Rice flour, Matcha and Lemon Cookies / Biscotti di farina di riso, matcha e limone

Tea time with a friend. Rice flour which has been sitting in the pantry for too long, as well as a jar of matcha powder which might as well be a find from an archaeological site. Consider lemons are never missing in my fridge. Put all of that above together and what you are left with is a batch of sensational cookies. And here’s the recipe!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Leftover Cake Muffins / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Muffins con resti di torta

What remains of the cake…what to do with it? Sometimes, even though not very often, a bit of cake may remain uneaten, waiting to be finished and eventually ends drying up. Or in the worst cases, as it happened to me with Antinea’s birthday cake, a part of a layered cake might break effectively becoming unusable. And what about the tops, cut to level perfectly the cake layers? Too much cake to eat, at least for me! I then asked myself what I could do with those poor cake crumbles, but also with the double Gruyère cream I had bought in excess (rather than running out an ingredient I have a tendency of buying too much) and the ridiculous amount of eggs I was given by my aunt, who has now taken the habit of delivering about a dozen every week…high cholesterol anyone? Adverse and hostile as I am to cake pops, an option which seems amongst the most popular when it’s up to use leftover, I thought of using the leftovers to flavour a batch of muffins, a sweet recipe which has been missing for quite a while in my column for the Maroggia’s Mill. In fact my last sweet muffins recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook has been the one for Beetroot, Orange and White Chocolate Muffins.

Furesta Nera Cake (or my version of Black Forest Cake) / Furesta nera (o anche la Foresta nera a modo mio)

 

Antinea is a special person. We’ve known each other for little over a year but it is as if it were a life time that we have been friends. It was a mutual friend who introduced her to me. With the impending 35th birthday I thought it would be good for me to start some kind of physical activity to keep fit. Amongst the various options the most popular for women in their thirties seemed to be pilates and talking to Marko it came out that her friend Antinea is pilates instructor. There was a nice vibe from the start and despite my stiffness and the struggle to assimilate her teachings I decided to trust her, committing to exercising and trying to overcome my limits. And so it was. I’m sure that without her there would have been no “Cuochi d’artificio” and I am convinced that pilates has greatly contributed to my physical and psychological well-being, giving me not only a new body but also a new mindset. Perhaps at my age I have finally reached a state of equilibrium and for that I must thank Antinea too.

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!

Panissimo: Bao Bunnies filled with Greeen Azuki / Panissimo: Coniglietti di pane al vapore ripieni di marmellata di azuki verdi

Panissimo is back, and it’s monthly theme too. As for March Easter is all the rave. In fact it’s all over blogs, Facebook groups and forums. Since I didn’t want to post the same recipe for different event/recipe collections this time around I decided to shift to something not too much complicated and fun for Panissimo’s post.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Madeleines with licorice and orange zest / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Madeleines alla liquirizia e scorza d’arancia

I’m back with the bimonthly appointment with Maroggia‘s Mill Cookbook and with my licorice fixation as well. Yes, not only I am so looking forward to my dear friend Michela’s – aka Menta e Rosmarino – visit over to Switzerland as amongst other things she already announced me she will bring a bag of licorice powder, but I can’t stop thinking about recipes that contain this amazing ingredient.

Spiced Baumkuchen, a layered cake for Daring Bakers / Torta albero speziata per i Daring Bakers

The January 2014 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Francijn of “Koken in de Brouwerij“. She challenged us all to bake layered cakes in the tradition of Baumkuchen (tree cake) and Schichttorte (layered cake).

I admit it, when reading Baumkuchen on this month’s Daring Bakers pdf’s document for just a slight moment I had the illusion we had to bake the Polish version (Secakz)
of this cake common in Northern Europe regions such as Germany, Austria, Hungary and funnily quite popular in Japan too. Scrolling down to read more, excited and quite scared, I won’t deny my relief discovering that Francijn choice’s had fallen on the German version of this sweet loaf.