The Italian word for sweet is dolce.

While the word is used to describe pastries and dessert, it’s also used as a form of endearment.

Sei dolce means you are sweet!

Blogging has many rewards including the opportunity to express a shared passion, in my case baking.

But one of the rewards of blogging that I would never have imagined when I started my blog, way back in 2005, is the opportunity to meet people that I would have otherwise never have met before.

This past week I met up with a lovely (very dolce) woman who had contacted me about the subject that is near and dear to the hearts of all cooks and bakers: cooking equipment. A friendly e-mail about corzetti stamps turned into an e-mail exchange that turned into a meeting over coffee and the realization that the world is actually a small place full of kindred spirits.

It was such a pleasure to meet my new friend and I just wanted to say thank you very publically. I also wanted to highlight one of the many shared pleasures my new friend and I have: Rosetta Costantino’s Calabria from Scratch.

This beautiful blog is an homage to the cuisine and customs of Calabria. Since my mother is Calabrese, I loved Rosetta’s blog from the first and am really looking forward to her upcoming cookbook.

One of Rosetta’s recent posts feature an Italian dolce called Bocconotti (little mouthfuls). While I have heard of Bocconotti, I never realized that there was a version of the cookie attached to Calabrian sweets. I asked my mom if she knew of these cookie and she wasn’t familiar with them.

My new friend also told me that she hadn’t heard of them before (in relation to Calabrian baking) but that she was on a quest to discover a recipe that would recreate the Bocconotti that a family member of hers used to make.

In the spirit of adventure, my mom and I decided to try these cookies one Sunday afternoon and the result was quite nice. Not only did I get to bake with my mom but we turned out some cookies that were very good.

While I don’t consider these a traditional family cookie, I really enjoyed trying them. It was a reminder of something that I sometimes forget when it comes to blogging: my blog is about baking.

I started my blog because I love to bake. Because I love dolci. While my blog is an avenue for many pursuits, it makes me happiest when I’m baking something sweet.

I want to thank my new friend for meeting up with me. I’m looking forward to many dolci adventures!

Ciao!

You can find the recipe for Bocconotti Calabresi here.

I have been fortunate enough to have a few brushes with the pastry world.

I have had the tremendous honour of having lunch with Dorie Greenspan and many, many, many years ago, shortly after completing my university degree and enrolling in a publishing certificate program, I had the opportunity to talk to Regan Daley.

For about 30 seconds.

I was working on an internship with a publishing company and it was around the time that In The Sweet Kitchen, Regan Daley’s tremendous baking book, was being produced.

I no longer remember the circumstances, but I do remember being asked to call her to confirm a few details.

I believe the entire conversation lasted about 30 seconds. Or at least I was so nervous that it seemed like 30 seconds.

What I do remember was how sweet Ms. Daley was, especially when talking to a most nervous intern fresh out of school.

When In The Sweet Kitchen was published, I wanted it immediately. Strangely, though, over the years I have never picked up a copy. Do not take that as a sign of the book’s merits.

This is a tremendous baking book. It’s thorough, detailed and innovative without being intimidating.

What is particularly unique about the book is that the recipes don’t actually begin until more than halfway through. The first half of the book is an exhaustive look at everything from ingredients to baking methods.

I don’t care if you’ve never turned your oven on in your entire life, there is no way that you cannot come away from this book with a basic understanding of baking and more importantly, inspiration to start baking.

The recipes themselves are gems. Daley doesn’t go for the run-of-the-mill recipes but rather builds the recipe chapters with some really interesting recipes that are destined to become favourites.

The recipes are meticulous and the head notes to the recipes are both informative and often entertaining.

Once again, had I all the time in the world I probably would have baked my way through this book.

Instead, I settled on shortbread.

But not just any shortbread. Butter-Toffee Crunch Shortbread.

In the recipe directions, Daley writes, “I should warn you, at this point, that this dough now smells better than any cookie dough you have ever experienced. Restrain yourself …”.

She’s not kidding, people.

I have to confess that I was in very short supply of retraint and ate a significant portion of this dough. Raw.

These were quite simply the best shortbread cookies I have ever eaten or baked. And then eaten.

