Homebaker’s Cookbook: / Persimmon Pie Il Ricettario di Homebaker: Pie di cachi

Today for Homebaker’s Cookbook I present you with a simple pie to use up the last seasonal persimmons. If you are vegetarian you can substitute the shortening fat with butter, but I assure you that adding shortening will make your pie’s dough very crumbly I highly recommend the use of this ingredient to “cut” the butter while making pies.

Homebaker’s Cookbook: Baghrir/ Il Ricettario di Homebaker: Crèpes millebuchi

Today’s recipe for Homebaker’s Cookbook is a reinterpretation of baghrir, a bubbly pancake often used as an accompaniment for both sweet and savoury dishes. I wanted to propose you with a sweet version like the one I tasted at the home of my friends Simone and Ramzi. I made an addition of saffron to perfume these pancakes that will drive you crazy. Try them for breakfast, you will love them.

Baghrir
x about 24-30 crêpes

330 g water
180 g homebaker’s pizza and pasta flour 
7 g baking powder
5 g sugar
2 g salt
1 g instant yeast
½ packet of saffron powder

In a large bowl blend all the ingredients except the baking powder and salt.
Stir up with a whisk for about 4 minutes, then cover the bowl with clingfilm and let it rest at room temperature for about an hour.
Add the baking powder and salt.
Stir up for a few seconds, just to mix all the ingredients.
Cover the bowl again with clingfilm and let it rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
Take a non-stick pan and heat it.
Do not grease and pour a ladle or a spoonful of mixture.
The mixture will form many bubbles on the surface.
Baghrir are ready when all the bubbles have burst.
They are cooked only on one side so resist the temptation of flipping them over.
Do not overlap the pancakes and store them covered under a towel.
Proceed like this with all the dough.
Baghrir are excellent with butter and honey melted together in a saucepan.

Il Ricettario di Homebaker: Crèpes millebuchi

La ricetta di oggi per il Ricettario di Homebaker è una mia reinterpretazione dei baghrir, o anche chiamati crêpes millebuchi. Una specialità marocchina spesso usata come accompagnamento per piatti dolci e salati, ma io ho voluto proporveli nella versione dolce come quella che ho assaggiato a casa dei miei amici Simone e Ramzi. Ho fatto una aggiunta di zafferano per profumare queste crêpes che vi faranno impazzire. Provatele per la colazione, non vi deluderanno.

Crêpes millebuchi
x circa 24-30 crêpes

330 g acqua
180 g farina homebaker per pizza e pasta 
7 g lievito chimico per dolci
5 g zucchero
2 g sale
1 g lievito di birra
½ bustina di zafferano in polvere

In una ciotola capiente frullate tutti gli ingredienti tranne il lievito chimico e il sale.
Rimescolate con la frusta per circa 4 minuti, poi coprite la ciotola con pellicola alimentare e lasciate riposare a temperatura ambiente per circa un’ora.
Aggiungete il lievito per dolci e il sale.
Rimescolate per pochi secondi, giusto per amalgamare tutti gli ingredienti.
Coprite nuovamente la ciotola con pellicola alimentare e lasciate riposare a temperatura ambiente per circa 20 minuti.
Prendete una padella antiaderente e scaldatela.
Non ungetela e versate un mestolino oppure un cucchiaio abbondante di composto.
L’impasto formerà sulla superficie tante bolle.
Le crêpes sono pronte quando tutte le bolle saranno scoppiate e vengono cotte solo da un lato.
Non sovrapponeteli e conservateli coperti sotto un telo.
Procedete così con tutto l’impasto.
I baghrir sono ottimi con burro e miele fusi insieme in un pentolino.

ZZAFF!: Cavollatt montato

 

For the last episode of this season of ZZAFF! I chose a simple but very scrumptious recipe. The base consists in cavollatt, an egg cream that was once consumed as an energy drink because of the amount of sugar and fat contained in it. The cream, alternated with ladyfinger biscuits, results in an excellent dessert that is perfect for the summer season. Cavollatt montato has to rest in the refrigerator and is to be eaten cold.

