Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Soft Milk Flatbreads / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccine soffici al latte

Yet another Friday with Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook and yet another bread: a flat bread. Nothing more handy. Flatbread can be stuffed, lends itself perfectly as an accompaniment to a main dish or serves beautiful as a simple snack. A soft and versatile bread that doesn’t need to be sliced and can be easily portioned by tearing it into smaller pieces. Ideal to have for breakfast as for lunch and dinner. This time around I wanted to try and enrich the dough with eggs and milk to make the bread as soft as I could. The result is great but I would recommend you to consume this bread when still hot or to warm it briefly in the oven or toaster after brushing it with a little water, to fully taste its softness and fragrance. You can flavour the dough with seeds, spices or chocolate chips for a tasty snack.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Multigrain Pizza / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Pizza con farina 4 cereali

Pizza, oh my beloved pizza… Anyone who knows me well knows as well how much I love this dough and how hard I worked over the years to get perfect results. The funny thing is that I’m the queen of “neapolitan style” pizza while I can’t get proper results with the dish version.

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: Trofie with Chestnut and pumpkin sauce / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Trofie alla salsa di castagne e zucca butternut

It has been quite a while since the last time I posted a fresh pasta recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. My choice fell on a classic of Genoese cuisine, trofie, which are accompanied with two typical ticinese ingredient, pumpkin/butternut squash and chestnuts. There’s nothing more autumnal than this, and considered the cold weather nothing better than a good seasonal dish to warm our hearts and bodies isn’t it?

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Semolina Flour Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccine con farina di semola

For once my english introduction to the recipe has to be completely different from the italian one. Why this? Focaccia is quite a common snack (or at least it was) in High Schools both in Ticino and in Italy. I remember those round flatbreads, that were handed out at screaming and pushing (and quite commonly spotty) teenagers during recreation time. There were few focaccias and pizzas, wrapped in grease paper (or was it the actual grease from the breads?) and many, too many of us. Those who had the chance to get their hands on such a treat would rarely share, grinning at those who were left with nothing. Oh teenagers! What was it that made to us those rubbery and greasy breads so appealing I still ask myself, watching back to those days. But let’s look forward. Luckily my tastebuds have had a proper breaducation along the years, no such “breads” are seen in my house, and I rather not eat than bite into rubber foam discs. This focaccia is what all High School pupils deserve.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Dark Chocolate and Hazelnuts Milk Rolls / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Panini al latte con gocce di cioccolato fondente e nocciole delle Langhe

It’s Maroggia’s Mill Friday again, and I am back with a sweet bread recipe. For too long these Piedmontese hazelnut have sat in my pantry. Yet another gift from my friend Michela, there are no words to describe these creamy and fragrant fruits from the generous woods of Piemonte. I knew they were very special from the moment I opened the crinkled plastic bag, crackling like a crystalline laughter of joy, and their scent enveloped me evoking other ingredients, other pairings.