Monthly Archive for dicembre, 2013

Savoury brioche with ham,cheese and olives

Published by Lucina, on 30 dicembre 2013 in bread, English Recipes and Torte salate, pizze. 1 Comment

savoury brioche with ham, cheese and olives

Hello everyone, I bet you are all reeling from the Christmas excesses. Well, here’s another excess you MUST indulge yourself in: this incredible savoury brioche. It’s to die for! Amazingly soft and very, very tasty. You will impress family and friends if you produce one of these, I am sure.  I have already made it three times with very pleasing results. This one has ham in it but you could make it vegetarian by substituting the ham with mushrooms. What I like about it is that, unlike other brioches I have seen, it doesn’t contain ridiculously high amounts of butter.  I found the recipe on this amazing Italian blog called Zenzero e limone (Ginger and lemon to you!) and slightly adapted it. The lady who blogs is clearly passionate about cooking and knows her stuff in the kitchen . I will be trying some more of her recipes soon for sure!! Anyway, if you are interested in trying your hands at some yeasty type of bread try this one. Success guaranteed! Continue reading ‘Savoury brioche with ham,cheese and olives’

Chelsea buns with mincemeat

Published by Lucina, on 24 dicembre 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 1 Comment

chelsea buns with mincemeat

And here’s one of the things I made with my homemade mincemeat.  Chelsea buns go back a long time. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true…ha ha) they made their first appearance in the 18th century. The traditional variety are made with an enriched dough and contain currants, brown sugar and spices. They have a nice, sticky glaze on the top. I decided to give them a Christmas twist by using mincemeat  and lovely they were too. Candi blogged a Swedish version,  similar in looks to these, but made with cinnamon and cardamom last year (see here). As they are type of bread buns they  are best eaten on the day. Continue reading ‘Chelsea buns with mincemeat’

Home made mincemeat with brandy

Published by Lucina, on 24 dicembre 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 2 Comments Tags: , .

mincemeat with brandy

I can already see Italian people puzzling over the word “mincemeat”. Surely you can’t mix minced meat with brandy, right? RIGHT! I was puzzled too when I first came to England and realized that there is no meat in this traditional mixture that you use to make mince pies (one of the the traditional sweets to have here at Christmas time). Phew! Mincemeat is actually a sweet concoction made with raisins, sultanas, candy peels, sugar, spices, etc. So why is it called mincemeat? I really don’t know, is the answer. Must go on google and see whether I can find the solution to the riddle. All I know is that traditional mincemeat contains suet which is fat from meat. Could that be the reason why? Anyway, last year I made frangipane mince pies which turned out to be really nice, but I used mincemeat I had bought. This year I decided to make my own. Oh yes! And a cinch it was too! I didn’t use suet for mine but butter, as suggested by the mighty Mary Berry (the inspiration came from watching a Christmas programme with her and Paul Hollywood). I have already used some for the frangipane mincepies but ALSO to fill some Chelsea buns, which I will blog as well. They were both a success. Continue reading ‘Home made mincemeat with brandy’

Pistacchiella

Published by Candida, on 22 dicembre 2013 in Chiacchiere/Chatting, Dolci, marmellate and Ricette in Italiano. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

 Dopo i buonissimi biscotti di Lucina, se deve essere pistacchio, che pistacchio sia! Vi manca qualche regalino? Si potrebbe rimediare con un vasetto di questa specie di Nutella di pistacchio a base di cioccolata bianca. La dose per tre vasetti medi (quello che vedete nella brutta foto è il rimasuglio). La cosa importante è non essere appena andati a farsi le unghie, visto che ve le distruggerete a forza di pelare pistacchi.

Continue reading ‘Pistacchiella’

Date and honey wholemeal bread

Published by Lucina, on 19 dicembre 2013 in bread and English Recipes. 0 Comments Tags: , .

                                     date and honey wholemeal bread

Despite my previous post this bread was not made with sourdough. Anybody can do it, don’t worry! (Having said that I confess I am now in the habit of adding a dollop of sourdough to all the breads I bake. It is supposed to improve the texture.) My fascination for bread continues, following the two bread making courses I attended. I hardly ever buy bread from the supermarket these days. At a push I get it from the local artisan bakery but I have now got into the swing of baking my own. Once you get into the routine it is really quite easy. Plus I get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction out of it. I’m sure it’s much better for your health anyway (have you looked at the ingredients list of those supermarket loaves- the sliced ones sold in plastic bags, I mean? There is all sort of rubbish! How else could they last for weeks? SCARY!). Continue reading ‘Date and honey wholemeal bread’

How is Tomik??? Is he still alive?

Published by Lucina, on 14 dicembre 2013 in bread and Chiacchiere/Chatting. 4 Comments
The legendary Tomik the sourdough. View from above

Followers of this blog may recall that back in April I “gave birth” and started experimenting with sourdough. Tomik is how I christened it (apparently master bakers give names to their sourdough starters. Not that I’m a master baker of course but I liKed the idea!) Some of you might wonder, after all these months, whether the love affair has continued or if I managed to kill the baby sourdough off….. WEEEELLLL, you’ll be happy to know that Tomik is alive and kicking and has never been healthier. It (he?) even survived being put in the freezer during the summer while we went on holiday (Yes! can you believe it? You can freeze sourdough!) Since it was born I have made lots of things with it: pizza, pancakes (blogged) and obviously different types of bread ( not blogged as I don’t want to become a one trick recipe pony). I won’t lie to you: it is a bit of a faff to keep it alive. You have to feed it regularly (only with flour and water, don’t worry. I wouldn’t want you to think I have a strange beastie lurking  in my house!). Definitely a labour of love then! BUT don’t be put off: the results are very pleasing indeed. And let’s not forget that sourdough is all natural stuff and that the  bread made with it is much easier to digest? Continue reading ‘How is Tomik??? Is he still alive?’

Pistachio and cardamom shortbreads

Published by Lucina, on 5 dicembre 2013 in biscuits and English Recipes. 3 Comments

pistachio and cardamom shortbreads

Yes! Yet another biscuit recipe to share with you, my friends! From the woman who never used to bake them it’s pretty impressive,uh? I have come to the conclusion biscuits are rather a  versatile thing to make! You can offer them to friends when they make a surprise call, have one with your tea or coffee when you are feeling peckish or take one to work with your packed lunch to make it less boring and impress your colleagues. And all without feeling you are overindulging too much. Somebody will point out that these little babies aren’t without a calory or two, judging by the quantity of butter that goes into them but I choose to ignore the remark. Anyway I baked these beauties a few weeks ago and they went down a treat with my Italian lady friends. My husband’s work mates were also suitably impressed. I LOVE pistachios and adore cardamom as a spice so when I spotted this Ottolenghi recipe containing both I just KNEW I had to try them. And sure enough they didn’t let me down. They were definitely worth the effort. Lovely and crumbly, with a rather moreish, delicate flavour. I’ll make them again for sure. I was thinking how lovely they would go with some coconut ice cream or similar….YUMMY! Food for thought…. Continue reading ‘Pistachio and cardamom shortbreads’