ZZAFF!: Amaretti ticinesi

For this month’s ZZAFF! Episode we offer you a recipe for a sweet ticinese treat which often accompanies coffee at the end of a meal. I’m talking about amaretti, slightly bitter biscuits, crumbly on the outside and soft on the inside, which were born from the need to use egg white left over from the preparation of recipes based on yolk, such as panettone or cream custard. Amaretti are very popular all over Italy, where different types of this biscuit can be found. In fact, those from Ticino are different from the best-known Italian amaretti biscuits, which are round and soft (amaretti di Sassello) or crispy (amaretti di Saronno). The term amaretti comes from the bitter taste given by armelline (bitter almonds) which are added in small quantities, but for convenience I used sweet almonds only adding a few drops of bitter almond flavour.

ZZAFF!: Amaretti ticinesi

 

For this month’s ZZAFF! Episode we offer you a recipe for a sweet ticinese treat which often accompanies coffee at the end of a meal. I’m talking about amaretti, slightly bitter biscuits, crumbly on the outside and soft on the inside, which were born from the need to use egg white left over from the preparation of recipes based on yolk, such as panettone or cream custard. Amaretti are very popular all over Italy, where different types of this biscuit can be found. In fact, those from Ticino are different from the best-known Italian amaretti biscuits, which are round and soft (amaretti di Sassello) or crispy (amaretti di Saronno). The term amaretti comes from the bitter taste given by armelline (bitter almonds) which are added in small quantities, but for convenience I used sweet almonds only adding a few drops of bitter almond flavour.

Seadas

Once you start with fried foods, well…it’s over! Frying makes almost anything irresistible so for today’s recipe I present you a typical sardinian dessert: seadas. Also called Sebadas, they are amongst the most famous Sardinian desserts. Usually made with semolina flour and filled with pecorino cheese and lemon zest, seadas are enjoyed with honey to sweeten them naturally. But let’s find out more about these irresistible fried treats!

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!

ZZAFF! Spampezie

For this month’s installment of ZZAFF! I chose a traditional Christmas recipe. Spampezie biscuits are a typical Christmas treat filled with a mixture of nuts, grated bread, spices, grappa, sugar and honey which are only produced in some Leventina villages. They keep for very long periods and it is said that the families used to send them overseas to their emigrated children. Spampezie are produced only in Faido, Prato, Dalpe, Osco, Chiggiogna or in other municipalities of the lower valley such as Bodio, Personico and Pollegio. Some say that Osco is the homeland of spampezie.
Typically the cookies are pressed into wood shapes that have different shapes. Carved figures recall festivities or represent the coat of arms of a family. The basic preparation method has remained virtually untouched until today: however, everyone has his personal recipe, which is unlikely to be revealed.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Hazelnut and Liquorice cake / Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Torta di nocciole e liquirizia

Some time has passed since the last cake recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. One of those simple cakes, easy and quick to bake and offer to friends who come over for a tea or a coffee, or as the perfect finishing touch to a casual dinner. This recipe lends itself well to be customized using other nut-based flours such as almond flour, pistachio flour, or walnut flour. This cake (which I baked in a 15×8 cm mould with 1/3 of the amount of ingredients shown in the recipe written for this post, which requires the use of a ring mould of approximately 23 cm diameter) marries the warm and enveloping taste of hazelnut with the slightly bitter sweetness of licorice. What a perfect match!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Gin Bisbino Babà / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Babà al Gin Bisbino

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Today for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook I propose you my own interpretation of a great classic of Neapolitan pastry. The babà! Three years ago I baked babà for the first time thanks to the MTChallenge and I then promised to myself to try out other combinations sooner or later. I just had to wait until Alessandro wrote to me one day asking me if I had some original ideas to promote a new brand of gin, 100% local, produced by friends of his. I had already heard about Gin Bisbino and already had the opportunity to taste it but in fact I had never thought of using it in a recipe. Gin Bisbino really impressed me for its delicate flavour. A real pleasure to taste Gin Bisbino goes perfectly well with the fresh flavours of rosemary and grapefruit I chose to flavour the pastries with. To balance the bitter note of the grapefruit I added a little rose water that comes very delicately as an aftertaste, especially when the cream is eaten on its own. I decided to brush the babàs with rhubarb jelly which is slightly sweeter albeit maintaining the sourness of the other ingredients. And if you do not want to get your hands dirty, you can always try the recipe of Gin Bisbino to make an excellent Gin Tonic!