chocolate

recipe: chocolate and walnut whole-wheat dinner rolls

| Simona

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chocolate love: mole poblano

| Simona
mole poblano / IMG_0885

a vegan version of mole poblano that goes with vegetables
(napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)

In September 2014, I attended LongHouse, where I met Carlos Gaytan, chef of the restaurant Mexique in Chicago1. He brought his mole sauce to the event and I fell in love with something I had not tasted before.

Since then, I have kept alive a desire to make a version of mole poblano and finally the current selection of the Cook the Books club, The Discovery of Chocolate by James Runcie2 gave me the necessary nudge. In this historical novel, young Diego travels to the New World with the conquistador Cortés. In Mexico, Diego discovers chocolate, at the time consumed as a beverage. He also falls in love with Ignacia. Drinking a special concoction she prepares for him makes him immortal, which allows the novel to span centuries and continents, following Diego's adventures and the fortunes of cacao beans and chocolate. In the author's words, the novel is about "Life and death, love and chocolate."

Having decided to make mole poblano, the question became: which recipe? I imagine families have their own recipes and what I found online and in cookbooks are just some examples of a rich and old tradition for a sauce that in the long list of ingredients and in the amount of time it takes to prepare, spells love expressed through food. In making it in my own kitchen I wished to pay homage to such tradition, not to appropriate it.

An nice article on the Seattle Times3 describes the spectrum of options open to whomever wishes to prepare mole poblano and focuses on  one relatively easy and one hard recipe. I chose a middle ground closer to the hard way (a recipe adapted from one by Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu in the Los Angeles Times), which meant a somewhat lengthy preparation using 25 ingredients.

I enjoyed the process and loved the result so much that I made it twice more to test slight variations. Below is the version that I liked best. Note that my choice of ingredients makes the recipe vegan and gluten-free.

Chile display

detail of the chile selection at the Monterey Market in Berkeley

When I went to purchase chiles, I selected a couple of varieties that were not in the source recipe, because I wanted to taste them, including the California chile listed among the ingredients.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for mole poblano (vegan)

Ingredients:

All chiles are whole, medium to medium-large in size

  • 1 dried mulato chile
  • 1 dried pasilla chile
  • 2 dried ancho chile
  • 1 dried California chile
  • 4 tablespoons / 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil, divided
  • 2 cups / 475 ml scalding water
  • 1 plum tomato
  • 1 small cipollini onion, peeled
  • 1 clove garlic peeled
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
  • 1/2 tablespoon raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
  • 1 ounce / 30 g ripe plantain, peeled and sliced
  • 1/2 tablespoon shelled raw peanuts
  • 1/4 cup sliced almonds
  • 2 tablespoons / 20 g raisins
  • 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon, ground cloves, dried oregano, ground coriander, ground anise seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • A bit of freshly ground pepper (2 turns of the pepper mill)
  • Leaves from 1 sprig thyme
  • 1 small sprig of Italian parsley
  • 3/4 ounce / 21 g Mexican chocolate (Taza 80% cacao) + 1/4 ounce / 7 g unsweetened chocolate 100% cacao, all finely chopped

The night before making mole or early the same day
Remove stems and seeds from the chiles.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet over medium heat and pan-fry the chiles until they become glossy, a couple of minutes.

Place the chiles in a bowl and cover them with the scalding water. Make sure they are submerged. Cover the bowl and let stand overnight or several hours.

When ready to prepare the mole
Drain the chiles and reserve the soaking liquid. Place the drained chiles in a blender. Add enough of the soaking liquid to blend them until smooth. Set aside.

Quarter the tomato lengthwise. Slice the onion crosswise thickly. Roast the tomatoes, the sliced onion and the clove of garlic in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until spotted with brown. Set aside.

Toast the sesame and pumpkin seeds until fragrant. Transfer to a small bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Fry the plantain slices until golden and softened. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel.

Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Fry the peanuts, the almonds and the raisins for about one minute. Drain on a paper towel.

Fry the sesame and pumpkin seeds (previously toasted) for 30 seconds. Drain on a paper towel.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a cast-iron pan. Add the puréed chile mixture and enough of the reserved soaking liquid to keep the puréed mixture from sputtering when it simmers. Simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring often.

Place the spices, seeds, almonds, peanuts and raisins in the blender and process with enough of the soaking liquid to purée. Add to the chile mixture.

