract

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Position your oven racks so that one rack is at the bottom of the oven and the other rack is in the middle of the oven; line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine ground almonds, sugar and cocoa.
4. Add eggs and almond extract and mix until well combined.
5. Using a tablespoon or your hands, scoop out enough of the almond mixture to form a ball that is roughly 1-1/2 to 2 inches in size.
6. Roll each ball in the 1 cup of extra granulated sugar and place on cookie sheet.
7. Use extra whole almonds as garnish by placing one almond in the centre of each cookie.
8. Bake cookies on lower rack for 10 minutes and then move to middle rack for an additional five minutes.
9. Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Once cool, store cookies at room temperature in an airtight container. Cookies will keep for up 10 days.
11. Enjoy!

Note:  This recipe will yield anywhere from 50 to 70 cookies, depending on the size of the cookies.

Technorati Tags:  almonds, cookies

In addition to my cookbook habit, I seem to have developed a kitchen gadget habit. You name it and I’m sure it’s sitting in a corner of my kitchen somewhere. But I justify my habit with the knowledge that I definitely put my gadgets to good use. Whether it’s the panini press or the waffle maker, I like my electronics.

My interest in gadgets notwithstanding, I am a strong supporter of preparing traditional foods with traditional tools. One of the traditional items that I have always wanted, is a pizzelle iron. Pizzelle are round, sweet wafers that are made from a batter that is cooked in an iron, similar to a waffle maker. The batter for pizzelle is usually made of eggs, sugar, butter and flour. Traditionally, Italians flavour pizzelle batter with anise, however, I have tasted many variations that include vanilla, lemon zest and even chocolate.

Prior to the introduction of electric pizzelle makers, people used pizzelle irons to make these cookies. A pizzelle iron was a type of double pan or skillet, usually made of cast iron, used over an open flame. For some reason, this cooking instrument has always intrigued me. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate one. I’ve visited almost all of the old Italian neighbourhoods in Toronto and scoured the tiny shops that specialized in this type of equipment, but to no avail.

I quickly realized that if I ever wanted to get down to making pizzelle, I would have to buy a modern pizzelle iron. There are a number of companies that produce these irons, recognizing the popularity of pizzelle. They include Cuisinart and VillaWare. Most irons are stamped with a snowflake or floral motif. However, traditional pizzelle makers often had very intricate designs and some families even had irons with their own family crests stamped on them.

The pizzelle maker that I settled on is the Cuisinart model. Affordable and easy-to-use, the iron has a non-stick surface which performed excellently during my first pizzelle trial. While I did not use cooking spray on the iron surface (many of the cookbooks I consulted recommended using cooking spray, which I am adamantly opposed to), I did brush the surface with the tiniest bit of vegetable oil just to be extra sure that my pizzelle did not stick to the iron. I was not disappointed!

Now, for a recipe. The first time I used the pizzelle iron I followed the recipe that came with the unit. It was a typical pizzelle recipe calling for eggs and sugar to beaten together. That was followed by the addition of melted butter and then flour. I flavoured the pizzelle with vanilla (my personal favourite). Once the batter was ready, I began making the pizzelle and I found the process very simple. While it did take a few tries to get the exact amount of batter for each pizzella right, after a few I got the hang of it.

But for this particular post, I wanted to make something special. I remembered that in my copy of The Good Cookie (the Flavour of the Month for January 2006), I had seen a recipe for Stroopwafels. What are Stroopwafels you ask? Well Stroopwafels are a cookie of Dutch origin that are made of two waffle-like disks that are sandwiched together with a filling, usually caramel. As Tish Boyle explains in The Good Cookie, Stroopwafels were often served on top of a hot cup of coffee so that the heat of the coffee would warm the caramel filling. Don’t you just love the Dutch!

Tish’s recipe for Stroopwafels calls for making pizzelle for the cookie part. Her recipe is unique in that it uses cinnamon as flavouring for the pizzelle. Intrigued, I decided to give it a try. The pizzelle batter, other than the cinnamon, was very similar to the recipe that came with my pizzelle iron. It produced a thick batter that was easy to scoop onto the iron, but not too thick that the pizzelle came out cake-like. They were nicely crisp, without being brittle.

