Our current Cook the Books Club selection is Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I had fun reading again Alice’s adventures. For example, I paid more attention to the way she talks to herself and about herself. Truly one of those books that tell us something more or a bit different each time we read them.
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words “EAT ME” were beautifully marked in currants.
I knew immediately I’d make cookies for Alice: when I like a cookie, it’s like it has EAT ME written on it. Also, in my opinion, the best foods with tea are cookies and scones, and Alice really goes with cookies. After deciding to bake cookies, the question was: which kind?
the right size, the right shape, balanced flavor (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)
Some time ago, I developed my version of chocolate chunk cookies, so I turned my attention to another traditional sweet morsel of goodness: oatmeal raisin cookies. They are made with ingredients I like, but not necessarily in a way that appeals to me.
Guided on one hand by my Brown butter chocolate chunk cookies1 and on the other by the recipe for Oatmeal raisin cookies in Stacy Adimando’s The Cookiepedia2, I experimented with various versions until I settled on the recipe below, which includes a few steps to execute ahead of preparing the cookie dough: browning the butter, re-hydrating the raisins, and toasting rolled oats and sliced almonds. Additional personal touches include the use of coconut sugar, rye and whole-wheat flour (farina integrale), and okara flour3, a protein-rich, gluten-free flour derived from the soybean pulp (okara) generated during soymilk (latte di soia) production.
some of the ingredients, ready for use (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)
The cookies are tender, sweet enough, with a contrast between plump raisins and crisp sliced almonds (mandorle). The rolled oats give the texture more body. I like them a lot.
Prepare the following four ingredients ahead of making the cookies: brown butter, plumped raisins, toasted rolled oats, toasted almond slices.
1) Cut the butter into small pieces and put them into a small saucepan. Melt the butter while stirring then keep the melted butter on the heat, stirring. The butter will foam as water evaporates then the solids will caramelize. Remove the saucepan from the heat, pour the brown butter into a ramekin and let cool. The process is fast and requires full attention as the solids go from brown to burned in a few seconds4.
2) With your fingers, separate the raisins that are clumped. Place the raisins in a ramekin. Pour the warm liquid over them and stir well. Stir again a few more times.
3) Heat the oven to 350 F / 170 C. Spread the rolled oats on an unlined baking sheet. Toast rolled oats in the oven for 4-5 minutes, shaking the sheet half-way through.
4) Toast the sliced almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat. Shake the skillet to ensure even toasting and prevent burning. Transfer the almonds onto a plate.
Finally, make the cookies. Let the brown butter soften in a mixing bowl. Weigh the butter and add enough vegetable oil to get to 2 ounces / 56 grams. Add both sugars to the mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugars. I do all the mixing with a spatula or wooden spoon, but you can use an electric mixer until otherwise noted. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and stir until combined.
Sift the flours into a small mixing bowl. Sift in the baking soda, then add salt and cinnamon. Add about half of the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir briefly. Add the rest and mix just until the flour is incorporated. Add the toasted oats and incorporate them `using a spatula. Finally, add the raisins and incorporate them using a spatula.
Cover the mixing bowl and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so to firm up the dough (it will be easier to handle and the cookies will remain chubby), but not too firm, since there is one last ingredient to incorporate.
Heat the oven to 350 F/177 C.
Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator. Add the toasted almonds to the dough and stir to incorporate. Weigh approximately 1.2 ounces / 34 grams of dough for each cookie. Shape each piece of dough into a half dome, tap the top to flatten it slightly and place on the baking sheet, leaving 1 1/2-2 inches / 4-5 cm of distance between them.
Bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the backing sheet. Bake for another 6 minutes. The cookies will still be soft. The edges should be golden brown.
Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Store the cookies in a sealed container.
hard to photograph them without nibbling on one or two (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)
I imagine Alice’s EAT ME cake was prettier than my cookies, but they make up in flavor what they lack in good looks. I enjoy one in the afternoon with roiboos tea—and so far there has been no change in my height.
[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.]
FTC disclosure: I have received the table linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.
the simple charm of chocolate chunks (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)
Recently, during one of my customary browsing of the sale shelf of a local bookstore, I picked the mystery novel The Whispering City by Sara Moliner1 (pseudonym for the writing duo Rosa Ribas and Sabine Hofmann). The title and subtitle (Barcelona 1952) piqued my curiosity and the back-cover blurb made me decide to purchase the novel.
The story is set during the regime of dictator Francisco Franco, who was still alive when I was born. I remember his death in 1975 (after which Juan Carlos became king of Spain), so as dictatorships go, this one is clear in my memory. The civil climate described in the book is typical of dictatorships, where freedom of expression, information and thought are outlawed. Ana Martí Noguer is a young journalist aspiring to do more than write the society column for a newspaper that strives to maintain a certain amount of independence from the regime without running afoul of it. She is figlia d’arte, as her father was also a journalist.
Circumstances catapult Ana into the middle of a murder investigation and she ends up becoming entangled in it, together with her older cousin Beatriz, whom she had recently met. Beatriz is a linguist who has fallen on hard times due to her political leanings.
post-exercise energy recharge (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)
I enjoyed the story and the historical setting. As the NPR review2 says
The mental sepia tones evoked (and used on the cover — good job, Pegasus designers!) aren’t just those of vintage photographs, but those of a city blanched of its color and vivacity by a right-wing regime.
One of the recurring themes in the book is scarcity, partly as a result of the time (post WWII in a dictatorship with mostly democracies as neighbors) and partly as a result of Ana’s limited economic means. Sugar (zucchero) is a luxury food item, so when she is in a coffee shop, she indulges in it, adding it liberally to her coffee and licking the cup clean after finishing the liquid.
While reading the novel, I spent a weekend on a bicycle ride around San Luis Obispo, on the Central California Coast. In the oceanside town of Cayucos, The Brown Butter Cookie Company3 makes cookies and shortbread. I don’t have a sweet tooth and was skeptical about the cookies, but after tasting a few options I had to admit that they are quite good. While nibbling on half of a chocolate chunk cookie (it was pretty big), I decided to try making my own version.
Serendipitously, a few days later, this recipe4 came to my attention and I chose to use it as my base because it was neither overly sweet nor overly buttery and also made a manageable number of cookies. Of course, I would change several things to make the recipe suit my taste. First of all, I use brown butter, like the bakery in Cayucos. Then, I substitute 3/4 of the white flour with whole-wheat / whole-grain flour (farina integrale). I decrease the amount of sugar slightly and omit the finishing sea salt. Finally, I choose good-quality chocolate and chunk it by hand.
I imagine Ana would dive in and enjoy my cookies. I have made them several times and everybody who has tasted them (my husband and some friends) has given them thumbs up. I like them a lot.
5 1/4 ounces / 150 grams extra-dark chocolate (I use 88%), cut with a knife into small pieces
Brown the butter5 in advance. Cut the butter into small pieces and put them into a small saucepan. Melt the butter while stirring then keep the melted butter on the heat, stirring. The butter will foam as water evaporates then the solids will caramelize. Remove the saucepan from the heat, pour the brown butter into a ramekin and let cool. The process is fast and requires full attention as the solids go from brown to black in a few seconds.
