Chestnuts Flour and Walnut Bread / Pane alla farina di castagne e noci

How I love the cold season. Vendors at every turn of a corner, the thick smoke coming from the roasting racks. Paper cones filled with roasted chestnuts keep my hands warm. Autumn and winter are my favourite season for their distinctive perfumes and flavours. Chestnuts come in the first place of my cold season food top ten. Sweet and fragrant, once amongst the staple food of our ancestors here in Ticino it has now become quite an expensive ingredient to buy in stores. Definitely not an every day ingredient if not for those who have the chance of being able to go in the woods and pick some. Every now and then I treat myself with a bag of chestnut flour and bake kolache. Lately I have been experimenting a bit and came up for this recipe for a bread I took to a dinner with friends. It’s flavour is intense and lends itself well to accompany a vegetable soup which is so seasonal. Chestnuts, walnuts and polenta are all products which are typical of my region and blend perfectly. This bread is one with a strong personality, it is rich and dense and keeps fresh for several days…a bit like bread did in the old days.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Traditional Wheat Loaf, baked in a Cast Iron Pot / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Pane classico di frumento cotto in pentola

Yet another Friday and to make up for my macaron incident two weeks ago (for those who don’t know I should have posted a recipe fro Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook but messed up with the schedule) yet another recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. For today’s post I baked a simple, classic loaf. A round loaf with a crispy and fragrant crust.

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!