For good measure, I thought I should try another recipe and I settled on The Ultimate Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies only because I happened to have a bag of chocolate chunks lying around.

I can confirm that the cookies were the ultimate, were definitely soft and were also chewy.

Another winner.

If you already own In The Sweet Kitchen, then you know the joys this book has to offer.

If you don’t own it, what are you waiting for?

Ciao!

In the moments when baking seems most impossible, I think of cookies and I smile.

That’s because I know that as soon as I can get back to baking, I will be baking cookies.

Is there anything more perfect in baking then a warm cookie, fresh out of the oven?

How about a heart-shaped warm cookie, fresh out of the oven, smothered in creamy goodness and then sandwiched with another heart-shaped cookie?

Come on! You can’t resist that. Not even the most hardened soul could be immune to that kind of baking firepower.

As I ease my way back into baking after a prolonged (for me) period away from the kitchen, I give myself over to the will of the baking fairies who clearly wanted me to bake these cookies.

They’re from Nigella Lawson’s Feast: Food to Celebrate Life. The baking fairies had their way with me on this one.

Not a day after I found myself pondering what to do with a mostly full canister of Bird’s Custard Powder (left over from this Daring Bakers’ challenge), I happened to be flipping through Nigella’s book and came across a recipe for Custard Cream Hearts which uses, you guessed it, Bird’s Custard Powder in both the cookie and the cream filling.

I bow to the wisdom of the baking fairies.

I went into the kitchen and engaged in the beautiful act of baking cookies.

I mixed and rolled and cut out and baked and mixed some more and filled and sandwiched and ate.

And I smiled.

Ciao!

Butter Cookies with Custard Cream à la Nigella
Based on a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s Feast: Food to Celebrate Life.

Note: I used a roughly 2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter and was able to get about 20 sandwich cookies out of this recipe (that means I made about 40 heart-shaped cookies). I altered the original recipe by making it more of a butter cookie and adding some cinnamon for flavour. Store the cookies in an airtight container. They should keep for a few days.

For the cookies:

1-½ cups all-purpose flour (you will need extra flour to roll out the cookies)
3 tablespoons Bird’s Custard Powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 tablespoon whole milk (you may need a bit more)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put all of the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the flour mixture. Pulse 15 to 20 times, or until the butter has been cut into the flour mixture so that it looks crumbly.

Mix the egg and milk together in a small bowl.

With the processor running, slowly drizzle in the egg/milk mixture until a dough forms around the blade of the processor. You may not need to use all of the liquid. If you use all the liquid and the dough is still dry and won’t come together, drizzle in a tablespon or so of extra milk.

Once the ball of dough has formed, stop the processor and remove the dough. Shape it into a round disk and then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour (you can refrigerate it for up to a day).

Once the dough has chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and roll it out on a floured surface. You can roll it out to whatever thickness you like. I prefer thicker cookies because they remain a bit more tender after baking.

After rolling our your dough, begin cutting out cookies and transferring them to the baking sheet.

Bake the cookies until golden (I rolled my cookies out to about a 1/4 inch thickness and baked them for about 18 minutes). Once baked, remove the cookies from the oven and let cool for about five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the cream filling:

1 tablespoon Bird’s Custard Powder
¾ cup icing sugar
¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temperaute
Hot water (you’ll need a bit to help cream the mixture together)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

You can make the filling in a bowl using a wooden spoon or with an electric mixer.

Place the custard powder and icing sugar in a bowl and mix. Add the soft butter and using a wooden spoon mash it into the powder/sugar mixture a bit.

Add a few tablespoons of hot water to loosen the mixture. Continue beating with the wooden spoon.

If it’s too dry and not creamy, add a few more tablespoons of hot water and keep beating with the wooden spoon. Continue doing this until you have a creamy and light mixture.

Add the vanilla extract and cinnamon and mix well.

To assemble the cookie:

Take one heart cookie and spread about a teaspoon of cream filling on one side. Take another heart cookie place on top of the cream filling to form a sandwich.

Enjoy!

I can’t believe we’ve arrived at the last Magazine Mondays entry for 2009! Where did the time go?

