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.

Ceci n’est pas un macaron: Black Tea “Macarons” / Ceci n’est pas un macaron: “Macarons” al thé nero

Yes I know, I promised myself I wouldn’t be baking sweet treats anymore…but this recipe had been waiting for more than a year to be published only waiting for me to improve my macaronage and piping skills. Since many egg whites have been stored in my freezer since December I thought it might be the right time to give it another shot. And I gave it, actually three shots (two of which turned out ok, one of which turned out too runny to even bake the batch). The result is okay but not quite the thing. As you well know proper macarons look like this. Flat top, nicely raised foot. Mine look like the Swiss famous Luxemburgerli sort of a sweet mini hamburger. But my guinea pigs assured me, they taste good and have the right chewiness to them, so I decided to post the recipe and share it with you.

Bavarian Cream with White Chocolate, Cinnamon and Orange and Dark Chocolate Butterflies / Un bavarese a quattro mani e due cervelli: Bavarese al cioccolato bianco, arancia e cannella con farfalle di cioccolato fondente

As I promised to you here on my Garganelli homemade pasta post I am finally posting the recipe for the dessert me and Michela made while her visit in Switzerland. Pastry is a world that fascinates me. Accuracy, balance of ingredients, pure aesthetics. Three core elements that just thinking about them make me shake with anxiety.

Brioches for singles having breakfast with friends / Brioches per singoli con amici a colazione

Sometimes we may be put off and a bit scared of trying out new recipes, especially those classics with foreign names evoking high class, manners or simply a tradition that may not be soiled by our tragicomical home baking attempts. Such is the effect that brioche dough makes on me. I think about Marie Antoinette (even though she never said: ”Let them eat brioche”), french baking tradition and I freeze.