Let the brown butter soften in a mixing bowl. Weigh the butter and add enough vegetable oil to get to 2 ounces / 56 grams. Add both sugars to the mixing bowl. Mix with a spatula until the sugars are well blended into the butter. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and mix until well combined. While I prefer to mix butter and sugar with a spatula, I like to use the electric mixer to mix in the liquids.
Sift and weigh the flours into a small mixing bowl. Sift in the baking soda and baking powder, then add the salt. Add about half of the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix briefly, using either a spatula or the electric mixer. Add the rest and mix just until the flour is incorporated. Finally, add the chocolate chunks and incorporate using a spatula.
Cover the mixing bowl and place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to firm up the dough, longer if possible (it will be easier to handle and the cookies will remain chubby).
Preheat the oven to 350 F/177 C.
Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator. Weigh approximately 30-32 grams of dough for each cookie. Shape each piece of dough into a half dome, tap the top to flatten it slightly and place on the baking sheet, leaving 1 1/2-2 inches / 4-5 cm of distance between them.
Bake for 12-14 minutes. Check the cookies after 12 minutes and bake longer if needed. The edges should be golden brown.
Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely.
Store the cookies in a sealed container.
or enjoyed with a cup of tea (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)
My cookies neither look like nor taste like those I ate in Cayucos: they are less sweet, softer, and have a fuller, whole-grain flavor. They are excellent. I have come to rely on them as energy recharge after a long run or bike ride.
[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.]
This is my second contribution to the 42nd edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started over 14 years ago and that I continue to host.
FTC disclosure: I have received the table linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.
Biscotto is a word of Latin origin that means twice-baked: the dough is baked, cut into slices and baked again. (To be precise, cooked means cotto, but in Italian we don’t have a specific verb for cooking in the oven; “to bake” is cuocere al forno, literally: to cook in the oven.)
From describing a cooking procedure, the word biscotto came to indicate a baked product, crunchy and fairly dry in texture (see a photo in this post). Nowadays, biscotti are not necessarily twice-baked (though some of them are, like biscotti di Prato). In Italy, you can find shelves full of biscotti in grocery stores: we call them frollini, novelllini, petit, oswego (or osvego), etc.
When I moved to California, I did not find in the local stores any of the biscotti I was used to eating. On the other hand, I found plenty of ‘biscotti,’ that is, variations on the theme of a twice-baked product that up until then I had called cantucci.
preparing almonds and chocolate
I shared my recipe for the lovely treat in my previous post on biscotti. However, I kept experimenting with variations and I think that the most recent version warrants sharing.
The most recent change to the recipe was inspired by the current Cook the Books Club selection: The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy. One of the stories narrated in parallel in the novel is set in Garmisch, a mountain resort in Bavaria, during the last year of World War II. The other story is set in El Paso, Texas, a few years ago. The link between the two locations and stories is Elsie, the title character.
On this page, you can find a short description of the novel and an evocative video that brought a smile to my face, because, honestly, does not describe the way I read the novel. Writers know that when they send their words out into the world, the way the world reads them is outside their control.
The novel and events that occurred while I was reading it made me think a lot about evil and what I do (and can do in addition) in my small sliver of world to counter its effects. At the beginning of a manifestation of evil, there is the judgment of another person to be “less” or inferior, because of his or her gender, race, physical characteristics, religious or political belief, sexual orientation, etc. Then, each step justified by the previous one, the judgment becomes oppression, persecution, and finally physical elimination. This happens every day around us, so every day, I need to look for signs of it and for ways in which I can do my part to stop it.
I will return to this topic soon, since the book I read after The Baker’s Daughter made me continue my reflection on evil.
In the novel, the baker of the title prepares cookies called Lebkuchen as a special treat for Christmas, one for each member of the family, near or far, alive or dead. There is a recipe for Lebkuchen Hearts at the end of the book, but it is way too sweet for our household’s taste. As I could not let go of the idea of baking a lightly spiced treat, I thought of adding a bit of Lebkuchengewürz to my biscotti.
The Lebkuchengewürz is a ground mix where the prevailing spice, in terms of quantity, is cannella (cinnamon). The one I used contains also chiodi di garofano (cloves), coriandolo (coriander), cardamomo (cardamom), and anice (anise). (In the past, I used Lebkuchengewürz to make Lebkuchen Loaf Cake.)
dough in progress
Other differences between the new version of biscotti and the “old” one are the use of flaxseed meal and water as substitute for one of the eggs, and the substitution of some of the whole-wheat pastry flour with whole-grain millet (miglio) and sorghum (sorgo), which are both gluten-free.
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon / 1.25 to 2.5 ml Lebkuchen spices, to taste (start with the lower quantity and, if a more intense flavor is desired, increase by 1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon / 2.5 ml vanilla extract
3 1/2 oz. / 100 g intense dark chocolate (70-72 % cacao, sweetened), chopped (I use a knife to do this, not a food processor)
1 cup / 140 g whole, unpeeled almonds, coarsely chopped (with a knife)
Up to 1/4 cup / 33 g all-purpose flour
Note: if you cannot find those two flours (either, or both), you can try using one or two other gluten-free flours, like quinoa or buckwheat.
Do ahead
Place butter in a bowl and leave it to soften.
Place flaxseed meal in a ramekin and add hot water. Stir and let sit for at least 10 minutes. It will turn into a gelatinous mass.
Make the biscotti dough
Preheat the oven to 350 F / 177 C. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar, then add egg and flaxseed meal and beat in. The result won’t be quite homogeneous, and that is fine.
Add in succession the flours (ingredients #6 through #9), sifted, baking powder, salt, Lebkuchen spices and vanilla extract, stirring after each addition. Add the chopped chocolate and almonds and stir until roughly incorporated (see photo above).
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead it lightly until it comes together and can be shaped into logs. Sprinkle dough and working surface with the additional all-purpose flour, as needed, to prevent sticking.
Bake the biscotti
Divide the dough in half and roll each piece until it is about 12 inches / 30.5 cm long, then move it to the baking sheet. Flatten each log with your hand so that it is about 3 inches / 7.5 cm wide and 1/2 inch / 1.25 cm thick. Bake for 25 minutes. The logs will rise a bit and turn light brown. Take the baking sheet out of the oven. Turn the oven temperature down to 300 F / 150 C and let the logs cool for 10 minutes or so.
With a bread knife cut the logs into slices no more than 3/4 inch / 2 cm thick. Move the slices back onto the baking sheet, standing up, leaving a bit of space between each other. Bake the slices for 14 minutes or until desired crispness. Check the biscotti: If the bottom is becoming dark brown, stop the baking, otherwise continue for two more minutes, then check again.
When done, take the biscotti out of the oven and let them rest and cool for at least half an hour before tasting.
light and flavorful
A balanced combination of crisp and crunchy, bitter and sweet, these biscotti acquire a new flavor dimension thanks to the touch of warm spices. They keep well, travel well and are well-liked.