I have to thank everyone that has participated in Magazine Mondays over the past year. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m happy to say my magazine pile has gotten (marginally) smaller over the past year. Hope the same goes for you!

While I didn’t do a huge amount of baking this holiday season, I baked a few of my old standbys and I did manage to try one or two new recipes including these lovely Linzer Cookies from the December 2002 issue of Food & Wine.

I switched the recipe up a bit by using a raspberry jam for the filling rather than making my own as the recipe instructs (although I would like to try that one day).

The cookies were pretty, festive and delicious.

This will be the last Magazine Mondays entry for 2009 and the first one for 2010 will not happen until January 11 as I’ll be on vacation for the first week of January.

I hope you’ll join me for an edition of MM at some point in the new year!

Here’s who joined me this week:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Apple Raisin Bars from an old issue of Family Circle.

Carrie of Deliciously Organic made Chocolate Caramel Bars from Martha Stewart Living.

Jennifer of Daydreams of Baking made Chocolate Nut Cookies from Women’s Day.

Poppyseed of Poppyseeds and Tiger Lilies made Chicken Kiev from Gourmet.

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle from Gourmet.

Have a wonderful last week of 2009, everyone!

Ciao!

Christmas looks like cookies.

Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of cookies.

All made with love and hope and warmth.

Christmas looks bright and beautiful.

It’s almost here …

Ciao!

These amazing cookies are called Buttered Rum Meltaways and they are by far the best new cookie that I’ve tried this Christmas season. Hope you try them too!

And on the twelfth day of the 12 Days of Cookbooks, I give you The Happy Baker by Erin Bolger.

One of my frequent lunch-time treats during the workday is to walk up to Yonge and Yorkville and stop in at The Cookbook Store, Toronto’s best store.

Admittedly, I try not to do this too often as the trip inevitably ends with yet another cookbook purchase.

I am weak. I know.

Earlier in the year, on one such lunch-time foray, I came across a book called “The Happy Baker” and my first thought was, “Well … yeah! Who isn’t happy baking?!”

I picked up the book and was instantly smitten.

Written by Erin Bolger, it’s a funny, quirky and so-cute look at the sweets that we fall in love with through life. Erin very amusingly pairs the delicious recipes in her book with stories of growing up, dating and becoming a woman.

It’s all very sweet. And it just made me laugh and it made me happy and it made me want to bake, all at the same time.

I wish I could have tried more of the recipes in the time that I’ve had the book but I did try two: Best Friends Forever, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Better Late Than Never Peanut Butter Crispy Cups. Both treats were an enormous hit.

I actually added some peanut butter to the chocolate chip cookies and they worked beautifully.

But I really believe that half the fun of this book and the recipes is just sitting with it in the kitchen and reading the stories while you decide what to try.

I loved it all.

Hope you take a look at it!

Ciao!

And on the tenth day of the 12 Days of Cookbooks I give you Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma.

While it was published in 2007 and while I’ve owned it since it was published, I really only started to focus on this book during this past year. My birthday cake was courtesy of DePalma’s book, as were a few other recipes that I never blogged about. All were delicious.

To be sure, there are many, many baking books on the market. But to be honest, there are very few good Italian baking books. I would say that DePalma’s must be considered as one of the most definitive books on Italian baking.

Incredibly thorough, her book covers virtually ever “famous” Italian dessert, as well as numerous baked goods that wouldn’t be very familiar to North American audiences.

What I love best about the book is that the recipes straddle the line between traditional and modern. Many of the recipes will have a little twist that leads you to a better place.

I recently made Baci di Dama for the first time, using DePalma’s recipe. Stunning. Seriously. Without question, they were among the best cookies I’ve made all year.

I could go on and on, but it’s not necessary. Well-written, some really good photos, passionate, well-produced … DePalma’s book has it all.

It would be the perfect gift for anyone that loves to bake, especially Italian sweets. If I didn’t already have the book, I’d be asking for it for Christmas.

Ciao!

And on the seventh day of the 12 Days of Cookbooks I give you Carole Bloom’sBite-Size Desserts: Creating Mini Sweet Treats, from Cupcakes and Cobblers to Custards and Cookies.

