Raffaele Pignataro’s Panettone / Il Panettone di Raffaele Pignataro

Christmas is coming, by now most of you will have decorated their living room with a properly decorated tree, maybe yoi have put some pomanders here and there, set up the crib and started the countdown on the an advent calendar. I admit, my innate laziness and the luxury of having my sister (up until 3 years ago) to take care of the tree and house Christmas decorations at our parents made me unfit to recreate a proper festive atmosphere in the house. But as I type it comes up to my mind that some bread wreath, from Essen Mag’s shooting, are still lying around. It would take just 10′ to make a nice decoration, something to be hanged on my front door. That said to me Christmas mood is all in the food. All memories, emotions and Christmas images are filtered by special and traditional dishes.

Merry Belated Christmas and a latecomer recipe: My Mum’s Mincepies / Tardivi Auguri di Natale e una ricetta in differita: I Mincepies di mia Mamma

Merry Belated Christmas! Working in a shop around this time of the year means no time to blog around and unfortunately little baking and cooking too. But I am back, and cannot exempt from leaving one little traditional recipe even though it’s a latecomer.

Christmas is nothing without traditions. I grew up with a weird mix of Father Christmas meets Joan Baez in front of the manger scene. But I guess that’s our tradition.

What a Daring Challenge! Sfogliatelle ricce / Che sfida ardita, le Sfogliatelle ricce per Daring Bakers!

Sandie of the lovely blog, Crumbs of Love, was our November hostess. Sandie challenged us to make a traditional Italian dessert, along with its American version – Sfogliatelle (or better known in the US – lobster tails!) The flakey, 1000 layers of super thin dough, shaped into a horn and filled with a scrumptious filling. Così buono!

Sfogliatelle ricce has always been one of my favourite sweet treats. Anything made out of layers, especially food, fascinates me. Like a surgeon I dissect mozzarella layer by layer, and do the same thing with Msemen, a moroccan bread a friend taught me to bake recently that will be surely included in the blog. Savouring sfogliatelle I’m used to gently pull one end to see at which extent the spiral will unravel before breaking. It’s a childish but irresistible way of savouring food.