Process the roasted tomato, onion and garlic clove, the plantain slices, the salt and pepper, the thyme leaves and the parsley sprig in the blender with enough soaking liquid to purée, then add to the chile mixture. (Note: I use all the soaking liquid)

Add the chopped chocolate and stir until dissolved. Stir a little longer over the heat to bring all ingredients together. Remove from the heat.

Strain the sauce through a mesh strainer to remove any bits of chile skin and return to a clean pot. This step is very important as it ensures a smooth texture. 

Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

My rendition of mole poblano pairs well with different dishes, vegetables (the dish in the opening photo is my "empty the crisper" side dish4 described in the previous post), chicken and mild-flavored fish (like cod). I confess also that I ate it by the spoonful.

1 Update: Chef Gaytán closed down Mexique some time after I wrote this post, then opened a new restaurant called Tzuco (still in Chicago)
2 The novel's page on the author's website
3 Two ways to make Mole Poblano — the hard way and the (relatively) easy way on the Seattle Times
4 "empty the crisper" side dish post and recipe

CtBThis is my contribution to the current selection of our Cook the Books hosted by me, Simona of briciole. (You can find the guidelines for participating in the event on this page.)

The roundup of the event.

Small_NFlogoThis is my second contribution to the 32nd 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.

The roundup of the event.

Fr2018-150Finally, I am contributing to the March edition of Foodies Read the reading/cooking event hosted by Heather of Based on a True Story.

Visit the linkup page to see what others have read and cooked.

FTC disclosure: I have received the napkin 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.

mole, chiles, sauce, Mexican cuisine

recipe: mole poblano (vegan)

| Simona

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cuori di barbabietola rossa ricoperti di cioccolato / chocolate-covered red beet hearts

| Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

chocolate-covered red beet hearts

chocolate-covered red beet hearts

In recent months, I have talked about chocolate-covered pecans and pistachios, so you may think that I am in a chocolate-covering spree, but what I am describing here actually predates my experiments with nuts. A couple of years ago, one morning, I woke up with the idea of dipping pieces of roasted red beets into melted chocolate. I dismissed such flight of fancy, but it would not go away, so I followed it and charmed many people with the result. This year, on Valentine's Day (giorno di San Valentino), I realized the idea again (slightly differently) and I am sharing it here.

Please, suspend your disbelief. The combination of red beet and chocolate is used in cakes like this one, so why not pair just those two ingredients?

red beet heart

red beet heart, heart-shaped cutter
and red beet leftover

These hearts are easy to make and quite pleasant to eat. And as chocolates go, they are rather healthy:

  • dark chocolate, in moderation, is good for us
  • there is no added sugar
  • the core is made of a root vegetable.

My small heart-shaped cookie cutter is perfect for this use, as it makes bite-sized hearts (it is 1.5 inch long and 1.5 inch wide).

Ingredients:

  • red beet(s), unpeeled, rinsed and scrubbed well
  • good quality chocolate that you know is already tempered (like bars made for eating): I use about 2/3 chocolate with 70% cocoa content and 1/3 chocolate with 60% cocoa content

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Wrap beet(s) in foil, place on a baking sheet, and bake until easily pierced with a knife. Let cool until easy to handle, then slip off the skin. Cut into 3/8-inch thick slices and carved out bite-sized hearts using a small heart-shaped cookie cutter. Set aside the leftover for salad, soup or risotto.

Note: If you are like me and prefer to buy bunches of beets with their greens still attached, cut the greens an inch above the beet, then proceed with the preparation. I usually bake a number of beets at a time, for efficiency's sake. There are many ways you can use them, besides the one described here (for example, this soup or this spread). I also set aside the greens to make a frittata or to add to kale in this dish. And I prepare the stalks in this way.

Melt the chocolate according to the instructions in this article (see also quote below). You'll need a good thermometer that gives you the required accuracy. It is very important that you chop the chocolate finely. Put the chocolate in a small non-reactive metal bowl placed over a pan with steaming (not boiling) water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water and that no water gets into the chocolate. Melt as directed, checking the temperature regularly:

Stir constantly until about two-thirds of the chocolate is melted. Take the bowl from the heat and continue stirring until all the chocolate is melted. For dark chocolate, you want the whole mass to end up at 89 to 91 F (87 to 98 for milk and white).

Line a plate or baking sheet with wax paper. Spear a red beet heart with a toothpick (stuzzicadenti) and dip it into the melted chocolate. Lift it out and let excess chocolate drip a bit, then drop the heart onto the wax paper. Dip the tip of the toothpick into the chocolate and drop a tiny bit of it to cover the hole left by the toothpick on the surface of the heart. Repeat until you run out of red beet hearts or of chocolate.

Don't waste any of the chocolate: when you are down to just a little bit, use a piece of bread to scrape the bottom of the bowl clean (fare la scarpetta).

Let the chocolate set well, then remove the hearts from the wax paper and enjoy. As you bite, the thin layer of chocolate gives way of the soft red beet and the flavors of the two meld well in your mouth. A lovely treat.

Whb321

This is my contribution to edition #321 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Lynne of Cafe Lynnylu.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Both images above were manipulated using Snapseed, a software Lynne told me about: thank you, Lynne!

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

cuori di barbabietola rossa ricoperti di cioccolato

or launch the cuori di barbabietola rossa ricoperti di cioccolato 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.]

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red beet, chocolate

Newrule

cuori di barbabietola rossa ricoperti di cioccolato

chocolate-covered red beet hearts

cuori di barbabietola rossa ricoperti di cioccolato

In questi ultimi mesi ho parlato di noci pecan e pistacchi ricoperti di cioccolato, quindi potreste pensare che sono preda di una piccola fissazione, ma in realtà quello che descrivo in questo post precede di diverso tempo i miei esperimenti con la frutta secca. Un paio d'anni fa, una mattina mi sono svegliata con l'idea di intingere nel cioccolato fuso pezzi di barbabietola rossa cotta al forno. Ho tentato di convincermi che era un'idea un po' troppo strana, ma dal momento che non mi lasciava in pace l'ho realizzata e ho incantato molte persone col risultato. Quest'anno, per San Valentino ho realizzato di nuovo l'idea (in modo solo leggermente diverso) e ora la condivido sul blog.

Per favore, non siate increduli. Il connubio barbabietola rossa e cioccolato è usato in torte come questa qui, quindi perché non unire questi due ingredienti da soli?

red beet heart

cuore di barbabietola rossa, stampino a forma di cuore e "negativo" del cuore

Questi piccoli cuori sono facili da preparare e un piacere da mangiare. E rispettano la salute:

  • il cioccolato fondente in moderazione fa bene
  • non contengono zucchero aggiunto
  • il "ripieno" è fatto di una radice salutare.

Il piccolo stampino per biscotti a forma di cuore che ho è perfetto per questo uso poiché produce cuori di 3,8 cm: insomma, dei bocconcini.

Ingredienti:

  • barbabietola rossa intera
  • cioccolato di buona qualità in tempera (come le barrette pronte da mangiare): io uso 2/3 di cioccolato con 70% di cacao e 1/3 di cioccolato con 60% di cacao

Scaldare il forno a 190 C. Pulire bene la barbabietola (o barbabietole), avvolgere in pellicola di alluminio, porle su una lastra da forno e cuocerle in forno fino a quando è facile perforarla con una lama. Lasciar intiepidire e poi rimuovere la buccia. Tagliare a fettine di 1 cm di spessore e usare lo stampino per ricavare dei cuoricini. Mettere da parte gli avanzi per un'insalata, zuppa o risotto.

Nota: Se siete come me e preferite comprare barbabietole con ancora attaccate le foglie, tagliate i gambi 3 cm sopra alla radice e poi proseguite con la preparazione. Di solito cuocio un certo numero di barbabietole per volta, per amor di efficienza. Potete usarle in diversi modi, a parte quello descritto in questo post (per esempio, una zuppa o una crema da spalmare). Io utilizzo le foglie per fare una frittata o insieme al cavolo riccio in un gratin. E anche gli steli li preparo gratinati.

Fondere il cioccolato secondo le istruzioni in un articolo (vd. anche la citazione qui sotto, traduzione mia). Avrete bisogno di un termometro accurato. È importante che tagliate il cioccolato finemente. Mettere il cioccolato in una ciotola di metallo non reattivo posta sopra una pentola con acqua che produce vapore (ma non in stato di ebollizione). Assicurarsi che la ciotola non tocchi l'acqua calda e che nemmeno una goccia d'acqua finisca sul cioccolato. Fondere come da istruzioni, controllando spesso la temperatura:

Mescolare in continuazione fino a quando 2/3 circa del cioccolato sono sciolti. Rimuovere la ciotola dal calore e continuare a mescolare fino a quando tutto il cioccolato sia sciolto. Se usate cioccolato fondente, la massa deve avere una temperatura tra 31,7 e 32,8 C.