Final note on the novel: through it, I learned about Lebensborn, a Nazi program to breed Aryan children having specific characteristics, and decided to read more about it. The following articles in Der Spiegel, the NY Times and BBC News talk about how, a few years ago, children of that program decided to break the silence surrounding their birth and early years.
This is also my contribution to the 20th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started some time ago and that I continue to host.
Quando mi sono trasferita in California, non ho trovato da comprare i biscotti che ero abituata a mangiare in Italia, ma ho trovato molti ‘biscotti’ prodotti da forno che ero abituata a chiamare cantucci. (Come mi sono organizzata in questi anni per continuare ad avere un rifornimento di biscotti è una storia per un altro giorno.)
preparazione di cioccolato e mandorle
Ho descritto la mia ricetta nel mio post precedente sui ‘biscotti’. Ma ho continuato sperimentare varianti della ricetta e penso che la versione più recente meriti di essere condivisa.
Il cambiamento più recente è stato ispirato dal libro che ho letto per il Cook the Books Club: The Baker’s Daughter di Sarah McCoy, pubblicato in Italia col titolo La figlia dei ricordi. (Onestamente non capisco come “la figlia del panettiere” del titolo originale sia diventata “la figlia dei ricordi.”) Una delle storie narrate in parallelo è ambientata a Garmisch, in Baviera, durante l’ultimo anno della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. L’altra storia è ambientata a El Paso, nel Texas, alcuni anni fa. Il collegamento tra le due località e le due storie è Elsie, la figlia del panettiere.
Sul sito del libro, ci sono scritte molte cose che mi hanno fatto un po’ sorridere, perché non corrispondono alla mia lettura del libro. Ma gli scrittori sanno che quando lanciano le loro parole nel mondo, il modo in cui il mondo le legge e le interpreta è fuori dal loro controllo.
Il romanzo ed eventi che sono successi mentre lo leggevo mi hanno fatto pensare molto al male e a quello che faccio (e posso fare in più) nel mio angolo di mondo per contrappormi ai suoi effetti. All’inizio di una manifestazione del male c’è il giudizio che un’altra persona sia inferiore, a causa del suo sesso, razza, caratteristiche fisiche, credo politico religioso, orientamento sessuale, ecc. Poi, ciascun passo giustificato da quello precedente, il giudizio diventa oppressione, persecuzione e infine eliminazione fisica. Questo accade ogni giorno intorno a noi e perciò ogni giorno devo cercare segnali e adoperarmi per fermare la terribile sequenza.
Tornerò presto su questo argomento dal momento che il libro che ho letto subito dopo The Baker’s Daughter mi ha fatto continuare la riflessione sul male.
Nel romanzo, il fornaio del titolo per Natale prepara biscotti tradizionali tedeschi chiamati Lebkuchen, uno per ciascun membro della famiglia, vicino o lontano che sia, vivente o non più tale. In fondo al libro c’è una ricetta per Lebkuchen a forma di cuore, ma è troppo dolce per i gusti della mia famiglia. (Non so se ci sono le ricette anche in fondo all’edizione italiana, ma ci sono sul sito del libro: per esempio su questa pagina trovate la ricetta per i Lebkuchen a forma di cuore.) Ma dal momento che l’idea di sfornare dei dolcetti leggermente speziati non mi lasciava in pace, ho deciso di aggiungere un po’ di Lebkuchengewürz ai miei cantucci.
Il Lebkuchengewürz è un misto di spezie (che si trova già pronto) tra le quali prevale la cannella. Quello che ho usato io contiene anche chiodi di garofano, coriandolo, cardamomo e anice. (In passato, ho usato il Lebkuchengewürz per fare un panetto Lebkuchen.)
Altre differenze tra la nuova versione dei cantucci e quella “vecchia” sono l’utilizzo di semi di lino macinati e acqua al posto di un uovo e la sostituzione di parte della farina di grano con farine integrali di miglio e sorgo (entrambe senza glutine).
lavori in corso
Ingredienti:
56 g burro non salato tagliato a pezzetti
15 ml semi di lino macinati (possibilmente al momento)
45 ml acqua molto calda
50 g zucchero fine
1 uovo piuttosto grosso codice 0
90 g farina integrale per dolci
15 g farina integrale di miglio (vedi Nota in basso)
15 g farina integrale di sorgo (vedi Nota in basso)
65 g farina per dolci
1 1/2 cucchiaino / 7,5 ml lievito in polvere
Un pizzico di sale fino
1/4 — 1/2 cucchiaino / 1,25 — 2,5 ml spezie per Lebkuchen, a seconda del gusto (all’inizio usare la quantità minore, poi, se si desidera un sapore più intenso, aumentare la dose)
1/2 cucchiaino / 2,5 ml estratto di vaniglia
100 g cioccolato fondente al 70-72 % di cacao, spezzettato finemente col coltello
140 g mandorle intere (non spellate), spezzate grossolanamente col coltello
Fino a 33 g farina per dolci
Nota: se non riuscite a trovare queste farine (una o entrambe), provate ad usare qualche altro tipo di farina priva di glutine, come quinoa o grano saraceno.
Preparare in anticipo
Mettere il burro in una ciotola e lasciarlo ammorbidire.
Mettere i semi di lino macinati in una ciotolina e aggiungere l’acqua calda. Mescolare e lasciar riposare per almeno 10 minuti. Il composto diventa gelatinoso.
Preparare l’impasto
Riscaldare il forno a 177 C. Foderare una placca da forno con un tappetino di silicone per forno o carta da forno
Lavorare burro e zucchero fino a formare una crema, poi aggiungere uovo e semi di lino e mescolare. Il composto non sarà omogeneo.
Aggiungere in successione le farine (ingredienti dal numero 6 al numero 9) setacciate, lievito, sale, spezie ed estratto di vaniglia, mescolando dopo ogni aggiunta. Aggiungere cioccolato e mandorle e mescolare fino a quando siano un po’ incorporate (vedi foto qui sopra).
Vuotare la ciotola sulla spianatoia e lavorare l’impasto fino a quando è abbastanza compatto tanto da potergli dare la forma di un filoncino. Spolvereare l’impasto e la spianatoia con la farina addizionale (ingrediente numero 16) al bisogno per evitare che si appiccichi.
Cuocere i contucci
Dividere l’impasto a metà e formare con ciascun pezzo un rotolo lungo 30,5 cm, poi trasferirlo sulla placca da forno. Appiattire ciascun rotolo in modo che diventi un filoncino largo 7,5 cm e spesso 1,25 cm. Infornare e cuocere per 25 minuti. I filoncini lievitano leggermente e assumono un colorito biondo. Sfornare e diminuire la temperatura del forno a 150 C. Far intiepidire i filoncini per una decina di minuti.
Con un coltello da pane tagliare i filoncini a fette non più spesse di 2 cm. Trasferire le fettine di nuovo sulla placca, in posizione verticale, lasciando un po’ di spazio tra una e l’altra. Mettere in forno le fettine per 14 minuti o fino a quando sono asciutte nel modo che si desidera. Controllare i cantucci: se il fono diventa scuro, sfornare, altrimenti continuare la cottura per un altro paio di minuti e ricontrollare.
