Showing all posts tagged #mandorle

In Cakes & sweets recipes, Glutenfree recipes

Torta caprese

Author SaraPosted on Leave a comment
Torta caprese

The torta caprese is one of the most luscious cakes you can imagine.
And the simplest to make. A few passages and you’ll be thrown in another world.
The history of this cake dates as far back as the 1920s, or so it seems and like many of the most famous Italian cakes it is alleged to have been created by mistake. We Italians are creative even beyond our control! Apparently a famous chef was intent to prepare a chocolate cake for some distinguished American guests (some say they were famous American Mafiosi, but who would say?) and he forgot to put the flour in it, thus making maybe the first gluten-free cake of the century. The cake soon became exceptionally famous and it still is. No need to wonder, taste a small bit of it and you’ll know why.
Any baker in Italy has a recipe, I’ll leave you mine:
125 g dark chocolate
125 g butter
100 g sugar
150 g almonds
3 eggs
Powdered sugar
One pinch of salt
Water
Preheat the oven to 350° F /180° C.
Break the chocolate into pieces and melt it in a non-stick pan (preferably) with some water (not much, two or three tablespoons will do) over a moderate flame, stirring continuously. Once melted, add the butter in pieces (still stirring) until it melts. Then take it off the flame.
In the meantime, toast the almonds in a non-stick pan over a flame until they’re slightly brown. Chop them with the aid of a mixer. Add the almonds to the chocolate mix and let it cool down a bit.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until they’re clear, and then add the chocolate mixture. Stir until the mixture is smooth.
Then pass on to the egg whites, beat them with the help of a pinch of salt until they’re stiff and then gently fold them with the rest of the ingredients.
Tale a cake pan and cover it with greaseproof paper. Pour the batter into it (level it if necessary) then bake for 20/30 minutes (check with a toothpick).
Remove from the oven and let it cool down. Then decorate with powdered sugar.
You’ll love it!

In Cakes & sweets recipes

Halloween sweets

Author SaraPosted on Leave a comment
Halloween sweets

Halloween’s not much of an Italian festivity. We have carnival, we have other days. Yet, little by little, with the help of TV shows and movies and lots of advertising from companies that just needed another occasion to sell their stuff, Halloween has become a sort of new celebration, especially among the youngest. My nieces will attend their second-year-in-a-row party tomorrow night, and asked for something to bring. Lots of things, and so little time. What’s better than spooky cookies and a muffin along the way?
The dough for the cookies is just the same pastry, just need some invention to shape it differently. For the dough you need:
650 gr of flour (keep some more at hand, if the dough ‘s too wet you may need to add some more)
200 gr sugar
8 gr baking powder
4 eggs
150 gr vegetable oil
Put the eggs in a bowl and mix them with the sugar, then the baking powder and then the oil. Try to avoid any lumps. After that, little by little, add the flour. The dough is to become more solid as you pour the flour in. When it becomes less sticky, put it onto a pastry board, sprinkled with flour. Keep on kneading untile the dough is well elastic and smooth.
Then use your fantasy and start forming the cookies. For the skulls you may need a dough cutter (or a teacup) and a rolling pin. The dough must be half centimeter thick approximately.
Cut as many circles as you like, then pinch the lower part to form the jaw of the skull.
Use a fork prong or similar to form the eyes and the nose, as for the teeth I have used pine nuts.
For the witch fingers cookies use the same dough, forming little fingers by rolling bits of dough between your hands. For the nail, use a peeled almond. Mark the finger lines using a fork prong. if you want to add abit of spookiness, use any sort of jam – but it needs to be a red one (cranberries, cherries, anything you like). you can put some (very little actually) under the almons and at the basis of the finger.
Both skulls and fingers will bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Pumpkin muffins are just as easy, and you need
250 gr flour
120 gr sugar
125 ml milk
80 ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
16 gr baking powder
cinammon

Put in a bowl the baking powder, the flour and the cinammon (the quantity depends on your personal taste. I added half a teaspoon, you may want to add a full teaspoon). Stir well and then form a hole in the middle of the dry powders. where you’ll pour milk, oil and the eggs. Whisk everything and avoid the unwanted lumps (I use a food processor). Once the dough is smooth, add the blended pumpkin.
Pour the dough in the wrappers and then into the over at 180 degrees for the usual 15/20 minutes.
If you want a nice topping you may use the cheese cream I did with
200 gr fresh cheese
120 gr icing sugar
80’ gr butter
and some food coloring. Whisk the chees eand the sugar, and after it is well amalgamated add the butter (it must be soft but not melted). I used a pastry bag for the decorations.
Happy Halloween!!

In Cakes & sweets recipes

Persimmons tart

Author SaraPosted on Leave a comment
Persimmons tart

I love the shades of orange and red that the Autumn season offers us. It’s such an underrated season, but it is quite romantic and fascinating to me.
As leaves turn from the summer green to the darker shades of Yellow, and on to the most vivid reds, fruits and vegetables too brighten up with the same colourings. Pumpkins, persimmons, pomegranates… a feast of colopurs!
Altough this year is offering us an unusually lung summer, I’d love to celebrate the beginning of the autumn season with a delicate and savoury tart, all in the colors of the season.
So here it is my persimmons and almonds tart, without any shade of butter in it.
It is so easy to take, and success is guaranteed! In the picture you’ll see a rectangular baking tray (a new entry in my kitchen!) but you can use anything you like. The ingredients of this shortcrust patry is enough for a round tray of 26 cm diameter:
1 egg
70 gr sugar
60 gr vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil, but any will do)
220 gr flour
half teaspoon of baking powder
Put all ingredients together in a bowl and mix them with your hands (it’s creepy at the beginning, but it’s going to be fun!). as soon as the dole starts getting more solid, move it to a pasdry board and knead it until the dole gets solid.
Roll the dough out in the size of your baking tray, and then but the dough in the tray, and perforate the bottom with a fork. You can move on to the filling, and for this you need:
2/3 persimmons (ripe)
the zest of a lemon (organic)
1 pinch of cinammon
Flaked almonds
Icing sugar to decorate
Peel the persimmons and then squash them into a bowl with the help of a fork.Then add the cinammon and the lemon zest, and mix it all together.
Put the mixture onto the crust and level it.
Sprinkle with almons and then put it into the oven at 180 degrees foir average 25 mninutes (check your oven Always, any one has a different behavour).
One it cooled down, put some icing sugar on it and taste it with a good cup of tea. It is delicious!