Foderare un piatto o una lastra da forno con della carta oleata. Infilare uno stuzzicadenti nel centro di un cuore di barbabietola rossa, sollevarlo e immergerlo nel cioccolato fuso. Farlo emergere, aspettare qualche secondo che il cioccolato in eccesso scoli e poi depositare il cuore sulla carta oleata. Intingere la punta dello stuzzicadenti nel cioccolato e poi far cadere una goccia di cioccolato sul buco lasciato dallo stuzzicadenti sulla superficie del cuore in modo da coprirlo. Ripetere fino all'esaurimento di cuori di barbabietola o di cioccolato.

Non sprecate il cioccolato che rimane in fondo alla ciotola: fate la scarpetta!

Lasciar riposare fino a quando il cioccolato si è ben solidificato, poi togliere i cuori dalla carta oleata e gustarli. Quando si dà un morso al cioccolatino, lo strato di cioccolato si spezza facilmente e lascia spazio alla morbida barbabietola rossa e i due sapori si combinano bene in bocca in una dolcezza sfiziosa.

Whb321

Questo post è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 321 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once, la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di briggishome, e ospitata questa settimana da Terry di Crumpets & co.

Questo post contiene il raccolto dell'evento.

pistacchi ricoperti di cioccolato / chocolate-covered pistachios

| Simona

DSC_0005w
I cannot honestly say that the package arrived unexpectedly, but its content was unknown until I opened the box and removed the packing material to reveal a beautiful long bar of chocolate 64% cacao content, made by SOMA using cacao beans from Peru (as an aside, the cacao nibs I featured in my most recent post were also from Peruvian beans). I don't know whether Jerry of Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants! read something on my blog that suggested the gift or simply divined it: I was certainly happy to get a food that is an integral part of my daily diet (in moderation, of course).

In the package I also found a glass jar with an elegant label describing an intriguing content: Bacon Marmalade, whose ingredients include, besides bacon, sautéed onions (cipolle), balsamic vinegar from Modena (aceto balsamico di Modena) and spices. In the note accompanying the gifts, Jerry tells me that the marmalade is fabulous as an accompaniment to cheese. If you are curious to hear me describe how the pairing with some of my cheese works, I need to ask you to be patient, since I have decided to postpone opening the jar until a dinner with a friend of ours with whom I would like to share the experience. So, more on this at a later date.

DSC_0012aw
Back to the chocolate, serendipity worked to suggest a pairing with pistachios. A few days before the chocolate arrived, we had received as a gift a bag of pistachios roasted (tostati) and lightly salted (salati). Having previously tasted and appreciated the pairing of chocolate and pistachios, and of chocolate and salt, I thought that putting together chocolate, pistachios and a bit of salt would be an interesting test. I recently made delicious chocolate-covered pecans, so it was easy to apply to pistachios the same technique. Preparation of the nuts involved only shelling and rubbing off the skin. Preparation of the chocolate consisted in finely chopping 3 ounces or so and then melting it according to the directions in this post. (In case you are wondering, a few pieces of chocolate found their way to my mouth while I was chopping it, as a sweet reward for my labor. All right, all right, chopping chocolate probably does not count as "labor.")

I used a teaspoon to make small clusters and deposit them on a tray lined with wax paper (carta oleata). Once the chocolate was completely set, we tasted the clusters and were delighted by the combination of crunch, sweetness and light saltiness of the ensemble.

2010_bannerThe special delivery was not unexpected, because last month I signed up to participate to Season's Eatings, an edible gift exchange event engineered by Katie of Thyme for Cooking, the Blog. Many thanks to Jerry for the thoughtful gifts and to Katie for organizing the fun event.

Katie will have a roundup of the exchange some time after Christmas.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

pistacchi ricoperti di cioccolato

or launch the pistacchi ricoperti di cioccolato 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.]

pistachio, chocolate

noci pecan ricoperte di cioccolato / chocolate-covered pecans

| Simona

chocolate-covered pecans on the half-shell
For the current edition of Cook the Books, we are reading Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, an autobiography with recipes at the end of each chapter. One of the recipe pages is titled Bread and Chocolate and it starts thus:

This is a simple trick familiar to every French child. There’s something surprisingly right about chocolate and bread together, all that dark, rich sweetness against the chewy, salty crumb. It’s one of my favorite snacks.

