CArnivAL

Here there's a traditional tuscan recipe of very good frittes, as only a beloved granny can make!

150 g rice, Originario (not Parboiled)

1/2 L milk

2 Tbsp flour

2 eggs

sugar, to taste

30 g butter

zest of 1 lemon

50 g raisin

1 little glass of liqueur (Marsala or Vinsanto)

1/2 pack of baking powder

vegetable oil, to fry

extra sugar, to sprinkle

Bring to boil the milk with 1 glass of water, 2 Tbsp sugar, pinch of salt, butter and zest. Pour in the rice and cook for a very long time, until all the liquid will be absorbed. Let cool. Mix in the flour, egg yolks, liqueur, raisin and baking powder. Let stand 1 hour. Beat the egg whites until stiff picks form and mix in the rice batter.

Heat lot of vegetable oil until very hot and drop spoonful of batter in the frying pan. Fry until golden, lay on blotting paper and sprinkle with lot of sugar.

* If they become golden but they're still uncooked on the inside, pop them in preheated oven to 200°C for about 15 minutes or more, depending on the size.

Time for chocolate




I say it and I repeat it: I don't like chocolate. I know that I'm probably swearing but...chocolate tastes always the same to me. I've tried to test different kinds and I tried out many cakes, desserts, puddings, cookies and almost everything possible, but, to me, all it's just chocolaty!
In Florence there have been a little chocolate Festival (always in Piazza S. Croce, the heart of food manifestations), so I decided to do my part baking something "chocolaty". Two gorgeous cakes: Black Forest Layer Cake & a White Chocolate Matcha Loaf . The fist one was a never-tried, the second an old guest of my oven.

Black Forest Layer Cake

I adore making layer cakes, it's relaxing and very satisfying if they come out well. This one was very easy to make compared with other ones tried. The sponge layers contains no butter (...not on purpose...), just sugar, eggs and cocoa. The result it's an incredibly light cake that add up to the weightlessness of the whipped cream. All seems like a cloud in black and white, with blood dots...

For the sponge:

9 eggs

90 g cocoa

200g sugar

For the filling:

720g liqueur-drowned cherries

425 ml whipping cream

3 Tbsp sugar

85 g chocolate, grated

Sponge: whip the egg yolks with the sugar, with an electric whisk until pale and look like a mousse. Add cocoa, gently. Whisk the egg whites until firm and add them in two batches to the cocoa mixture. Divide the batter in three 20 cm springform pans and bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes. Let stand in the pan before unmold them and let cool comletely.Whip the cream until quite firm, adding the sugar little by little.Arrange the first disk of sponge on a plate, spread some cream, lay over 1/3 of the cherries, washing with some of the liqueur, cover with the second disk, cream again, cherries again. Finish with the third disk and cover the whole cake with remaining cream. Decorate with the remaining third of cherries and grated chocolate.

White chocolate and Matcha loaf

250g eggs; 250g butter; 250 g fluor; 250g sugar; 1 tsp baking powder; 100g grated white chocolate; 1 Tbsp Matcha powder.

Beat the butter, softened, with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at time, beating well after each addiction. Add flour and baking powder.Put aside 1/3 of batter and add the Matcha powder to it.In the remaining batter add the grated chocolate. Put the batters alternatively in a loaf pan and bake to 180°C for an hour or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake will come out clean.

__________Japan_________

I keep walking on the cosmopolitan way: this time is sushi, thanks to my best friend (yes, you are...no emo on the list...). Once someone said that sushi isn't an easy meal, you love it, or you hate it. I surely love it.

Getting international...

I never liked too much eating, but lately circumstances took me to hanging out with friends several nights...Friday it was Greek...not knowing what to do, my friends handed to me the whole organization (even if I'm in Florence since a little time and I didn't know exactly where a silly gang could spend the night...). I decided to try a cuisine I never tasted before: at first was Chinese, then Mexican and finally, on approval of all the mates, Greek. Definitely the right choice...the place was cozy and simple, small and intimate and I had a very good time.

