Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Marjoram and Orange Zest Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccia maggiorana e scorza d’arancia

And yet again another focaccia recipe! For today’s Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook I present you the recipe for a high hydration, fresh, spring-mood flavoured focaccia. Mix a hint of creativity, a sprinkle of marjoram a pinch of orange zest and you will have a delicious bread to accompany your salads with. Keep aside the recipe to accompany cold summer soups…try it with a fresh gazpacho, you will love it! To make it I used Maroggia’s Mill pasta and pizza flour, a skilful mix of wheat flour and finely ground semolina flour. When I don’t have any of this special flour around I usually mix 50% of wheat flour with 50% of semolina flour. The recipe has been tasted and approved by my guinea pigs, what are you waiting for?

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Roscòn de Reyes / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Roscòn de Reyes

Today for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook a festive recipe. For once not a Christmas one but one dedicated to Epiphany instead, so you still have plenty of time to study it and find the time to bake it. For once I decided to cross cultural boundaries, flying to Spain. Roscón de Reyes is a doughnut shaped bread, made with a dough similar to panettone, which is decorated with candied fruit. This bread is prepared on the occasion of the coming of the Three Kings, on January 6th. In short, the Iberian version of the Swiss Three King Cake Bread! The dough I created is not the simplest to handle. For those who are not familiar with very rich and soft doughs I would recommend using a dough mixer. For reasons balance in the photographs but also to redistribute the Roscon to my various guinea pigs I decided to make mini portions, I think that for a larger donut 20 minutes of further baking lowering to 160 ° C will be surely necessary to bake the bread thoroughly. Try it…I bet you won’t find a softer dough!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Pane Carasau / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Pane Carasau

Carasau bread is a typical Sardinian bread, originally from Barbagia and spread throughout Sardinia, also known as the music paper. The Sardinian term comes from the word carasare, which means to toast. During the carasadura the bread is placed in the oven for the final baking which makes the bread crisp. The second name is probably given by its characteristic crunchiness, which makes its chewing quite noisy and…musical. Carasau bread can be eaten with cured meats and cheeses as it is or briefly dipped in water to make it softer. Carasau bread is used for recipes such as pan guttiàu and pan frattau. Nowadays for the Cookbook of Maroggia’s Mill I have decided to make a version that uses a portion of wholewheat flour, which gives this bread a more intense and even slightly sweeter taste.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Rye Flour Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccia alla segale

Focaccia, it simply needs no introduction. I baked many version but I still had to use Maroggia’s Mill rye flour. And here it is! Simply delicious…

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Bread Tin Brioche / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Brioche in cassetta

Shall those who do not like to have breakfast with a sweet and pillowy soft bread raise their hands. Well, as expected…no one! For some getting up in the morning is really hard, but I swear this brioche bread I baked for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook will make your day perfect at the first bite. Maroggia’s Mill AP white flour lends itself perfectly to bake this grumpiness-proof bread. You don’t believe me? Well, there’s nothing left for you but try!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Tenebrownies…mealworm brownies! / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Tenebrownie, o anche i brownie alle larve tenebrio

What could possibly happen when a friend offers you mealworms to taste? This is what happened two me a couple of weeks ago. I went over to the Mill for my usual flour collecting trip and found Alessandro holding a box of dried mealworms and a big grin on his face. Taste, he said. And taste I did indeed. Of course he commissioned me a recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. How cool is it to work with him???? That’s how my Tenebrownies were born. But if dried worms make you feel queasy you can bake these delicious brownies with any kind of nut or ingredient that please your palate. They are simply divine. Crunchy on the outside and extremely chewy inside. You definitely have to try them! And what about the mealworms, what do they taste like? Well, I must say I was amazed…they have a distinctive aftertaste of hazelnut!!!! In this case the flavour is very attenuated by the high content of chocolate and cocoa in the brownies but the larvae give a very special crunchiness that I have never felt in any other food, which I really liked. The proof is in the pudding!