I am Italian and grew up eating bread and chocolate (pane e cioccolato) as a snack. My home town, Perugia, is also the home of Perugina, a world-famous chocolate factory. However, I think that my upbringing is similar to that of many others in the chocolate-producing parts of Europe. In other words, I have known the pleasure of eating bread and chocolate for as long as I can remember. And I wrote about it some time ago, in an article titled Bread, Chocolate and Happiness:

The next time you look for a tasty snack or want to pamper yourself — or just because — break a piece of your favorite chocolate and cut a piece of freshly-baked, unflavored, good quality bread (maybe baked in your own oven), sit down and focus your attention on the flavors and sensations in your mouth, the contrast between the smooth chocolate and the bread textures (crunchy crust, soft crumb), the way both soften in your mouth and one melts, the meeting of the twine brought about by considerate chewing, the gingerly sojourn in your mouth that allows all taste buds to get their share of the flavors, the slow-motion swallowing that sends parting thoughts tinged with sweetness. A marriage of human bread and godly chocolate was celebrated in your mouth.

Inspired by the theme of chocolate, I decided I would try to do something I had had in mind for a while. Two events combined to direct my actions. First, an appreciation for chocolate-covered pecans, a kind of nut with which I became familiar only after moving to California. Second, in doing some research for an article on chocolate making, I ran across this piece by Shirley Corriher about chocolate tempering. Tempering chocolate is something I was apprehensive about doing at home, mostly because it uses a quantity of chocolate that goes beyond what I want to deal with in one session. In any case, the article explains how to avoid tempering chocolate if you start with tempered chocolate. (Another article from the same author is here: you want to focus on the paragraph titled A Radical Shortcut to Tempering.)

Armed with the information in the article, some good chocolate and pecans, I got down to work. I did not look at any recipe, because I knew what I wanted: simply toasted nuts covered in bittersweet chocolate.

Ingredients:

  • good quality chocolate that you know is already tempered (like bars made for eating): I use about 2/3 chocolate with 70% cocoa content and 1/3 chocolate with 60% cocoa content; I suggest to start with 3-3.5 oz. (85-100 g) of chocolate
  • pecan halves
  • cacao nibs (granella di fave di cacao), optional

Toast pecans in a 350 F (175-180 C) oven. The amount of time it takes depends on the oven and on the size of the pecans. In my experience, there is a fine line between not toasted enough and burnt, so every time I toast a batch, I keep a close watch. I set the timer for 10 minutes, and follow the progress very closely, adding time as needed. Let the pecans cool while you prepare the chocolate.

Melt chocolate according to the instructions in the article (see also quote below). You'll need a good thermometer that gives you the required accuracy: I have such a thermometer, which I need for cheese making. It is very important that you chop the chocolate finely: this will take a bit of time. I place chocolate in a small non-reactive metal bowl placed over a pan with steaming (not boiling) water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water and that no water gets into the chocolate. Melt as directed, checking the temperature regularly:

Stir constantly until about two-thirds of the chocolate is melted. Take the bowl from the heat and continue stirring until all the chocolate is melted. For dark chocolate, you want the whole mass to end up at 89 to 91 F (87 to 98 for milk and white). As long as you haven't exceeded 92 F, your beta crystals should be fine…

If you use this shortcut method, you should still test the chocolate on parchment or waxed paper to make sure that the chocolate sets up hard and shiny.

Verify that your chocolate is indeed in temper. Smear a thin layer onto a piece of parchment or waxed paper, then wait five minutes and try to peel the chocolate from the paper. If it peels easily and the chocolate is shiny, not blotchy, you're fine. [source]

Prepare a tray (like a baking sheet) lined with parchment paper. When ready, toss some of the pecans into the chocolate, stir to coat well and then use a fork to pick them up one at a time (if you want individual chocolate-covered pecans), or at the same time shape them into small clusters of 2-3 nuts. Deposit pecans on the parchment paper.

As you add the pecans and stir to coat them, the temperature of the chocolate decreases and the consistency is no longer nice and fluid, so you'll need to warm up the chocolate slightly before you cover the next batch of nuts. Again, make sure the temperature remains within the limit of temper.

When you are left with a small quantity of chocolate in the bowl, covering pecans becomes difficult, so you can toss into the chocolate cacao nibs: stir, shape with a spoon and deposit on the lined sheet (see the morsel on the far right in the photo).

Trinidad State Beach
I have already made three batches of chocolate-covered pecans and the only problem I have encountered is controlling consumption. I found the oyster half-shell while walking on the beach and I thought it would work well as a small bowl.