Quando sono pronti, sfornare i cantucci e farli riposare per almeno mezz’ora prima di assaggiarli.
leggeri e croccanti
Un connubio equilibrato di friabile e croccante, dolce e amaro, questi cantucci acquistano una nuova dimensione grazie al tocco speziato. Si mantengono bene, viaggiano bene e sono i benvenuti dovunque vanno.
Questo è anche il mio contributo alla ventesima edizione di Novel Food, L’evento lettero-culinario che Lisa di Champaign Taste ed io abbiamo creato qualche tempo fa e che io continuo ad ospitare.
Ever since I started reading Cooking With Flowers, Sweet and Savory Recipes with Rose Petals, Lilacs, Lavender, and Other Edible Flowers by Miche Bacher I look at flowers with different eyes. I knew that a number of flowers were edible (commestibili), from zucchini blossoms (fiori di zucca) to herb flowers (which I have used, for example, in rye bread) to roses (which I have used to flavor ice cream). But I did not know that orchids are edible and so are daylilies and lilacs, to name just a few.
FTC disclosure: I have received a free review copy of Cooking With Flowers from the publisher. I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for discussing it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.
After the introduction, the book devotes a chapter to each flower, from Calendulas to Violets. At the end, there is a section called The Basics, which covers a lot of ground, from flower sugars to flower vinegars and a lot more. The book’s website has a page with some recipes that give you an idea of what to expect. Lovely photos complement the rich content. Overall, Cooking With Flowers is a pleasure to browse. You can take a look at the first 19 pages by clicking the “View interior spread” link on the book’s web page.
Now, please, follow me in a short photo journey of a few of the dishes I made according to the book (marked with an asterisk *) or inspired by it.
I started with calendula flowers. For my first experiments, I bought a bunch of calendulas at the farmers’ market, because the ones in my garden had not yet bloomed. As you can see from the photos above, those lovely flowers are quite photogenic. I used calendula petals (petali) as an ingredient in:
cookies (*)
kefir cheese
challah
scrambled eggs (*)
The recipe for Calendula Scrambled Eggs in the book only gives instructions on the amount of petals to use. For my first ever rendition of scrambled eggs, I followed my friend Sally‘s meditative recipe (from a personal communication; however, she just published a post on frittata where she talks about some important facts about eggs that have a bearing also on the making of scrambled eggs).
I also created a special pasta (hinted at in a recent black and white photo post), which will be described in detail soon.
While the experiments with calendula flowers were going on, nasturtiums exploded in my garden, so I turned my attention to them. I made “stained glass” maltagliati and
nasturtium vinegar (*)
The bright orange color is simply spectacular. I have also added nasturtium flowers and young leaves to pans of leafy green vegetables (no good photo available yet).
While decorating cakes is not my thing, using flowers to brighten savory dishes thrills me: Cooking With Flowers caters to all preferences. It is a book I wish I had written, because I wish I had Miche Bacher’s in-depth knowledge about flowers and her elegant way of sharing it. I am sure the book will instruct and inspire other interesting uses of flowers besides the ones I showed in this post. Thank you, Miche Bacher, for writing a great book!
Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:
[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.]
Sicily smells of sesame seeds. Not the actual island, but the Sicily of my memory. I close my eyes, I whisper "Sicilia" and I smell toasted sesame seeds. The same thing happens if I read about Sicily: I open one of my Montalbano books and my nose smiles.
My first visit to Sicily, the summer before I turned 18, overloaded all of my senses in a joyous way: the beauty of churches and other buildings in Palermo, the sticky smell of the hot July days, the pleasant coolness of the sea, the sound of the dialect (of which I learned a few words), the taste of new foods. Of all the novelties my senses encountered, the smell of sesame seeds (semi di sesamo) is the one with highest emotional content. I had never tasted sesame seeds before, not even set my eyes on them. I only knew the name and that they were small.
First, I ate bread with the surface sprinkled with sesame seeds and I was amazed at the amount of flavor the small seeds packed. So, when I saw reginelle, cookies covered with sesame seeds, I did not need any special encouragement to pick one up (gently, to avoid seed loss) and bring it to my mouth. As each bite crumbled in my mouth, sesame seeds were scattered around. The cookie softened but retained a bit of crunch and the seeds teased my teeth into chasing them. A light swetness supported the pleasure without distracting the taste buds. One reginella was a dose of pure and simple pleasure, the memory of which lasted a long time.
I have vivid memories of other foods I tasted during that vacation, from rich gelato eaten in a soft, sweet bun, to fresh fish, from light mini cannoli to intense cheeses, but it's reginelle that feed my nostalgia. When I visited Palermo with my husband a few years ago, I carefully chose the bakery in which to purchase reginelle: I wanted the very best. A bite, stolen when hardly out of the store, sent me back to that summer of many years before, when I first discovered the pleasure these cookies provide.
brought back from Palermo
Until recently, I had never tried to bake them at home, afraid, I suspect, of taking out of the oven something so different from the original that the disappointment would be crushing. Reading again The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri (1994), the first of the novels that have as protagonitst police inspector Salvo Montalbano, brought me back to my first visit to Sicily and back to the yearning for reginelle, so this time I didn't skirt their calling and set about to make them. First, a note on vocabulary. In Sicilian dialect, sesame seeds are called cimino or giuggiulena. Just let this word tingle your ears: giuggiulena. It comes from from Arabic جلجلا (juljulān, "sesame").
I made several batches, trying a slightly different combination of ingredients each time, in search of the elusive bite of recognition. As I expected, none were exactly the same, and some were further from the archetype than others. The recipe I settled on is good: it makes reginelle that are a pleasure to eat and that have already made a couple of converts to their cause.
Ingredients:
200 g all-purpose flour
50 g whole-wheat pastry flour or 50 g all-purpose flour
70 g ultrafine sugar
a pinch of salt
2 g baking ammonia
40 g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
20 g cold strutto (rendered pork fat) or 20 g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg (possibly from pastured poultry), lightly beaten to mix white and yolk
1-2 tablespoons milk
flavoring of choice: a pinch (1/16 teaspoon) saffron powder + grated zest of 1/4 Meyer lemon; or vanilla sugar + 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (see Notes)
plenty of sesame seeds (I used unhulled ones)
Notes:
The whole-wheat pastry flour is my way of making cookies a bit more nutricious.
I had my homemade strutto and pretty much finished it due to all the batches of reginelle I baked. It makes the cookies friabili (crumbly), but it also has a bit of a flavor and that is why I mixed it with butter. You can use all butter.
Based upon my reading, baking ammonia is the leavening agent traditionally used in reginelle. I have some I bought in Italy, where it is easy to find it in grocery stores. As you can read on this page, baking ammonia has advantages over baking powder when used in baked goods like cookies.
The recipes I read used various flavorings, from saffron powder to lemon zest to vanilla. In my first batch I used a small amount of saffron powder (1/16 teaspoon) I had and liked the result, but then I could not find more in the store and using saffron threads did not give me the same result. I then used a combination vanilla and lemon zest and was not happy, so I removed the lemon zest and used my vanilla sugar plus a bit of vanilla extract.
