Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Rye Flour Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccine con farina di segale rotta

Focaccia mon amour. Once you’ve been to Genova and gained two solid kilos by feeding yourself daily with focaccia there is no possible way out, as this crispy and soft flatbread leads to severe addiction. Along the years I baked many focacce, the first one published in the blog was a gorgeous artichoke and red cabbage focaccia for Sourdough Surprises, then I ventured into potato focaccia and developed a recipe for semolina focaccia too. But up until now I had never baked a rustic version of focaccia. This is the reason why I decided it was about time to experiment a little with whole flours too, for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. Maroggia’s Mill special pizza flour helps the dough to develop and proof in the best possible way, providing with a soft crumb and a crunchy crust, while the rye flour gives this focaccia a rustic flavour and texture. Long fermentation, needless to say, helps obtain a more digestible bread, with an aromatic and soft crumb reason why I will never stress enough about the fact it is so much worth the wait of a day. With the sunny and warm weather finally setting in you can bake a batch to share with friends for a Sunday picnic brunch. This focaccia is simply heavenly with soft goat cheese and fresh salad. Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and bake?

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Rye and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Bread Rolls / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Panini all’olio e farina di segale

Ooops, I messed up with the blog. Many of you may have noticed that last Friday I mis-scheduled my post. Instead of posting a recipe for the Mill I posted a recipe for macarons…too many things to do, appointments, too many bad days and then I lost track of the usual scheduling (I have to go back to the good habit of writing down a special calendar only for blog posts). I apologize to Alessandro, who has to deal with my head in the clouds, and all of you that expected a new recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. I have to get used to the new routine Macro-Monday and Baking-Friday. The recipe that I am finally posting was developed very spontaneously, going with the flow feeling the dough as it takes shape under the kneading hands. Bread rolls so fragrant, soft and tasty you simply cannot fall for them. To give them a special flavour and rustic texture I added whole rye flour (I think it is quite plain to everyone how much I love this flour) and extra virgin olive oil. Have them for breakfast or just a quick snack to fill your hungry belly. Want to try and make them together?

Macro dumplings for MTC Challenge / Canederli macro per l’MTC Challenge

New year, new challenges. It seems only yesterday that Francesca challenged us with a her literary inspired muffin, but it has been two months now. Enough to relax and forget how the MTC Challenge can put my brain and creativity under enormous pressure. Couple this with my macro lifestyle adventure and you can just imagine how difficult it will be for me from now on…but stubborn as I am the goal this year will be to be able to participate to all of MTC’s challenges by inventing all sorts of macro alternatives to the recipes and ingredients we will be given. Honestly these dumplings were a walk in the park if I consider the risk of running into a dessert recipe, or worse a brioche dough rich in eggs, butter and sugar. But challenges are vital in my life and for my blog(s) too and I am ready to face any recipe, even though I fear many tears will be shed being failure and disappointment just around the corner with macro cooking!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Rye, Toasted Flour and Thyme Crackers / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Crackers di farina di segale, farina tostata e timo

New year, new life, new recipe. I start the year with new recipes, with Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook and some news. As already anticipated shortly I will be opening a new blog where I will talk about my new adventure with macrobiotics and develop my own recipes according to my new lifestyle. Some changes are necessary for this blog too. It is unthinkable for me to be able to publish twice a week in both blogs, so I decided to split up the posts on two different days, keeping Fridays as posting day for the current blog and keeping Monday for the macro blog. Here the focus will be mainly on bread, and if possible I will try to participate to the various bread collections and contest I took part to the past year and a half, as Twelve Loaves, Daring Bakers and MTC Challenge. Of course Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook column will stay so I will have to make some choices, probably picking just a few challenges from month to month. But now let’s move on to the recipe with which I greet the new year.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Cast Iron Pot Wheat and Whole Rye Bread / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Pane in pentola al frumento e segale rotta

Yet another Friday and yet another loaf. There will be changes in the blog and in Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook in general. As you know I embarked this new path of macrobiotic diet in order to solce a health problem, and have no other choice, for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook, to focus more on the bread (especially ones made with wholemeal flours which are more suitable for the regime that I must follow). I won’t do any biscuits, cakes nor dessert recipes, at least not for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook as I don’t really think macrobiotic sweets and desserts fit into such column, because they have too many banned ingredients and even though I am allowed to have a little taste of banned foods better not risk to fall into unnecessary temptations. I have in mind a new project, which I will talk about later on. In short from now on, concerning Maroggia’s Mill cookbook, I will publish only bread, breadsticks and crackers recipes.

Whole Rye Flour and White Wine Taralli / Taralli alla segale rotta e vino bianco

It has been quite a while since I last posted a recipe to use up sourdough leftovers, but once more my leftover jar lay in the fridge almost filled to the brim. What to do? Yes, we all do love bread thins, breadsticks and fritters but I wanted to bake something new. In the end inspiration came to me in guise of a tarallo. I still remember discovering taralli during the first year of Art School in Varese.