Homebaker’s Cookbook: / Persimmon Pie Il Ricettario di Homebaker: Pie di cachi

Today for Homebaker’s Cookbook I present you with a simple pie to use up the last seasonal persimmons. If you are vegetarian you can substitute the shortening fat with butter, but I assure you that adding shortening will make your pie’s dough very crumbly I highly recommend the use of this ingredient to “cut” the butter while making pies.

Homebaker’s Cookbook: Almond and Sesame Biscuits / Il Ricettario di Homebaker: Biscotti alle mandorle e sesamo

Some time ago I discovered reginelle palermitane, very simple but delicious biscuits. This recipe is simply inspired by the original biscuits, which I thought were the result of a mix between wheat flour and almonds an ingredient in fact missing in the original recipe, as found out after a fairly detailed study, nonetheless I decided to put in the mixture to make my own version for Homebaker’s Cookbook. I chose to use homebaker’s farina 400, a flour specific for biscuit baking. Since I started using it in my recipes for biscuits and crackers I keep a package in the pantry…the difference, compared to biscuits baked with all purpose flour, is tangible and all the baked goods resulting are definitely more crisp! These almond and sesame biscuits are not too sweet and are ideal for both breakfast and a coffee break.

Tigelle

Street food is now everywhere on the streets of our cities and at every special event around Ticino. A few years ago when I attended Food Immersion Festival I was impressed by Tigella Bella‘s stand but there was so much to say and eat that I realized I had completely forgot to mention them! The thought of these soft flat breads didn’t leave me but only now I had the idea to reinterpret the original recipe. The result? Spectacular! Try them as soon as baked. Warm, soft and fragrant they lend themselves beautifully for a brunch in your backyard!

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

 

Street food is now everywhere on the streets of our cities and at every special event around Ticino. A few years ago when I attended Food Immersion Festival I was impressed by Tigella Bella‘s stand but there was so much to say and eat that I realized I had completely forgot to mention them! The thought of these soft flat breads didn’t leave me but only now I had the idea to reinterpret the original recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. The result? Spectacular! Try them as soon as baked. Warm, soft and fragrant they lend themselves beautifully for a brunch in your backyard!

Seadas

Once you start with fried foods, well…it’s over! Frying makes almost anything irresistible so for today’s recipe I present you a typical sardinian dessert: seadas. Also called Sebadas, they are amongst the most famous Sardinian desserts. Usually made with semolina flour and filled with pecorino cheese and lemon zest, seadas are enjoyed with honey to sweeten them naturally. But let’s find out more about these irresistible fried treats!

MTChallenge: Terrine!

Another month, another challenge. Welcome back to the monthly appointment with the MTChallenge. The last challenge was won by Giuliana, our vintage hen which is quite passionate with terrines.I must confess. Terrines scare me, they always did. I don’t like them. Blame it on the gelatin, which remind me of culinary horrors of the 70s which can be found on many pages of my mum’s culinary scrap books. I always considered terrines a too playful and poor of substance dish (forgive me Giuliana!). But MTC is MTC, one simply can’t escape from it. As a matter of fact, the more a subject is far from what I like the most, the more stress it generates and the more excited I feel. More or less. The roughest British sides of me started saying “No cold jellies… can’t you see you finally have the chance to try and bake your own pork pie? You don’t want to lose this opportunity do you?”. HI must come out of the pie closet and my beloved Van Pelt will be shocked, she will… I’ve never ever baked a pork pie in my whole life. I needed MTC to finally bake one! I have to be honest. I had many ideas mainly involving apples, oranges, beetroot and liquorice. Then I had a fennel, lying on its own in my fridge, and decided to flavour the broth with spices and the pig with herbs. No overthinking and simply following my gut.

Semolina Flour Tozzetti / Tozzetti di semola rimacinata fine

Bread sticks, bread sticks…an endless love. Grissini have always been my favourite snack (as a child when we went out for a pizza I would steal grissini bags to all diners at our table, then grissini became the staple snack I would nibble during trips on trains when I went at the university), I never get tired of trying new recipes and mix of ingredients. This time I tried to put together one of my favourite flour (the friscello or fine semolina) with some farina bianca nostrana, equivalent of a strong bread flour. From the fridge I removed a tiny jar of shortening which was left from making pies, mainly out of curiosity (shortening is often amongst the ingredients of artisanal bread sticks that can be found in shops and supermarkets) as it seemed the right amount for this recipe and waste not want not, right? I used some refreshed and very active liquid sourdough and voilà the perfect recipe is served, more out of luck than anything else. I’m not sure whether the flour, lard or simply the mix of all these ingredients made the trick, but this recipe is among the best I’ve created so far. These tozzetti (meaning stocky, as I named them for their flat, short and thick shape) are the apotheosis of crunchiness.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Turmeric, Ginger and Black Pepper Crackers / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Crackers alla curcuma, zenzero e pepe nero

Sometimes they come back again. I can’t stay away from crunchy baked goods, they definitely have a hold on me! After having delighted you with my rye, toasted flour and thyme crackers, emmer knacker brot with mixed seeds, dried wild fennel leaves, lemon and pepper crackers, sourdough crackers and sourdough bread thins I think it’s about time to present you a new recipe Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook, this time using a part of pastry flour and shortening to favour crunchiness. They are simply irresistible! Turmeric gives them an intense and pleasant flavour while ginger adds a little freshness. Black pepper fits well anywhere adding a bit of a kick that is felt just at the end, giving these crackers a little extra. Enjoy these snacks along with an aperitif or during a study break (can’t think of the amount of crackers I did eat during my university days!). They are very easy to make and do not require much time so you have no excuse not to try them out for the next dinner or party you’ll be throwing at home!

For a special friend: Flavia Ingalls’ Custard Pie / Per un’amica speciale: Torta alla crema di Flavia Ingalls

This recipe is dedicated to a good friend and amazing photographer, Flavia. I have known her for almost a year now, having had the chance to team up with her for many of our works for Migros’ weekly paper, Azione, and get on very well. When we can we have dinners and movie projections at the studio she shares with some other very talented guys. On the 28th of August she celebrates her birthday and knowing of her unconditional love for “Little house on the prairie” I looked up many website in search of a themed present. Until we stumbled upon a book of Vivian Maier’s works while visiting an exhibition and suddenly changed plans. But something “Little prairie” themed had to be there for her birthday! So I looked on the web for a recipe instead and picked this custard pie. Why I am posting it so late? Well I admit that along the months I had to tweak a little the recipe until coming up with this one, which is simply perfect.

MTC Challenge: Of Mice and Men, a muffin dreamed by labourers / MTC Challenge: Uomini e topi, il muffin sognato dai braccianti

And so we are approaching the end of the month, and as usual I am posting just a few days before the end of this month’s MTC challenge. Last month, Francesca from the Blog Burro e Zucchero won and for this last challenge before the end of the year she decided to set a higher bar. This time not only a basic recipe to take inspiration from, but the obligation to take inspiration from written work, may it be a book, a poem, a story or a song, justifying the use of ingredients in relation to it. After a first enthusiastic reaction I got into panic. What to choose? What writer, poet, singer-songwriter? What inspiration to follow, which ingredients to choose?