If using saffron powder, dissolve it in a tablespoon of warm milk.
Put flours, sugar (vanilla sugar, if using), salt, and baking ammonia in the food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
Add butter and strutto, and pulse a few times, until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal.
Empty food processor's bowl onto your work surface.
Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it.
Add the vanilla extract or lemon zest (whichever using) to the well.
Add 1 tablespoon of milk or the milk and saffron powder mix (if using).
Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.
Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball. Add a bit more milk, if necessary.
Shape the dough into a flat ellipse and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill while you get ready for the next phase.
shaping the dough
Take a kitchen towel, spread it on your working surface and pour some water over it, so about half of it gets wet, but there is no pool of water. Take a round cake pan and pour sesame seeds in it so you have a nice layer. Preheat the oven to 400 F (or 350 F, see below). Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.
Halve the dough and keep one half in the fridge. The following is how I decided to shape the reginelle and to roll them in the sesame seeds. Place dough on your working surface and pushing on its surface with the rolling pin, flatten it slightly (about 1/2 inch / 1.25 cm thick). With the bench scraper, cut strips (3/4 inch / 2 cm wide) and then cut each strip into pieces (1.5 inch / 4 cm long).
prepping the surface
Place a piece of dough on the towel and lightly roll it with the palm of your hand so its surface becomes slightly damp, then deposit it on the sesame seeds. Shake the pan so the dough rolls around and covers itself with seeds. Gently pick up the seeded piece of dough and place it on the lined baking sheet. Leave at least an inch (2.5 cm) of space all around each reginella. When you become comfortable with the process, you can work with a few pieces of dough at a time. And of course, you can come up with your own version of how to do all this.
I have read two schools of thought in terms of baking: one starts at high temperature (400 F) and then drops to lower 10 minutes after the start and one uses the same temperature (350 F) throughout. I think I prefer the result of the first version, while my husband prefers the result of the second: you can be your own judge. Either way, I follow the advice of leaving the oven door slightly ajar (1/8 inch / 3 mm) to let the ammonia escape but without letting too much heat dissipate.
If starting at 400 F, 10 minutes after the start, lower temperature to 320 F
If starting at 350 F, keep the same temperature throughout
Either way, check the reginelle after 20 minutes from the beginning and estimate the amount of time still needed. The reginelle are ready when the surface is golden. Check the bottom as well: it should be brown but not dark brown. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and move the reginelle to a rack to cool. While the first batch is baking, prepare the second batch as above.
Store reginelle in an airtight container and enjoy. You probably won't think about Sicily when you bite on one, but you should still have a pleasant, crunchy experience.
Final note: reginelle shed sesame seeds throughout their life cycle. I have been collecting them and used them for a second time: the second baking did not affect their flavor, in part, I think, because I used unhulled seeds. I will not use them a third time for reginelle, but I have already used them as toasted sesame seeds on salads.
rolling in the sesame seeds
I have not visited Porto Empedocle Vigata, where the novels are set, but years ago, I spent a month working at the Club Med Kamarina and have been to Ragusa, Vittoria and other places in the area, so I have a sense of the landscape Camilleri describes in his Montalbano novels.
It was interesting to read again the first one of the series. We meet Montalbano and see his charming human touch at work. For example, he lies about his identity to the mother of a young man he wants to question to avoid alarming her. He understands immediately that Ingegner Luparello's wife is a smart woman and the two of them develop a mutual esteem. He may be a bit rough, but his first instinct is to try and connect to the person he is dealing with.
The most memorable part of the novel is probably the improbable friendship that blossoms between Montalbano and Ingrid, a beautiful Swedish woman accidentally married to an absent Sicilian. The story moves forward to reach the solution. We never doubt that Montalbano will figure out what happened. But the process of uncovering the truth includes also making sure that innocent Ingrid is not dragged into the mud, that the Luparello widow's wish is respected, that Saro gets some money to cure his little boy, in sum, that the chaos of the world in general and of that corner of Sicily in particular, for at least a brief time, is organized in a sort of just order that allows Montalbano a few hours of quiet sleep or a long swim in the sea in front of his house in Marinella.
a cookie from the heart
In an interview (in Italian), Camilleri says (my translation of the transcription):
I wrote the first, then the second [The Terra-Cotta Dog], and said: the end. I wrote the second to better define the character, but then what happened happened.
"What happened" was that The Terra-Cotta Dog was a huge success. Nineteen years after the publication of The Shape of Water, readers around the world still wait impatiently for the next Montalbano to come out. Long live Andrea Camilleri.
This is my contribution to the 18th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started some time ago and that I continue to host.
This is also my contribution to the current edition of Cook the Books, hosted by Rachel of The Crispy Cook. You can find the guidelines for participating in the event here, and here is the announcement.
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Prepare a cup of tea or coffee, grab a cookie (besides oatmeal and raisins, the cookies in the photo have pieces of chocolate and of walnuts), make yourself comfortable, and read on.
On March 24, I attended the Women's PowerStrategy Conference in Marin County, CA. What I have to tell about that day won't fit into one post, so I'll start by talking about meeting Marisa Churchill, pastry chef and author of the dessert cookbook Sweet & Skinny, 100 recipes for enjoying life's sweeter side without tipping the scales. Readers of this blog know that my recipes tend to be light on both sugar and fat. That's the way I like to eat. Listening to, and then conversing with a pastry chef that challenged herself to create 100 light desserts that are generous in flavor and satisfaction, was a special treat.
Before meeting Marisa in person, I read about her career as pastry chef, her Greek heritage, and her passion for swimming. And before sitting down for a one-to-one conversation with her, I listened to her lively presentation at the conference. Marisa organized her talk around the main ingredients of desserts: butter, eggs, sugar, chocolate, cream, flour, oil. For each ingredient, she discussed lighter alternatives that do the job, provide nutritional value and/or satisfy the requirements of people with special dietary needs. An example Marisa referenced in her presentation is her Chocolate-Buttermilk Cake, in which a finely shredded red beet disappears into the batter in terms of texture leaving behind its sweetness, while creamy buttermilk and yogurt enrich the cake and keep it light. Other examples I found particularly interesting are: a lighter version of whipped cream that uses gelatin, the use of crushed pineapple as sweetener (for example, in the macaroons that conference participants tasted during lunch), and browned butter.
Marisa told the story of a particular tough challenge she faced in creating a light version of kourabiethes, traditional Greek butter cookies. When Marisa's grandmother was a young woman, the king of Greece visited her town. For the occasion, she prepared a batch of kourabiethes. Upon tasting them, the king declared them the best he'd ever eaten. In thinking how she could win the challenge, Marisa had the idea of using browned butter, which is more intensely flavored and of which therefore she could use less. Pasta with browned butter and mizythra cheese is a dish her grandmother used to prepare for her and the flavorful memory put her on the right track.
solidified browned butter
As soon as I got home that day, I made a small batch of browned butter and used some to prepare scones (more details when I write a post about them). I hereby declare that I am a convert. Marisa explains how to make browned butter and other "sweet foundations" in the first chapter of "Sweet & Skinny", which then goes on to cover, among other topics, American classics, sweet treats, and Holiday favorites.