Cantucci di Prato

Cantucci (or biscotti, as they are called in the States and UK), can’t tell you how many of those I ate when I lived in Tuscany. Actually it was one of my favourite dessert when I went at the restaurant. A nice glass of Vin Santo, the relaxed dipping of the cantucci in the golden boozy liquid. The most perfect way to end a dinner. Before Christmas I was unable to bake panettone so I indulged with backing plenty of cantucci and pandolce (a Genoese version of panettone) that I gave as a gift to family and friends. Searching for the best recipes I came across this one which is just perfect. I found it on a very reliable blog which I already known for years, Anice e Cannella. The only two changes I made have been replacing orange zest with lemon zest, which I much more prefer, and not brushing the cantucci with the egg (more out of laziness than anything else). A gift which my guinea pigs welcomed and appreciated very much. You can store them in nice tin boxes and bring them as a gift to friends who invite you over for dinner, maybe with a good bottle of Vin Santo!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Basmati Rice Sandwiches / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Panini al riso basmati

For some months now I have been getting in the mail the Swiss bakers, pastry chefs and confectioners newspaper, Panissimo. An interesting read which informs of all the news revolving around the world of baking and a huge inspiration for the development of new recipes. In fact every now and then the Richemont School publishes its recipes for delicious breads and confectioneries. And that’s how I discovered “risotto bread”, a bread enriched with cooked rice and other flavorings. Obviously I could not refrain myself from experimenting and trying to work out a new recipe of my own for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook, and thus basmati bread was born. A nice find, a bread with a soft and fragrant crumb delightfully perfumed as only Indian rice can be. I baked the buns for the first picnic of the warm season and my friends and faithful guinea pigs liked them very much. The recipe is very simple and quick, with a short proofing, but you can experiment stretching the rest of the dough in order to get a lighter, honeycombed crumb. Are you ready for the inebriating scent of these sandwiches?

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Wholemeal and Cinnamon Rusks / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Zwieback integrali alla cannella

The first meal of the day is the most important, needless for me to say it for the nth time. May it be breakfast on working days or a rich Sunday brunch spent in the company of family and friends it doesn’t really matter, it’s carbohydrates that make the difference. A proper source of energy, carbohydrates are better to be consumed during the first part of the day mainly because by approaching the night hours our capacity to burn down calories is reduced and this may lead, if carbs are consumed in excess, to an important weight gain. Today’s recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook is a twist on zwieback, a great classic of Swiss breakfasts. I admit I do prefer them much to their Italian cousins, rusks, which always seem to be inconsistent and unwilling to be properly dunk in tea. For while dunking a rusk in tea it is important not to exceed those five seconds soaking time separating a properly soaked slice from an impalpable slurry which irredeemably splashes in the cup resulting in Pollock splatters all around, staining clothing, tablecloth and newspaper. Zwieback on the other hand are more compact and can be dunk twice. Italy 0 – Switzerland 1. And why not…lets be dragged by a little national pride, roll up our sleeves and accomplices our faithful and reliable Maroggia’s Mill flours let’s bake together these crispy delights! I added whole wheat flour and a pinch of cinnamon to the mixture to differentiate our zwieback from those available on the market, but you can try to make the classic version using only white wheat flour or pick any other combinations of sweet and savoury ingredients to flavour them. For the record this recipe has been subjected to a brunch tests and got top marks from all of my five enthusiastic guinea pigs. What are you waiting for? Ready, steady, bake!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Liquorice Bagel / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Bagel alla liquirizia

Bagels. If I’m not mistaken this is the second recipe I tried after discovering my passion for bread baking. The first one was the Cottage Loaf, a bread which has been the staple of my baking when sixteen. Around that time my father used to travel a lot to the United States, something which I guess summed up with my passion for american tv series and MTV played a role into feeding my interest for this bread. I then did a 10 day holiday in N.Y. where I religiously followed my plan to eat a typical american breakfast every single morning, with the rule of changing both menu and place every single day. Amongst the breakfast I had there where bagels too, of course. I would opt for a classic philadelpia cheese and smoked salmon bagel, straight from the oven and still warm. No doubt one of my favourite breakfasts during my american holiday. I haven’t been baking bagels since, for no reason really. This time a pretty weird idea to use Maroggia’s Mill flour came to my mind. Liquorice flavoured bagels! Take a look into Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook with me and let’s see how these beauties can be baked at home.