briciole

cannolo

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, cannolo (cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book. In a previous post, I have briefly told the story of how I chanced to eat my first cannolo siciliano. Were it not for Daring Bakers, I don't think I would have... Read more →

strudel di mele / apple strudel

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers. A few months ago, I wrote a post on a traditional dessert from my home region (Umbria, Italy) called rocciata, which I introduced thus: "A thin layer of dough envelopes pieces of apple (mela), nuts and raisins. It looks like a strudel, but it isn't." I think it is fitting that this month, to fulfill the Daring Bakers' challenge, I... Read more →

lasagne

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge. I grew up eating my mother's lasagne and had so far avoided trying to follow in her footsteps, because it is a tall order. She makes her own pasta all'uovo (egg pasta), with consistently excellent results. She makes the béchamel sauce, she prepares il ragu (tomato and meat sauce) using the bottled puréed tomatoes that she makes at home every year. While... Read more →

torta al cioccolato Valentino / chocolate Valentino cake

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino Cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge. Another month and another fun challenge, especially for a chocolate lover. To make the cake (recipe here) I assembled a few bars (tavolette di cioccolato) of different brands, mostly with 70% cocoa content, a couple with 60%. The melting of the chocolate is the step that requires some care and patience, but the smell... Read more →

tegola / tuile

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. The French word tuile means (roofing) tile in English, tegola in Italian. The word is also used to indicate a thin, light cookie whose curved shape reminds one of a roofing tile. I find it interesting that a word originally indicating something rather heavy, is used to describe something that is the total opposite in terms of weight. In Italian, mi... Read more →

pizza

This month's challenge was difficult for me, because our trip to Italy, the preparation for it and the catching up after our return took up a good portion of the available time, so I found myself doing things in fretta e furia (in a rush) right before the deadline. I don't work well under pressure, so to avoid disasters, I decided to focus on the limited goal of making the recipe, pasta per la pizza (pizza dough), with the required sauce and topping, and left the acrobatics for a future date. But let's go in order. I like to start by... Read more →

cracker / Lavash crackers

In Italian, we use the English word cracker. The singular and plural forms are identical1. Another month without tragic tales of disaster to tell: does it mean that I am getting better at handling the challenges? It it probably too early to tell. I liked this month's challenge as it asked us to make something I had been wanting to try for a while, i.e., crackers. And I like that the recipe was light, more in the style of a flatbreads than of crackers I am familiar with. Once again, I read the recipe, followed it, and things worked out fine.... Read more →

éclair al cioccolato / chocolate éclairs

After having to skip a month, I am back with the story of the Daring Bakers' challenge. This time I have no tragic tales of disaster to tell. I read the recipe, I followed it, and things worked out fine, in the sense that the end result of my efforts was appreciated at the table, the usual ultimate test of success. First of all, many thanks to this month's hosts, Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey? and Tony Tahhan. Their choice for the challenge, chocolate éclairs, was a little less intimidating than usual for me, because I had recently made cream... Read more →

treccia danese / Danish braid

It's that time of the month, when I tell the story of the disasters small and big that occurred in my kitchen during various attempts at fulfilling the Daring Bakers' challenge. There is always hope that next months things will go smoothly. In the meantime, let me tell you a bit about the June challenge, which was not, despite my doomsday introduction, an unmitigated disaster. First things first. Many thanks to Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What’s Cookin’? for choosing a great recipe and one that, unbeknown to them, I needed to know about. You can read the... Read more →

torta Opéra / Opéra cake

When I read the name of the recipe for the May Daring Bakers' challenge, my reaction was a big question mark: what's an Opéra cake? What I learned was that it is a cake made up of five elements: a joconde to make the layers, a syrup to wet the joconde, a buttercream for filling (ripieno), a ganache or mousse for the top layer, and a glaze (glassa) over it. I read that and I started to enumerate all the possible ways in which things could go wrong for me. The result was TMTC (i.e., too many to count). Don't worry,... Read more →