For Marisa, creating the recipes for the book was a nice challenge at a point in her career when she was looking for one. She worked in her own kitchen to develop and perfect all the recipes, some of them taking longer than expected to obtain the desired balance of lightness without sacrificing flavor and texture (for example, this PB & J cookies). Besides the ones already referenced, two more recipes are available on this page.
My conversation with Marisa flowed easily and I can see how we could have continued chatting for a long time, as you'd expect if you bring together Greek and Italian blood over the topic of food.
I know I have readers in Greece, so I want to let them know that Marisa has been featured in the press and on television there, as you can see on her website's home page.
A few words about the cookies in the top photo. The originals are called Oatmeal-Sour Cherry Cookies (page 47) and are included in the chapter dedicated to Americal classics. The alternative use of raisins is included in the recipe, while the use of finely chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips is my idea. The book does not show a photo of the cookies as they came out of Marisa's oven, so I don't know how my rendition fares next to them. I hope Marisa will be satisfied. During our conversation, we talked about the use of flax meal and water as egg substitute, something with which I have just started to experiment and which I used in this recipe.
Oops! I'd better bake more cookies: those are all gone.
FTC disclosure: I have purchased the copy of the book mentioned in this post. I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for discussing the book on my blog. The views expressed in the post are my own.
In the days leading up to the Holidays, my aunt Lucia would bake special cookies and apportion them among family members: my uncle, my father, my cousins. My father visited her before Christmas and brought back the package allocated to our family. I never saw my aunt making the content of that eagerly awaited package, but in my mind’s eye I can reconstruct the scene: the kitchen, the table, the fireplace, my aunt and my father chatting. What came out at the receiving end were diamond-shaped torzetti and half-domed croccanti (croccante means crisp, crunchy).
I regret that I did not ask my aunt for any of her recipes. I guess in my mind I thought I had time, until one day, time suddenly ran out. For years I had been making meringues (meringhe) enriched with walnuts inspired by my aunt’s croccanti, but I knew they were different. A few years ago, I asked one of my cousins whether a record of the recipe existed. A few days later, I received an email with the list of ingredients and a set of instructions that provided a starting point to develop my own version of the beloved croccanti, a variation on a theme of egg whites (albumi) and walnuts (noci) dedicated to my aunt.
1/2 cup super-fine or granulated white sugar (zucchero)
8.5 oz. (240 g / 2 and 1/2 cups) shelled walnuts
2 tablespoons (30 ml) all-purpose white flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) vanilla extract
My aunt started with walnuts still in their shells, and I often buy whole walnuts, because I enjoy cracking them. Shelled walnuts are readily available and also convenient. However, they should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, as they are prone to become rancid, due to their high fat content (including nutritionally-valuable alpha-linolenic acid, ALA, an omega-3 fatty acid).
In her “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone”, Deborah Madison gives instructions on how to treat walnuts to improve their flavor when they aren’t freshly cracked, and make them less irritating for people who are sensitive to their skins. Bring a pan of water to a boil, add the walnuts and let them stand for one minute, then drain them and absorb the excess moisture with a towel. Finally, spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and place them in the oven preheated to 300 F until they have dried out, 15-20 minutes. Remove them from the oven as soon as they are dry.
After you take the walnuts out of the oven, let them cool, then spread them on a cutting board and chop them finely using a knife. At the end you should have a bit more than two cups of fragments.
Place two egg whites (I use pastured eggs) in a mixing bowl and let them rest until they reach room temperature. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 F.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Slowly add the sugar to the egg whites and continue beating until it is well incorporated. Sift flour over the egg whites and fold it in with a spatula, using light, slow movements. Add the chopped walnuts in a few batches and fold them into the batter with the spatula, again using light movements. Add vanilla extract and gently stir in.
Line one large baking sheet or two small ones with parchment paper (in this case, a silicone baking mat is not recommended). Drop the batter on the sheet by spoonfuls (i.e., use a soup spoon to scoop up the batter and let the spatula help you in the dropping phase), leaving 3/4-1 inch between mounds. You should have 24 of them, of 1.5-2 inch diameter.
Bake for about 20 minutes, carefully overseeing the process. Check the cookies after 18 minutes. They are ready when you can pick one up delicately with two fingers without a disappointing structural failure. The bottom should be a light tan color and upon applying a little pressure, the surface should feel delicately crisp. If otherwise, bake for an additional two minutes, then check again. Be careful because it is easy to burn the cookies. Do not touch the cookies when they come out of the oven, but let them cool on the baking sheet. To accomplish this, you may consider closing the kitchen door to prevent the sweet smell to waft out and become an irresistible magnet on other inhabitants of the house.
When you bite into a croccante, you hear the light crackle of the crisp outer layer. Your teeth sink into finely chopped walnuts supported by a framework of egg white and sugar. The latter dissolves and creates a substrate over which the walnut bits dance and overlay their nuttiness on the prevailing sweetness. As you chew, the nuts’ crunchiness is slightly offset by a stickiness that encourages slow motion.
This original family recipe, made mostly of white ingredients, is my submission to the White Christmas Challenge on Very Good Recipes. Follow the link to see all the recipes submitted to the event… and also to see that my croccanti were selected for 5th place: Thank you!
White Christmas in Italian is bianco Natale.
Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:
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In the beginning there is the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, “a spindly understory tree” which, with very few exceptions, “refuses to bear fruit outside a band of 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the Equator.” (Sophie and Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate)
The fruit of the cacao tree is called a cacao pod (cabosse): It contains almond-shaped seeds, called beans (fave di cacao), surrounded by a juicy pulp. The Coes explain that once the pods are opened, and the beans and their surrounding pulp extracted, there are four principal steps which must be taken to produce the cacao “nibs” (kernels) that are to be ground into chocolate: (1) fermentation, (2) drying, (3) roasting (or toasting) and (4) winnowing. No matter what the level of technology, this sequence has been in force for at least three millennia and still is followed in the modern world.
Soon after the cacao pods are harvested, seeds and pulp are extracted and piled up. Fermentation ensues and lasts several days. “Cacao fermentation is a fermentation of the pulp, not the beans, but it transforms the beans as well… Right out of the pod, the bean is astringent, bitter, and essentially aroma-less… Properly conducted fermentation converts the astringent but bland beans into vessels laden with desirable flavors and flavor precursors.” (Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking).
Once the fermentation is complete, the seeds are dried in the sun, cleaned, bagged, then transported to locations where they will be processed. There, they start their journey to become chocolate by being roasted (to develop their flavor and aroma). Temperature and duration of roasting are the first of the chocolate maker’s secrets and vary based on the bean variety and provenance. The roasted cacao beans are cracked into pieces and then winnowed. The result of the winnowing process is a separation of the cacao nibs from the chaff. The cacao bean husks can be composted, while the nibs proceed to the next step.
The preceding paragraphs are excepted from an article I wrote earlier this year, which goes on to talk about the processing of cacao nibs into chocolate (on this page, you can see a photo I took of "the next step"). In this post, I'll stop here because the protagonists are the cacao nibs themselves.