Once the pizzelle were done, I went on to the caramel filling. Unfortunately, caramel is something that I need to work on. I have a tendency to look away while the caramel is cooking and this has resulted in several experiences of dealing with burnt caramel. It’s not fun … believe me!

While I didn’t burn the caramel, it darkened a bit too much for my tastes. I prefer my caramel on the lighter side. While it tasted good, I wish I would have removed it from the heat just a few seconds sooner. Often those few seconds can make all the difference when making caramel. Nevertheless, I let the caramel filling cool and began making my Stroopwafels. The recipe indicated that the filling should be spooned onto one pizzella and then topped with another pizzella. But what’s the fun of making caramel if you can’t drizzle it on and watch it fall in luxurious blobs??? That’s what I did. I made a complete and total mess, but oh what fun!

Once complete, I brewed my favourite coffee, poured myself some using my very favourite coffee cup and placed a Stroopwafel on top. And then I sat back and watched the heat of the coffee and the caramel work their magic.

Ciao!

Stroopwafels

Adapted from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle.

For the pizzelle:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (The original recipe calls for 1-3/4 cups of flour but I increased the amount of flour because I used extra large eggs instead of large eggs.)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (The original recipe calls for 1 teaspoon but I actually ran out. In future I don’t think I’ll use cinnamon again. While I love cinnamon, I prefer pizzelle with a strong vanilla flavour.)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 extra large eggs (The original recipe calls for 3 large eggs, however, I only had extra large eggs. If you use large eggs, reduce the amount of flour by a 1/4 cup.)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of melted, unsalted butter that has been cooled
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt).
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the eggs for 1 minute. Add the sugar and mix for 2 to 3 minutes, or until they are light and a pale yellow colour.
3. Add the cooled, melted butter and the vanilla extract and mix for 1 minute.
4. Add the flour. Mix on low-speed until just combined. Don’t over mix the batter.
5. Heat the pizzelle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (Brush the iron surface with some vegetable oil. Even If your iron is non-stick, follow this step to ensure that your pizzelle don’t stick to the iron.)
6. Spoon a rounded tablespoonful of batter into the centre of each pizzella mold. Close the lid and cook according to manufacturer’s instructions. (With my pizzelle iron, the first few batches of pizzelle took 45 seconds to 1 minute to cook. Once the iron got going, my pizzelle were done in about 30 seconds.)
7. Transfer the pizzelle to a wire rack to cool before making the Stroopwafels.

For the caramel filling:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick), unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons of heavy cream

1. In a heavy saucepan, combine the granulated sugar and water. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Make sure you stir constantly!!! This should take several minutes.
2. Once the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and raise the heat to high. You may want to have a brush and cup of water handy to brush down the sides of the pan. This helps to prevent crystallization along the sides of the saucepan.
3. After a few minutes, you’ll begin to notice that the sugar mixture is slowly changing colour. It will start to turn a pale golden colour and then very soon, it will darken. Once the caramel turns a deep amber colour, remove the caramel from the heat and very carefully add the butter and cream. (If like me, you don’t like your caramel very dark, then remove the caramel from the heat before it’s a deep amber.) Stir until smooth.
4. Let the caramel sit for 10 minutes or so to cool down.
5. Once you’re ready to assemble the Stroopwafels, take one pizzella and scoop about 2 to 3 teaspoons of caramel filling onto the centre. Take another pizzella and place on top. Continue until you have used all the pizzelle. (You may have caramel filling left over which you can use to drizzle over ice cream … yum!)

Note:  You may have noticed that I sometimes refer to "pizzella" and "pizzelle" in my post. "Pizzella" is the singular form of the workd "pizzelle". Click here for more information on pizzelle.  You can use any filling you like when making "pizzelle" sandwiches. I also like to use lemon curd and of course, Nutella!

Dreska of Little Fancies asked me a great question after I put this post up. What’s the difference between a Stroopwafel and a Pizzella? As Jenny of de Arte Coquinaria pointed out, the texture of a Stroopwafel is very different from that of a Pizzella. Based on what I read, Stroopwafels seem to be thicker than Pizzelle. They are more like waffles, whereas Pizzelle are more like a crispy wafer. Some Stroopwafel recipes also include yeast, which you would never add to a Pizzelle batter. You can read about the history of Stroopwafels and see a sample recipe here.