Cookthebookslogowithborder2This is my contribution to the current edition of Cook the Books, hosted by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. You can find the guidelines for participating in the event here, and here is the announcement.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

 

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

noci pecan ricoperte di cioccolato

or launch the noci pecan ricoperte di cioccolato 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.]

pecan, chocolate

coffee cake con cioccolato e nocciole / yeasted meringue coffee cake

| Simona

DSC_0018

Group_w180x130 The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

On this page, you will find the details of the recipe, including various suggestions for the filling.

I really like the description of the recipe source: "Jamie found this recipe on a piece of yellowed paper in her dad’s collection of clipped out and hand-written recipes from the 1970’s, no source, no date, and she tried the recipe and it was brilliant!"

I struggled a bit to come up with the title for the post. A cake made to be served with caffè is alien to the Italian tradition of drinking coffee by itself, either at the end of a meal or first thing in the morning, or during a coffee break. In the end, I decided to leave the English name. Also, the original recipe name mentions that the cake is leavened with yeast (lievito secco) and that it includes a meringue (meringa). I decided to omit those from the post title and highlight instead the two main ingredients of the filling.

When I saw the photo of the coffee cake we were challenged to make, I noticed that it resembled Stollen, the German Christmas cake that we made last December. I enjoyed making Stollen a lot, so I had high hopes for the yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. I was not disappointed. Here are the adjustments I applied to the given recipe:

  • I halved the quantities and made a single cake
  • I used 1 teaspoon of instant yeast instead of active dry yeast
  • I added saffron (zafferano) to the dough, even though I didn't make Ria's version of the cake
  • I opted for a filling of 70% cocoa chocolate (cioccolato) and hazelnuts (nocciole)
  • I omitted cinnamon and sugar from the filling
  • I baked the cake using the convection bake option of my oven (forno) [which does the temperature adjustment automatically]

Everything went smoothly and the cake that came out of the oven looked quite nice. As usual, the minimalist in me made me stay away from special decorations. The egg wash gave to the cake a nice surface color, which, unfortunately, I was not able to capture properly with the camera. Of the many photos I took, only the one above was good enough for sharing. The coffee cake received an enthusiastic endorsement from my husband.

In a recent post, I showed the variation on the theme of French toast below, where I used some of my homemade English-style Coulommiers as topping. I mentioned that something else made the dish special and now I can reveal the secret: I made it using slices of the last piece of coffee cake.

DSC_0037

A special thank you goes to our hosts for their choice and efforts. It was a very 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 mentioned in the post:

coffee cake con cioccolato e nocciole

or launch the coffee cake con cioccolato e nocciole 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.]

weekend nell’Oregon meridionale / weekend in Southern Oregon

| Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

IMGP8892 / Crater Lake

After years of postponement, we finally managed to visit Ashland, OR, and the surrounding area. The immediate excuse was to see a couple of plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and to visit Crater Lake National Park. We managed to do what we had planned and a few other things besides. But let’s go in order.

IMGP8905 At the Festival, we saw Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well and loved it. We also saw Meredith Willson’s The Music Man and enjoyed it.

At Crater Lake National Park there were a lot of visitors, and for good reasons: the place is really spectacular. The water is of an intense blue (photo above) and the geology of the area is very interesting. The photo on the right shows formations called pinnacles, “eerie spires of eroded ash.”

My only regret is the inability to explore the lake by kayak. In fact, there is no boat access to the lake for the general public. I think that kayaks would be much better than the motor boats people can board to tour the lake. We walked down the one path to the shore, then back up to the road, then up to a beautiful spot (Watchman Peak), where the view was magnificent. Finally, we walked along the Pinnacles trail to the boundary of the park.

Food-related highlights of the trip include a visit to the Butte Creek Mill (mulino) which started operating in 1872 using the power of Little Butte Creek to turn the massive millstones (macine, singular macina): “The stones (1,400 pounds each) that do the work were quarried in France, assembled in Illinois, shipped around the horn to Crescent City and then carried over the mountains by horse and wagon and put into service…”

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Finding myself in the mill’s store with a vast array of flours was a challenge. I settled upon some whole-wheat bread flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, raw wheat germ (I toast it myself) and malted barley flour (for bread making).

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We made two chocolate-related visits. The first was to the Dagoba store in Ashland, a sort of pilgrimage for me, having been a long-time consumer of Dagoba chocolate bars (tavolette di cioccolato). There I bought a nice small box filled with their single-origin tasting squares. [The web site appears to be under renovation, so the link currently lands you to an announcement page.] The other visit was to Lillie Belle Farms‘s store, where I sampled some hot (meaning spicy) dark chocolate and bought some truffles and cordials. The interesting thing here is that the owners grow berries on their farm and use them in their chocolate production. We exercised restraint and actually brought back most of the chocolates (cioccolatini) that we had bought.

