Author Archive for Lucina

Page 11 of 23

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’

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’

Canederli agli spinaci

Published by Lucina, on 24 novembre 2013 in Cucina regionale, English Recipes, Primi and vegetarian. 3 Comments Tags: .

canederli agli spinaci

As I promised on my return from my summer holidays in the Dolomites here I am blogging a typical dish from that area ( which I finally got round to making) : the legendary canederli. What are they? I hear you ask…. Well, the best way to describe them is they are big bread dumplings which are cooked in boiling salted water. A bit like gnocchi. They were originally a peasant dish. I have made the vegetarian version (with spinach and cheese) but the traditional ones contain speck which is a smoked ham from those mountains. I tried both versions when I was in Italy, as well as those made with beetroot. All delicious,  and a great way to use stale bread. They are not difficult to prepare and are very tasty (as well as VERY filling). Recipes on the internet vary but here’s what I did. It worked first time. Continue reading ‘Canederli agli spinaci’

Biscoitos de maizena (take 2)

Published by Lucina, on 15 novembre 2013 in biscuits and English Recipes. 0 Comments Tags: , .

 

biscoitos de maizena (take 2)

If Candi is also jumping on the maizena band wagon I can’t NOT (can you have a double negative in English? I am not sure!) blog the second experiment with maizena biscuits which I promised you. The ones only using  maizena flour, remember? The advantage of this version is that they can be enjoyed by gluten intolerant people. I must say this 100% maizena flour variety is every bit as nice as the previous one and certainly as easy to make, if not easier. I particularly like their yellowish colour and their slightly coarser  texture, (because of the maizena flour which basically resembles polenta, only finer). I reduced the amount of butter and sugar the recipe suggested but even then I confess there is quite a lot of both in them. Oh well!   You only need to have ONE with your tea or coffee. It won’t send your cholesterol levels sky high, surely! Continue reading ‘Biscoitos de maizena (take 2)’

Biscoitos de maizena

Published by Lucina, on 5 novembre 2013 in biscuits, Dolci and English Recipes. 8 Comments Tags: .

biscoitos de maizena

Yes, I am blogging in Portuguese! Well…at least the name of the recipe. It sounds much more enticing. Let me tell you why I ended up making these lovely little biscuits. The inspiration to bake them actually came from Candi’s post (biscottini al limone). Last weekend I tried making them but sadly they turned into a misdemeanour (read:they ended up in the bin). Why? Because I must have put too much bicarbonate of soda in them and you could taste it when you ate them. Oh dear!  Candi’s teaspoon must be much smaller than mine. :-(  Never mind: I know what to do next time. Anyway, I noticed that one of Candi’s biscottini al limone’s ingredients was maizena. Only a tablespoon of it but still. It so happened that I had a small bag of it in my cupboard, still unopened and about to expire with NO idea what to make with it so I started searching the net for biscuits recipes requiring maizena flour. Continue reading ‘Biscoitos de maizena’

Rhubarb and creme fraiche tart

Published by Lucina, on 20 ottobre 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

rhubarb and creme fraiche tart

I fear this recipe will cause some problems for the Italians as rhubarb is something unknown in Italy. You can’t buy it in supermarkets over there, for example . In fact I would be surprised if an Italian knew what rhubarb looks like. Am I right? Please Candi/Italians, correct me if I’m wrong. However don’t despair: you could probably adapt this recipe and use another soft fruit instead, like raspberries or blueberries. I don’t know about you but I really love rhubarb. It’s really lovely stewed with some sugar and then eaten with yoghurt. Would you believe that  in Holland it is classified as a vegetable and eaten as a side dish to accompany meat? Really quite bizarre! Anyway, this tart was made by one of the ladies that belongs to my book group. I liked it so much that I asked for the recipe. I have already made it a few times, slightly adapted from her original one. If you have the time to make your own shortcrust pastry this is a lovely dessert worth the faff. Continue reading ‘Rhubarb and creme fraiche tart’

Plum, almond and oat muffins

Published by Lucina, on 10 ottobre 2013 in cakes, Dolci and English Recipes. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

plum, oat and almond muffins

And after the brief healthy interlude of my roasted vegetables soup we are back to cakes! But what’s a girl gotta do when the weather turns dark and depressing? Resort to comforts of the sweet variety, naturally.  It works every time. I made these TWICE a couple of weeks ago, following the gift of a lovely bag of plums from my friend Carmelita (I love presents of the edible variety). Both times they turned out deliciously lovely and light, undoubtedly helped by the good quality of the plums which were incredibly sweet and tasted simply divine (I have also made jam with them. Great!). By the way, I think this has been a particularly good year for fruit in the UK, or so I hear. Anyway, back to muffins. I really like them but sometimes they can be a bit disappointing: heavy and stodgy (obviously these don’t get blogged…), but not these babies! The combination of plums, oat and almond works really well. I found the recipe on line but adapted quite a bit. For example there were no ground almonds in the original recipe , while the quantity of porridge oats was higher. I personally think that the ground almonds make the muffins airier. Try them for yourself! Continue reading ‘Plum, almond and oat muffins’