Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Paprika Puff Pastry Crescents / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Cornetti di pasta sfoglia alla paprika

Here we are with our usual appointment with Maroggia’s Mill and its Cookbook. Today’s recipe is homemade puff pastry, a recipe I spent several days working on many years ago in order to find the perfect recipe as you can well see my numerous posts on millefeuille. I re-tested the recipe a few months ago using only Maroggia’s Mill flour and, needless to say, the result was excellent. On this occasion I tweaked the basic recipe with savoury pies and croissants in mind and decided to add sweet paprika powder to the flour. This puff pastry is ideal for small pies and finger food to nibble on before dinner. I shaped them into crescent shape, a form that lends itself very well to various fillings (but I haven’t filled them…I am on a diet!).

Daring Bakers the Surpirse of “failed” Muffins / Daring Bakers, la sorpresa sta nel cannare i muffins!

For the July Daring Baker’s Challenge, Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to bake a cake. But not just any cake; she asked us to add in a special surprise for our eyes as well as our taste buds!

As many of you well know the 27th of each month a group of enthusiast home bakers challenge themselves on the net through the huge Daring Bakers event, which connects many food bloggers from all around the blogosphere. Is an occasion I really enjoy taking part to, but the past months have been so busy with other projects I have been missing out two challenges already. This month Ruth from the blog The Crafts of Mommyhood threw her gauntlet to us with a very nice and funny theme: Surprise Cakes! I can’t describe the excitment felt when reading July’s instructions, as I can’t describe the feeling of total failure and disappointment that
followed my total failure. So much for trying out a new recipe/technique just on time to post. But I am putting this up anyway, in hope it will help other people to do better than me and, why not, just so you can have a good laugh. After all I am not one of those who hides her failures, am I? Not at all!

Sourdough Surprises: Gozleme filled with Kohlrabi, Aubergines and Parmesan Cheese / Sourdough Surprises Luglio: Gozleme ripieni di crema di cavolo rapa, melanzana e parmigiano reggiano

As you may well know by now the 20th of each month is dedicated to the beautiful sourdough bread – and not only, do you remember my lattst recipe for apple fritters? – collection Sourdough Surprises. This month the choice fell on a turkish filled bread, Gozleme. Those of you who know me well will know I absolutely love all kind of Middle Eastern foods. The ones who know me better and in person know about my regrets of going to Istanbul and not being able to profit fully of the experience, especially from a culinary point of view (I guess I’ll have to organize a trip with my friend Michela). It sounds so daft I know, but the only Gozleme I have ever eaten was savoured walking up and down the nice turkish market in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Potato Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccia di patate

Yet another Friday, and yet another blog post high on carb levels. Who does not love focaccia? For sourdough lovers I have already posted my recipe for wild yeast focaccia but what I lack is a little recipe a little less complex, with a lower hydration but as soft and well risen as the former. To achieve such a result I have put some potatoes in the dough, used a good flour and a little elbow grease. Are you ready for my easy peasy recipe?

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Graham Flour Tin Loaf / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Pane in cassetta con farina Graham

It’s been a while I have posted my last bread recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook, what for a bread baking preacher! So here I am then, back into baking a proper loaf. This one is perfect for a tasty breakfast, it’s dough is so soft and fragrant you won’t believe it! Graham flour, I just can’t get enough! It surprises me every time, with its rich flavor and rough texture which I find irresistible. This loaf will make your taste buds dance the cha-cha-cha!

Twelve Loaves June: Cherry and Beetroot Buns wrapped in Bacon / Twelve Loaves: Panini al latte con ciliegie e barbabietola avvolti in pancetta

With the start of a new month one of my favorite baking appointments, Twelve Loaves, comes too. What I like the most is when we choose an ingredient rather than a generic theme, such restrictions are always a good starting point to feed the imagination! Besides it’s too interesting to see how everyone interprets differently the monthly ingredient. For June, choice fell on cherries, a fruit that I love – a picture of me as a child testifies it, my face is completely plastered with juice and bears an unmistakable expression of satisfaction…”cherry thief”! – and for which it’s easy to fall into the temptation of baking a sweet bread.

Crunchy Licorice Snails / Chioccioline croccanti alla liquirizia

It has been a while that I’ve been entertaining the idea of experimenting a little with basic grissini dough and some time ago, a morning before going off to work, I baked my first batch of grissini snails.

Sourdough Surprises: Hot Dog Buns

I am back on track with Sourdough Surprises, one of my favourite bread events from which I had withdrawn a bit due to other obligations. But I am more than glad to be back on track and with a recipe totally new to me. Hot dog buns. I am not a big meat eater, and very rarely eat hamburgers and hot dogs. But the thought of being able to pull together a good and more or less healthy fast food recipe appeals to me. So much I ate Hot Dogs two days in a row!

Ècole de Boulangerie de Panissimo: Marguerite

Last month I was so taken by Easter Festive Breads (fortunately all went down well) I didn’t post the bread for Panissimo’s École. You probably won’t believe it but at the beginning of April my bread for the École de Boulangerie de Panissimo – the Marguerite – was already baked and photographed. But then came Twelve Loaves, a couple of recipes Michela and I cooked together and some other projects and there was no space for another blog post.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Savoury Muffins with Salami and Cheese / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Muffin salati con salame e formaggio nostrani

It’s Maroggia’s Mill Friday again! This recipe wasn’t meant to be published, well…not really. In fact I made it up for Azione, a quick job that was commisioned to me in a short time and I was able to pull together in just one hour prior to leaving home and going to the shop where I work part time. Needless to say there are just few pics I shot for my own database. But then my friend Michela, whom is always up to date and informed of my experiments, tried the recipe out and asked me to please please please post it so she could then make her own blogpost. That’s how much she loved the muffins, and trusting her as I trust my own judgment well…I could not decline!