I remember well the first time I saw a package of cacao nibs by Scharffen Berger on the shelf of a store in Berkeley, some years ago. I wondered what they tasted like and how to use them. Our local grocery store carried cacao nibs in the bulk section, a sign that they have become an item consumed by enough people. I made my most recent purchase of cacao nibs during a visit to the chocolate makers mentioned in the article: Dick Taylor Chocolate.
I no longer wonder how to use them, but maybe you do, so here are some ideas.
Cacao Nibs… are the essence of chocolate (cioccolato). Nibs add crunchiness and subtle chocolate flavor to baked goods and savory dishes. They make a great substitute for roasted nuts or chocolate chips, without added sweetness. [source]
I have added my cacao nibs from my most recent purchase to my homemade yogurt (more on this in a future post) and also to my pasta frolla to make special frollini (cookies). Add some cacao nibs to the dough after the egg and the vanilla extract by distributing them on the surface of the dough-in-progress. You may start by adding 2 tablespoons; then, if you enjoy the result, try increasing to 3 (which is the amount I use).
My next suggestion is homemade Bel Paese cheese with cacao nibs. Bel Paese (literally, beautiful country) cheese was created in 1906 by Egidio Galbani and is produced by Galbani, the company he founded. The name came from the title of the 1876 book by Antonio Stoppani dedicated to the geophysical beauties of Italy. Dante and Petrarch had used the expression to refer to Italy. Bel Paese is a semi-soft cow cheese with a mild, sweet, milky flavor. [As an aside, the modern label on the cheese is different from the one it had when I was a child, shown on the right.]
When I made the cheese, following the recipe in Debra Amrein-Boyes' 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes1, I hit a bump on the road: kind of a long story, which in the end did not impact the ripening of the cheese in the way I feared. The big unknown was how would the cacao nibs interact with the ripening cheese. After six weeks of aging, I cut it and we tasted it: I am pleased by the result. The cacao nibs softened and donated some of their nuttiness to the cheese, while still creating a contrast in texture and flavor.
The big question is: will I be able to reproduce it? Ask me again in a few months. For now, I am enjoying my creation, shown in this photo in the company of a couple of Lavash crackers (a favorite baked good with my husband). I had some for dinner with slices of my pane alla zucca (pumpkin bread).
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Il frutto dell'albero del cacao si chiama cabosse e contiene semi a forma di mandorla, chiamati fave di cacao, circondati da una succosa polpa biancastra. Sophie and Michael Coe nel loro The True History of Chocolate, spiegano che una volta che le cabosse sono aperte e fave e polpa estratti, la produzione di granella di fave di cacao (che viene poi macinata per fare il cioccolato) avviene attraverso quattro passaggi: (1) fermentazione, (2) essiccatura, (3) torrefazione e (4) vagliatura. Questo processo viene seguito da almeno tremila anni (certo, con mezzi che sono cambiati nel tempo!).
Dopo il raccolto delle cabosse, polpa e fave vengono estratti e ammucchiati. La fermentatione che segue dura diversi giorni. A fermentare è la polpa, non le fave, ma il processo influenza anche i semi. Appena uscite dalla cabosse, le fave hanno un sapore amaro, astringente e praticamente nessun aroma. La fermentazione converte le fave in contenitori di sapori e precursori di sostanze aromatiche (libera traduzione da Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking).
Al termine della fermentazione, le fave vengono essiccate al sole, pulite, messe in sacchi e trasportate nei luoghi di utilizzo, dove cominciano il viaggio per diventare cioccolato con la tostatura, processo che sviluppa sapore e aroma. Temperatura e durata della tostatura sono il primo dei segreti del cioccolatiere e variano in base alla varietà di cacao e alla sua origine. Dopo la tostatura, le fave vengono frantumate e vagliate per rimuovere il tegumento che le riveste.
I paragrafi prcedenti sono tratti da un articolo che ho scritto qualche mese fa, nel quale poi parlo del processo che trasforma la granella di fave di cacao tostate in cioccolato (su questa pagina, potete vedere una foto dell'inizio di tale processo). In questo post, mi fermo qui, dal momento che la protagonista è la granella.
Mi ricordo bene la prima volta che vidi, alcuni anni fa, una confezione di granella di fave di cacao (prodotta da Scharffen Berger) in un negozio di Berkeley. Mi domandai che sapore avesse e come usarla. Nel negozio dove faccio la spesa più spesso, la granella si trova sfusa, da acquistare a peso, segno che è richiesta da abbastanza persone. Il mio acquisto più recente di granella l'ho fatto presso la fabbrica artigianale di cioccolato descritta nell'articolo di cui sopra: Dick Taylor Chocolate.
A questo punto so come utilizzare la granella di fave di cacao, ma se voi non siete sicuri, eccovi alcune idee.
La granella di fave di cacao… è l'essenza del cioccolato. La granella contribuisce un elemento croccante e dà un sottile sapore di cioccolato a prodotti da forno e piatti salati. È un ottimo sostituto di frutta secca tostata e gocce di cioccolato e non contribuisce zucchero. [origine della citazione]
Ho aggiunto granella di fave di cacao al mio yogurt fatto in casa (maggiori dettagli in proposito in un post futuro) e anche alla mia pasta frolla che uso per fare i frollini. Qui di seguito riporto la ricetta della pasta frolla con l'aggiunta della variante con granella di fave di cacao.
Preparare la pasta frolla con i seguenti ingredienti:
85 g burro freddo tagliato a pezzetti
65-70 g zucchero
65 g farina integrale per torte
70 g farina bianca
30 g farina d'orzo integrale (o la stessa quantità di farina di frumento)
25 g farina di mandorle
un uovo
1/4 cucchiaino di estratto di vaniglia
2 o 3 cucchiai (30-45 ml) di granella di fave di cacao
Distribuire la granella sulla superficie della pasta frolla "in progress" dopo aver incorporato l'uovo e l'estratto di vaniglia, prima dell'azione di impasto finale. La quantità dipende dal vostro gusto. La prima volta consiglio di aggiungere due cucchiai, poi magari aumentare a tre (che è la quantita che uso io).
Far riposare la pasta frolla in frigorifero per almeno due ore (io di solito la preparo di sera e poi cuocio i biscotti la mattina dopo. Stendere la pasta frolla fino ad uno spessore di 4-5 mm e ricavare i biscotti. Disporli su una lastra da forno foderata con tappetino di silicone o carta da forno in modo che ci siano diversi centimetri di spazio tra un frollino e l'altro. Mettere in frigorifero mentre si scalda il forno a 175-180 C. Cuocere in forno controllando di frequente che i frollini non diventino scuri. Io metto il timer a 15 minuti e poi seguo da vicino il resto della cottura. Togliere dal forno, trasferire i frollini su una griglia e farli riposare prima di assaggiarli. La ricetta produce abbastanza frollini da fare due infornate.