This short report only touches upon a few of the things we did and of the places we visited. However, I am leaving you with a link to the Southern Oregon section of the Explore Oregon site, which has a lot of pointers and beautiful photos.

Speaking of photos, after many years of faithful service, right before the trip here described, my old digital camera told me in no unclear terms that it was ready to retire. As I transition to a new one, my photos will require forgiveness. I am not even half-way through the 230-page manual and then I have another booklet to read. I am still at a point where I am afraid to turn on the thing, let alone use it for its intended purpose. And I made my life even more difficult by choosing a challenging environment for my first attempt. But that is a story for another day.

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weekend nell’Oregon meridionale

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weekend nell’Oregon meridionale

IMGP8892 / Crater Lake

Dopo anni che rimandavamo, finalmente abbiamo visitato Ashland, Oregon. La scusa era quella di vedere un paio di rappresentazioni all’Oregon Shakespeare Festival e visitare Crater Lake National Park. Siamo riusciti a fare entrambe le cose, e altre ancora. Ma andiamo per ordine.

IMGP8905 Al Festival, abbiamo visto All’s Well That Ends Well di Shakespeare e ci è piaciuto moltissimo. Abbiamo anche visto il musical di Meredith Willson’s The Music Man ed è stato molto divertente.

Al Crater Lake National Park c’erano molti visitatori e per un buon motivo: è un posto spettacolare. L’acqua è di un blue intenso (foto in alto) e la conformazione geologica dell’area è molto interessante. La foto sulla destra mostra delle formazioni chiamate “pinnacles.”

Il mio unico rimpianto è quello di non aver potuto esplorare il lago in kayak. Infatti, non e possibile accedere al lago con imbarcazioni proprie. Sono convinta che il kayak è molto meglio delle barche a motore sulle quali i visitatori possono salire per girare per il lago (visita guidata). Abbiamo camminato sull’unico sentiero che scende fino alla riva, poi siamo tornati indietro e poi siamo saliti in alto fino a Watchman Peak da dove si gode una vista magnifica. Per finire, abbiamo percorso il sentiero fino ai “pinnacles” che arriva ai confini del parco.

Abbiamo visitato Butte Creek Mill, un mulino ad acqua che risale al 1872. L’acqua di Little Butte Creek fa girare le enormi macine, ognuna pesante 1400 libbre (635 kg). Le due macine furono tagliate in Francia, assemblate nell’Illinois, trasportate in nave intorno a Capo Horn fino al porto di Crescent City, poi trasportate su carri tirati da cavalli fino al luogo del mulino.

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Scegliere qualcosa da comprare nel negozio del mulino, pieno di diversi tipi di farina è stato difficile. Alla fine ho optato per farina integrale per fare il pane, farina integrale per fare dolci, germe di grano crudo (lo tosto da sola) e malto d’orzo per fare il pane.

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Abbiamo visitato due posti relativi al cioccolato. Il primo è il negozio annesso alla fabbrica della Dagoba, ad Ashland, una specie di pellegrinaggio per me, che consumo da molto tempo le loro tavolette. Ho comprato una piccola scatola di quadratini di cioccolato di origine singola. [Il sito web è in restauro, quindi il link vi manda su un pagina con un annuncio.] L’altra visita l’abbiamo fatta al negozio di Lillie Belle Farms, dove ho assaggiato del cioccolato fondente molto piccante e ho comprato dei cioccolatini con ripieni vari. La cosa interessante è che i proprietari hanno un’azienda agricola dove coltivano fragole, lamponi e altre bacche che poi usano nella produzione di cioccolatini. Ci siamo comportati bene e abbiamo portato a casa la maggior parte del cioccolato che abbiamo acquistato.

Questo breve resoconto descrive solo alcune delle cose che abbiamo fatto e dei posti che abbiamo visitato. Per ulteriori informazioni, vi lascio il link alla sezione dell’Oregon meridionale del sito Explore Oregon, che ha un sacco di informazioni e belle foto [è in inglese: se avete domande su una pagina specifica, fatemelo sapere].

