An Italian Perspective on the Daring Bakers’ September Challenge
As a schoolchild (in Perugia), every day I would carry with me something to eat during the mid-morning break. I never had lunch at school. However, a shorter school day required a longer school week, which means I went to school on Saturday as well. Back to the snack: la merenda. It was usually un panino with something, i.e., two slices of bread with prosciutto crudo, prosciutto cotto or formaggio, which my mother would prepare for my brother and myself. Obviously, such healthy, nutritious and flavorful fare was not what I would have liked. Occasionally we were allowed to buy a pastry or a piece of pizza, and I had my favorite options for those special days.
The top choice for pastry was maritozzo con la panna and the runner-up was veneziana, which means (female) Venetian, though I have not been able to find out what connection it has, if any, with my favorite city in the world. The veneziana I ate as a child looks sort of like a cinnamon bun, a similarity I had never noticed until I made cinnamon buns for my induction into the honorable Daring Bakers’ society. This month’s challenge is hosted by Marce of Pip in the city. Marce has posted the recipe for the buns, from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, which includes cinnamon and sticky buns.
My first attempt was a series of near disasters, starting from a leavening that was not as marked as expected, to a vicarious placing into the oven that was on the wrong grid (not my husband’s fault), while I was running on my bike to get the confectioners’ sugar I had forgotten, to a clogging of my sifter by the newly-purchased sugar. I was basically resigned to consign the whole tray to the famous garbage bin department, when, to my surprise and relief, a tasting by the manager of my quality assurance department (a.k.a. my husband) revealed an outcome that, though not exceptional, was also not deserving of being consigned to irretrievable oblivion.
As a child, I had a well-designed system for eating a veneziana to delay the peak of tasting pleasure, located at the center. I would unroll the coil so that the last piece had the thickest glassa (fondant glaze). For my rendition, I opted for a threaded glaze. The given recipe for the cinnamon buns has lemon zest, and I used lemon extract in the glaze. I am pretty sure veneziana has no lemon nuance. However, I will not let this detail spoil my little walk down memory lane.
I made another batch a week later (both times I kneaded the dough by hand, which I totally enjoyed) and this time the leavening went well and the baking went better. I think I got it down now, and my husband agrees. Freshly-made cinnamon buns are delicious. I discovered that careful storage and warming up in the oven prior to breakfast extend the shelf-life of a batch for several days.
I posted this soon after arriving in my home country after a two year absence. I am adding veneziana to the long list of foods that I need to try or, as in this case, to try again.
Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:
or launch the veneziana audio file [mp3].
[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]
I’m glad the 2nd batch turned out well. The picture looks great. Don’t you love rushing around on your bike to fix something? I always get annoyed because it’s energy expended, but the I put in the perspective that I exercised *while* baking! It’s great!
That looks delicious, Simona, and, as always, I so enjoy your food-related memories. Nice job!
Enjoy your visit to Italy and eat lots of everything!
Your buns look yummy, Simona. Great job! It was my first challenge also :)It was fun, wasn’t it?
Bravissima, Simona! Ricordo bene le merende che mangiavamo durante l’estate quando io e mio fratello passevamo le vacanze con i nostri nonni.
Congratulations on your first Daring Baker challenge!
I loved reading your post, and I think your buns came out wonderful!
Great memories! Great job on your first challenge! Welcome to the DBs
Great post and beautiful buns! Congrats on your first challenge!
What a lovely, interesting post…and the buns look delicious…nice and golden…perfect! 🙂 And bravo to you for kneading the dough by hand. I get tired just thinking about it!
Really great post about your childhood treat! I will be looking for one of those when I’m in Italy in a few months. Great job on your first challenge with our little (ha-ha) group!
Love the language lesson being included!! Grazie!
I loved your trip down memory lane. And the buns look terrific. Welcome to the Daring Bakers!
I always have to heat mine up after the first day they are made…but still good.
Great job on your first challenge.
I love your post a lot! Baking is more than baking when it combines with sweet memory.
When I think of Perugia, I think of the big Coop just off the highway. And when I think of the Iper-Coops in Italy, I think of Mortadella the size of large trees. There. A useless tidbit for your day.
I always eat the middle last too, it’s the best part.
Happy Monday! Thanks to everybody for stopping by and offering kind words. I will soon be off to a grocery store to get supplies, things I have to eat as soon as I get to Italy.
Simona, I still eat my cinnamon rolls that way, leaving the good part for the last! It’s the best way! Enjoy your stay!
I do what you did to your “veneziana”, to many other foods, which I want to enjoy until the last crumble or drupple ^_^
Eating is also PURE Pleasure, isn’t it?!
baci ^.^
Just got back from a visit to a supermercato in Milan and, Kevin, there was a big whole mortadella and I thought about you: my favorite is the one with pistachios inside.
Ilva and Fabdo, I am glad we share eating strategies. Here are two other things for which I have a planned approach: Buondì al cioccolato and bomboloni alla crema. I will write more about both one day.
What a beautiful post! We taste things so clearly and completely and clearly when we’re children. I remember the buns with rock sugar I’d have as a treat every now and then when I was small in Scotland so clearly. Congratulations on your beautiful buns!
What wonderful memories!! And congrats on completing your first challenge!
The veneziana sounds tantalizing! I wouldn’t mind trying it some day 🙂 And I adore the way you described the way you ate it!
Thank goodness for your husband’s taste test! It would have been a shame to let such beautiful buns go to waste.
Thanks for the kind words, all of you.
I have to say my husband is a great help in the kitchen: he gives me honest and accurate feedback.
What a fantastic post, Simona! I loved reading of your memories and am so thrilled for you to be back home again. =)
Welcome to the DB’ers!
xoxo
Lovely buns Simona!
I love the variety of childhood memories this challenge seems to evoke from participants around the world. And I’ll confess to eating American raisin-studded cinnamon buns the same way as a child.
I’m glad you stuck with the recipe and ended with a result that pleased you.
Thanks for the positive feedback on writing about childhood memories. I am often surprised at the amount of bits and pieces, some of them quite detailed, that can be recalled. Writing about them is a way of making the memories last.
I really enjoy reading about your cooking through the eyes of an Italian. Having never traveled anywhere, I always ask friends who do travel about how other people live (and eat, work, play, etc.). I appreciate the insight into Italy. =)
Simona – your post brings another dimension to the baking challenge. Just terrific!
Well done Simone, love your trip down memory lane, although nothing beats the memory I’m afraid! Well done
great buns there-my hat is off to you for attempting this challenge!Loved your post today-how is the trip going?Great to be back homeagain…..
Thanks Julie. I am in Italy right now and plan to write more about how we do certain things here.
Thanks Lori Lynn: I am eagerly awaiting the next challenge and see what I can do with it.
Thanks, Baking Soda.
Hi Jann. The weather has been good so far and the trip fun. I have a busy schedule: the usual ‘so many friends, so little time’. We went to Bergamo the other day, one of my favorite cities, and had fun walking around.
Thanks for the Italian language lesson with the lovely post on the buns. It’s been *years* since my college music days singing in Italian, and it’s nice to get a little refresher. Welcome to the Daring Bakers!
When I tried my cinnamon buns, it reminded me of a pastry that I used to get from a bakery in Chinatown (sans cinnamon of course). Funny how food memories work. 🙂 Welcome to the group!
Lovely memories and buns! Even if the lemon didn’t fit in your memories, I’m glad you enjoyed them. I really loved the lemon.