Carole Bloom is yet another brilliant pastry chef and cookbook author who I am lucky enough to “know” through her books. I own several of them including The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and Other Ingredients (which is another one that I highly recommend).

Bloom’s books help you to create baked goods of the very highest standard. Her latest helps you to create mini baked goods of the very highest standard.

Honestly. Every little thing in this books is so adorable. So cute. So adorable!!!

I’ve tried many of the recipes, all with great success, but my most favourite so far has to be the Nectarine and Walnut Galettes on p. 97 (I used plums instead of nectarines). The pastry for these galettes completely blew me away. It has ground walnuts in it. It is, without question, one of my top five favourite new things that I made this year.

As I mentioned, I’ve tried numerous recipes from the book but another favourite is the recipe for Toasted Pecan Shortbread Bites. The picture isn’t great but trust me these cookies are so cute and so good.

This would make a great gift for a seasoned baker. The recipes do tend to be a bit involved and usually involve several stages so it might not be the best book for a beginner baker.

I’m off to bake something mini …

Ciao!

And on the fourth day of the 12 Days of Cookbooks I give you Martha Stewart’s Cookies.

I’ve had both success and failure with Martha Stewart recipes in the past, but this book, published in 2008, is a big success in my opinion. It made my list of top 12 cookbooks that I discovered in 2009 for the simple reason that Christmas is cookie season and this book is filled with fabulous cookie recipes.

Produced by the editors at Martha Stewart Living, the book has a cookie for everyone from basic cookies to more complex creations.

If you want to surprise people with cookies this Christmas, this is a great book to buy for yourself or to give as a gift.

I tried two recipes: Coconut-Cream Cheese Pinwheels and Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars.

The Coconut-Cream Cheese Pinwheels were a bit time consuming because of the pinwheel effect but they were well worth it. Not only are they pretty to look at, but the cream cheese pastry was so tender. I used some lovely blueberry jam for the filling.

The Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars were such a treat as well, and so easy. Basically you top a peanut butter base with the jam of your choice (I chose strawberry), and then top with the remaining peanut butter base and salted peanuts. Such an easy yet pleasing treat.

There’s a picture of every cookie, the recipes are clear and easy to follow and most importantly, they work.

This one has my seal of approval.

Ciao!

Is it Monday again, already?!

Yikes! It never fails that as the Christmas holidays begin to appear on the horizon, it seems that time flies by even more quickly than usual.

Since Christmas is cookie season as far as I’m concerned, I had to share these amazing cookies that I first made about two months ago. Since that time they have become absolute favourites. I haven’t met one person that can resist them.

For this week’s Magazine Mondays entry, I give you Salty-Sweet Butter Pecan Cookies from the King Arthur Baker’s Banter blog.

Oh, sweetness! These cookies are unreal. Before baking them, you dip them in a mixture of sugar and salt. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, used properly, salt makes such an incredible difference in baked goods. So many people don’t believe me but it’s so true. Every single person that tried these cookies would ask, “Why are these so addictive?” and I would answer, “It’s the sugar and salt”.

Salty-sweet. It’s the way to go!

I almost didn’t try these cookies because the recipe calls for vegetable shortening. Honestly, I can’t say I’m totally thrilled about the idea of using vegetable shortening in a cookie but I have to admit, they were delicious. I keep meaning to try them with all butter, but I haven’t done so yet.

I really can’t say enough good things about these cookies. Hope you’ll give them a try!

As you know, Magazine Mondays is all about kicking that pile of clipped recipes in the butt. And Christmas is the perfect time to finally try so many of those earmarked recipes. Get to it!

Here’s who joined me for this week’s edition of MM:

Wandering Coyote (who is on Canadian Living’s payroll … I’m convinced) made a Glazed Balsamic Chicken from a May 2004 issue of Canadian Living.

Margaret of Tea and Scones made a Pumpkin Pie Cake from an old issue of The Shreveport Times.

Poppyseed of Poppyseeds and Tiger Lilies made Creamy Mushroom and Almond Pasta from Issue 38 of Donna Hay magazine.

Andreas of Delta Kitchen made Sesame Spatzle.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!