A proposito di foto, dopo molti anni di devoto servizio, subito prima del viaggetto descritto in questo post, la mia vecchia macchina fotografica digitale mi ha annunciato in termini chiari la sua intenzione di andare in pensione. Sto imparando ad usare la macchina nuova e devo studiare 230 pagine di manuale e leggere un altro libretto. Sono ancora in fase di panico quando accendo la macchina e mi sono resa la vita ancora più complicata quando ho scelto una situazione difficile per il mio primo, coraggioso tentativo. Ma questa è una storia per un altro giorno.

cioccolato / chocolate

| Simona

chocolate griffin

In a post I wrote last year, I revealed that I eat a small piece of extra dark chocolate (un pezzetto di cioccolato) every day as part of my breakfast. I should add that I eat at least another small piece later on in the day as well. My piece of chocolate comes from a chocolate bar (in Italian: tavoletta di cioccolato). (The expression fair trade chocolate in Italian is cioccolato del commercio equo e solidale.)

Chocolate has been part of my diet for as long as I remember. Being born in Perugia, a city with a renowned chocolate factory, Perugina, had definite advantages: chocolate was very much part of life. (If you are interested, in this article there are a few tidbits about Perugina and its famous Baci.) [The photo shows a chocolate rendition of the griffin, one of the symbols of the city, displayed in the window of a pastry shops in downtown Perugia.]

The passion for chocolate, born early, has stayed with me: I am always eager to try a new bar of chocolate, provided it contains at least 70% cocoa (cacao) and only natural ingredients. I may go as low as 68%, if I become convinced that the reward will justify making an exception. I am usually not enthusiastic about added flavored ingredients. In any case, when I try a new brand, I go for plain chocolate.

Last March, I visited the San Francisco Chocolate Salon at Fort Mason, hoping to find hitherto unknown bars to add to my list of favorites. I was interested in the so-called bean-to-bar manufacturers, i.e., chocolate makers that buy cocoa beans (chicchi di cacao or fave di cacao) and process them to make chocolate bars, cocoa powder, cocoa nibs, etc.

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At the Salon, a lot of the exhibitors offered cioccolatini (chocolates), some beautifully crafted and decorated, some that included interesting ingredients. I admired them without tasting, as they are not really what I like. Laura of Tiramisù was there as well, and she wrote a nice report on some of the products. (We didn't know each other back then, we have since met in person.)

What I look for in a morsel of chocolate is an intense, interesting and pleasant flavor that develops as the chocolate melts in my mouth and then stays with me for a little while afterward. I left the Salon with no new addition to my shortlist, a couple of Neo Cocoa truffles (tartufi) for my husband and a gorgeous antique book on cocoa, a temptation I was not able to resist. In fact, Omnivore Books on Food had a table with chocolate-related books, both new and from the past.

chocolate and rose petals

The chocolate bars in the photo come from my current little stash and are: Ezca bar (78% cocoa) from Escazu, a manufacturer in North Carolina that hand writes the batch number on each bar [bottom], and Tcho "Fruity" (68% cocoa, one of the exceptions I mentioned above) from Tcho, a manufacturer in San Francisco, whose factory store I am planning to visit soon. A bar of Apamate (73.5% cocoa from Venezuelan Caranero beans) from Chocolates El Rey, a manufacturer in Venezuela was nearby, but it was still unopened and I decided to leave it that way and not include it in the photo.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

cioccolato

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pastiera col cioccolato / chocolate pastiera

| Simona

I have recently written about my first attempt at pastiera. In that post, I mentioned using only half of the gift ingredients, to make a more manageable pastiera and also to allow me a second chance. Given that the worst-case scenario did not materialize, I decided to use the remaining grano cotto (cooked wheat kernels), acqua di fiori d’arancio (orange flower water) and cedro candito (candied citron) to make a pastiera that included chocolate in its filling. I believe that (almost) anything tastes better with some good quality bittersweet chocolate (cioccolato amaro).

For the chocolate variation, I made the pasta frolla (or pastafrolla, sweet shortcrust pastry) with 1/3 cup sugar instead of 1/2 cup and added 1/3 cup sugar to the egg yolks, again instead of 1/2 cup. I then shaved 2.5 oz extra-dark chocolate (70%) and added it to the ricotta mix. Everything else was as in the previous recipe. This time, I baked the pastiera the day before I served it.

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My quality assurance department and I liked both versions: they are different and each has its own strengths. What is my next step, you may wonder? I bought some soft wheat to make grano cotto (which can be used in other dishes) at home, and I will continue the gift chain that got me the secret ingredients by sending a surprise package, in due time, to… [to be continued]

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

pastiera col cioccolato

or launch the  pastiera col cioccolato  audio file [mp3].

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