Il mio secondo suggerimento è formaggio Bel Paese fatto in casa con granella di fave di cacao. Il Bel Paese fu creato nel 1906 da Egidio Galbani fondatore dell'azienda omonima. Il nome deriva dal titolo di un libro del 1876 dedicato alle bellezze geofisiche dell'Italia scritto dall'abate Antonio Stoppani. (Dante e Petrarca avevano usato l'espressione in riferimento al paese.) Presumo che tutti abbiate assaggiato il Bel Paese. Però forse non tutti sapete che l'effigie sull'etichetta di una volta è quella di Antonio Stoppani. (Confesso che nemmeno io lo sapevo prima di averlo letto sul sito della Galbani.)
Quando ho fatto il formaggio, seguendo la ricetta nel libro di Debra Amrein-Boyes 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes, ho avuto un problema tecnico: storia lunga da spiegare ma che alla fine non ha avuto un impatto negativo nel processo di maturazione del formaggio. avrebbero interagito la granella di fave di cacao e il formaggio. Dopo sei settimane di maturazione, ho tagliato la forma e l'abbiamo assaggiato: sono soddisfatta del risultato. La granella si è ammorbidita e ha trasferito parte del suo sapore "noccioloso" al formaggio, nello stesso tempo creando un contrasto di consistenza e sapore.
Sarò in grado di riprodurre quello che ho fatto? Potrò rispondere tra qualche mese. Per ora, mi gusto la mia creazione, che nella foto posa con dei cracker Lavash (che piacciono molto a mio marito). Io ho mangiato la mia porzione con un paio di fettine del mio pane alla zucca.
Italian biscuits, recipe from "The Cookiepedia" by Stacy Adimando
With a title like The Cookiepedia this book intrigued me all'istante (instantly). Once I had it in my hands, I found a number of things to like about it:
an appealing graphical layout, which includes nice icons and space allocated for notes after each recipe
a binding that allows the book to open flat: I like it when a cookbook stays open on its own without clumsy arrangements
variations for each recipe: variations send the message that it is acceptable to play with a recipe and so they stimulate one's creativity
while it covers traditional cookies like peanut butter, chocolate chip oatmeal raisin, etc., it also contains innovative recipes, like Cornmeal Cookies with Rosemary and savory Salt-and-Pepper Cookies (see below)
it is a nice book not only for adults but also for younger bakers.
A cheerful cookbook
Most important in the list of things I like about the book is that I have made five recipes from the book and they all turned out very well:
Crinkles: a cross between a cookie and a truffle, they are a delight for the chocolate lover (photo on the left page above)
Italian Biscuits (top photo)
Green Tea Cookies (photo below)
Dried-Fruit Cookies
Salt-and-Pepper Cookies (photo on the right)
In all the cases, I halved the quantities and used some whole-wheat flour instead of white flour. In making salt-and-pepper cookies, I used flax meal and water as egg substitute, something that I had been meaning to try for a while: the substitution was fine.
As I write, I have made the Italian biscuits three times and the dried-fruit cookies twice. When I mentioned homemade cookies brought with us during a recent trip, I was referring to those two kinds. And I served the salt-and-pepper cookies with a soup that will be featured soon.
To see the first 16 pages of the book, go to this page and click on the link View interior spread. I have received permission to share one of the recipes I made: Dried-Fruit Cookies [pdf]. These soft morsels can be made with various types of dried fruit or a mix. I had flame raisins from the farmers market and that is what I used. I varied the recipe a bit by loweing the amount of sugar and increasing the amount of dried fruit (the latter move was unintentional, but it worked).
The language corner. The word cookie is actually difficult to translate into Italian and the Italian word biscotto is difficult to translate into English, though the dictionary tells you that their meaning is the same. As I have explained in this post, the difficulty lies in the evolution of the word biscotto in Italian and its adherence to the original meaning in the name of the baked product sold in the US (also featured in The Cookiepedia).
It doesn't help to clarify the matter the fact that it is difficult to find Italian biscotti in US stores and that their consumption is a totally Italian thing. In one of the recipes I tried, Ms Adimando uses the word biscuit in the British English sense, more similar to the Italian biscotto.
As I said, it's complicated. If I were to translate the book into Italian, I would probably title it something like enciclopedia di biscotti e pasticcini.
Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:
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FTC disclosure: I have requested a review copy of the book mentioned in this post from the publisher and received it free of charge. I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for discussing the book on my blog. The views expressed in the post are my own.
The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.
The recipes Mandy provided for the different elements of the challenge can be found here.
What I made looks different from what you see on the Daring Bakers web site due to our household's dietary needs. Before I move on to describe what I did and why, I'd like to say a few words about icing. The Italian expression that corresponds to the English "the icing on the cake" is la ciliegina sulla torta (literally, the glacé cherry on the cake). To me, this is emblematic of the differences between English and Italian pastry traditions. One day, I will explain my thought in more details: for now, I will concentrate on my frollini.
A frollino is a biscotto di pasta frolla, a cookie made with sweet shortcrust pastry (or sweet tart dough). Frollini are popular in Italy, one of the kind of biscotti that Italian eat for breakfast or a snack, as I explained in this post. I usually make pasta frolla to make a crust for a tart and use the leftover dough to make cookies. This time, I made only cookies, and had fun cutting them in various shapes. The recipe for my variation on the pasta frolla theme is in this recent post.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, prepare a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper (carta da forno). You will have enough cookies to make two baking shifts, so take a bit more than half the dough and put the rest back into the fridge. Roll the dough to 4 mm thickness (1/6 inch) and cut as desired. Put the baking sheet with the first batch of cookies into the fridge for 10-15 minutes, while you heat the oven to 350 F.
Put the cookies in the oven. I check the cookies after 15 minutes and then carefully monitor them, as they can easily become overbaked. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Repeat with the second batch of cookies. If you have two baking sheets, you can cut and chill the second batch of cookies while the first one is in the oven.
The challenge required us to decorate the cookies with the theme of September, "whatever that means to you." September is when my husband and I celebrate the anniversary of the day we met. So, I started by making heart-shaped cookies (biscotti a forma di cuore). I then made turtle-shaped cookie. As I recounted in a previous post, my husband loves turtles, especially the sea turtles (tartarughe marine) that we are fortunate enough to have seen many times in their natural habitat (swimming, eating, or taking a nap). I also made cat-shaped cookies, since my husband is a cat lover and he taught me to love cats (gatti).
I recognize the great qualities icing has for decorating, but iced cookies are not eaten in our household. I therefore decided to use some white chocolate to add a touch of decoration to some of the cookies. I melted a small amount of white chocolate in a small bowl over a pot of steaming water, making sure the bowl did not touch the water, as explained in the book "Chocolate" by Linda Collister (a gift from a friend).
I didn't want to dip the cookies into the chocolate, and my attempts at creating some sort of design by spreading the melted chocolate did not go well. Still, one can interpret the small dot in the middle of the heart-shaped cookie in the photo as a stylized ciliegina sulla torta. I really like my frollini plain. You can eat them as a snack, or dip them into tea or caffelatte. Grab one or two, sit down, relax and concentrate on every bite: it's a celebration of the present moment.
A special thank you goes to our host for her choice and her efforts. It was a nice challenge. I hope you will take the time to go around and look at the creative output of my talented fellow Daring Bakers.
Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words and expressions mentioned in the post:
[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.]
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