Blood Orange and Buttermilk Ciambella

I have never kept my dislike for winter a secret. I don’t do well in the colder months. It appears that my birthday, at the height of Italian summer (July 23! Yes, LEO!) has really built a need for sunlight and warm weather in the very structure of my DNA. So, in the colder months,…

Fudgy, crackly Mother’s Day Cookies

I think it’s safe to say I enjoy the process of making these cookies just as much as I love devouring them. It’s quick work if you have a standing mixer or a hand held electric whisk, as whipping the egg with the sugar until triple the volume is the key to the fudgy texture…

Cocoa Swirl Pavlova (from my YouTube channel)

Video recipe for this beauty is HERE Pavlova is a much loved dessert from downunder. Some argue it originated in Australia, others will say it is an invention from New Zealand. It doesn’t change the simple fact that this culinary marvel is the easiest showstopper you could possibly present your guests with! The mounds of…

Christmas Marbled Ciambella

5 more sleeps… If the Christmas spirit is abundant in your house as it is in mine, you are probably busy in the kitchen baking cookies, getting high on ginger and nutmeg and humming carols on repeat. It is no mystery that this is a time of the year I cherish and hold dear. I…

Mini bundt cakes with chocolate drizzle

Yes, I’m playing the chocolate card, guilty as charged! As if mini, individual bundt cakes weren’t adorable enough, I had to go and drizzle a sticky, luscious dark lacquer all over them, thus rendering them utterly irresistible. These cakes incapsulate the beauty of baking, when a few ingredients combined together with a bit of love…

Beer and Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Flat Bread (Pizza Scima alla Birra)

It has become a tradition now to kick off the new year with a bread-dedicated post. After all, I am a self-confessed avid baker (read “bread-baking addict”) and very little else elevates my culinary spirit to blissful excitement more than kneading, beating and shaping a starchy good. I have spent the last couple of weeks…

Pizza! Home-made and utterly delicious (and healthy too!)

Very few things speak of Italy to me than a perfectly baked Pizza. The thought of a wonderfully crispy and thin crust, so masterfully stretched and folded to create the perfect base for our favorite mediterranean combination of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and a few other usual suspect, topped by a drizzle of top-notch quality extra-virgin…

Panini alle Olive (Olive and Rosemary bread rolls, made in a food processor)

Happy 2012 to all! Given my self-confessed obsession for yeasted baked goods, it only makes sense that the first post of the year is -yet another- bread recipe. I have been experimenting with doughs and flours and I really wanted to offer you an alternative to hand or machine kneading, and it turns out that some breads can be mixed in…