I had a grilled swordfish with greek salad and taramasalata, lot of pita bread and two kinds of desserts (...I was very hungry... :P): galactoboureko and a fruit salad with greek yogurt, honey and walnuts.

grilled swordfish with greek salad

This amazing fruit salad, hidden under a

layer of thick greek yogurt

sweetened with the cluey texture of the

honey and enriched with

the crunchy one from the nuts...just PERFECT!

To be sincere, it was a little heavy...

but maybe it was my fault...because of the other

dessert I ate before!

From this...

galactoboureko

...to this...

galactoboureko

in half a minute!

___ Let's get German ___

STRUDEL

STRUDE

STRUD

STRU

STR

ST

s

Do you know when a thing just doesn't like you...you have no idea why, but you hate it...For me, there're a lot of things (and people : ) ) that just result odious. Strudel was one of those, before, one day, came up to my mind the insane idea of baking somothing that I've been hating since I discovered cooking. As it is said, appearance deceives... Studel is now one of my favourite dessert, right up in the top ten, maybe in the top three (I'm a disaster with lists, so forgive me but I can decide and, honestly, I don't fell like to ;)... ).

Classics are always the best!

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup flour

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1/2 stick of butter, softened

1 egg

pinch of salt

8 golden (or granny) apples, pealed and cut into thick slices

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup raisin

bread crumbs

For the crust: Put the flour and salt in a bowl amd make a well in the center. Melt the butter in the water. Mix the egg and the water mixture with the flour and kneat until smooth and moist, but not sticky (add some flour or water if needed). Let rest 25 minutes, covered.

Lay a dry kitchen towel on work surface, dust with a little flour and roll out the dought in a very thin sheet. Helping with your hands close into a fist, with knuckles moving from the center to the edges, continue stretching the dought, watching out not to snach the pastry. Try to get a rectangle, that will makes your strudel look prettier, but it's absolutely not necessary!

For the filling: Mix all the ingredients together, except the bread crumbs. Sprinkle the sheet of pastry with breadcrumbs and lay over the apples. Fold the upper part of the long sides over the filling and then, helping you with the towel, roll up to enclose, very gently. Arrange strudel on unbuttered baking sheet seam side down. Brush the surface with a little melted butter and bake in preheated oven to 200°C (400°F) for about 30-40 minutes.

CHocO minT ChEEsecAKE

Thanks to my little mummy that always has the perfect idea...she, as I do, goes mad when someone says the word "cheesecake"...cheesecake, cheesecake,cheesecake...ok...enough...I love doing cheesecake, she loves eating them, so we're the perfect couple! As usual I totally don't know what dessert to make, which ingredients to use, which flavour give way to. And, as usual, she comes out with something brilliant, smart and delicious! This time she decided for chocolate and mint. I made this cheesecake without any recipe (sorry...I don't feel a baker right now...) and I opted for a "ligh" version, which means without any added fats such as pouring cream, sour cream or mascarpone. All it's just ricotta, cream cheese and eggs.

The taste is incredibly deep and surprisingly refreshing. You can taste AAALLL the mint!...my brother said that it seemed to him to eat tooth paste...then, looking at my puzzled face, corrected the comment saying that it looked like a Polo candy...much better...But he doesn't understand a lot about baking...and he doesn't like mint, so he has not voice in it! Said from someone who doesn't like chocolate (that is me), choco-mint is a geat combination. Very very pleasant.

Crust:

250 g cookies, crumbed

125 g butter

Filling:

450 g ricotta cheese

450 g full fat cream cheese

220 g sugar

4 eggs

200 g chocolate

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp mint extract

Make the crust by mixing the cookies with melted butter. Cover the bottom of a 24 cm (9 inch) springform pan and let refrigerated until firm.

For the filling mix cream cheese, ricotta and sugar. Add the melted chocolate and sifted cocoa powder. Then add the eggs, one at time, vanilla and mint extract. Pour the batter over therefrigerated base and cook in preheated oven to 160°C for about 90 minutes.

Chill overnight. Just before serving dust the surface with lot of extra cocoa and a pinch of matcha powder. Decorate with green mini-smarties.