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…
Tag: flour
Easter Scrolls and Hot-Cross Buns!
As the Holy Week marches on, I feel the urge to get my hands in more festive doughs! What could be better than home-made hot cross buns and scrolls? With the warm tang of cinnamon, the liveliness of orange peel and the opulence of chocolate, they are definitely going to be on offer at my Easter…
Colomba: an Italian Easter Bread, with Prosecco and Chocolate chips
Colomba is a classic Italian Easter enriched bread, similar to the more illustrious Panettone, traditionally baked in a dove-shaped mould, hence its name (colomba in Italian means dove). The dough is built in various stages and the thought alone may be enough to put off many people with busy lives, but , don’t despair! The…
Almond, Orange and Blackberry Cakes
As I opened my freezer a few days ago, I noticed a couple of punnets of blackberries I had been keeping for a rainy day. Rainy it was indeed. In fact it had been so wet in Sydney that I was starting to wonder whether we’d have any dry days at all this year! The…
Golden Syrup Chocolate and Oats cookies
Imagine biting into a golden, soft cookie studded with perfect white and dark chocolate pearls. Imagine tasting its buttery and slightly syrupy crumb, as it softly dissolves in your mouth. Imagine a cookie dough that takes 5 minutes to make and 10 minutes to bake… Yes, this delectable little nugget can be yours in just…
Bretzels
If you have travelled around those magnificent lands in the north of Italy, right on the border with Switzerland and Austria, you may have wondered if all of a sudden you had crossed the frontier! Fair enough, the first language spoken in Trentino Alto Adige is German and the culinary traditions of the area borrow…
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…
Crispy Calamari with Peroni-battered Zucchini Fries
It’s the first day of Summer in the Southern hemisphere! What better way to celebrate than a platter of golden calamari rings and crunchy zucchini fries? And Peroni, of course! As it happens most years, it’s a cloudy, windy and slightly chilly day today, nevertheless it is summer indeed and I can see that in…
Panforte, an Italian Christmas Treat
Panforte is as traditional Italian as it can get. Legend has it, and some historical accounts may prove this too, that crusaders themselves used to carry, on the way to their quest, slabs of what was described as a durable confection made with honey and sugar syrup, spices, nuts and dried fruits: Panforte, that is….
Spiced Angel Cookies
150 gr (1 and 1/3 cup) sifted flour 50 gr (1/4 a cup) almond meal 1 egg yolk 95 gr (3/4 cup) of icing sugar 100 gr (a little less than 1/2 cup) of soft butter 2 tablespoons of milk 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or extract or scraped seeds. 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon…