Panettone 2 – The Yeasted Version

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Panettone, simili, sisters, sorelle, yeast

This is a version of my recipe for naturally leavened Panettone, adapted to use brewer’s yeast instead of a sourdough starter. Unlike that recipe, which requires several days in the making, this one can be made in a day. I would suggest you pick a day when you know you will be around to intervene at the various stages of the bake. I also suggest that you start early. It should only take about 8-10 hours from start to finish, but a numbers of factors could cause this to vary.

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Panettone 1 – Naturally Leavened

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Aroma Panettone, King of the Sourdough, Panettone, Peel, sorelle, Sweet

Panettone is a wonderful thing, and any keen amateur baker is likely to want to try making it at some point. But before they dive in, they might like to consider the response of a famous baker, when he was asked to recommend a recipe for Panettone. “Leave it to the experts”, he said. I can understand where he was coming from; Panettone is neither quick nor easy to make and there is no guarantee that the end result will be superior to something you might buy.

All that is even more true when you make a naturally leavened version, using a sourdough starter. My first attempt at this took nearly 3 days from start to finish and ended up a little on the sour side. The second version took a little less time but was perfectly sweet – someone declared it was the best Panettone they had ever eaten… It also won the prize at Hobbs House Bakery’s King of the Sourdough competition. (See bottom of this post.)

So why make Panettone? Well, if, like me, you relish a baking challenge, you enjoy the processes of baking as much as the end results, and find it rewarding to know that you have produced something impressive and delicious, why not give it a go? All you have to lose is 60 hours or so of your life!

Pudding Semolina Bread

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Bread, grano duro, Pudding, Semola rimacinata, semolina

Bread made with Semola di grano duro rimacinata (l) and pudding semolina (r)

Semolina is very confusing, as the same word is used to refer to a number of quite different things. In the UK it generally refers to a yellow, slightly grainy flour made from durum wheat, which is primarily used for making a simple but tasty milk pudding. It is not usually considered to be suitable for making bread, except when added as a small proportion of the total flour. But as you will see below, I have found that you can make beautiful bread using as much as 75% pudding semolina. It makes a lovely bread, with a primrose yellow crumb, a crunchy crust and a distinctive flavour.

Torta Colombina – Almond Crusted Orange Cake

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Almonds, Clandestine Cake Club, Orange

Today sees the publication of the beautiful Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook, and I am thrilled to say that on page 116 it contains one of my recipes.

Torta Colombina, as I have called it, is an intensely orange-flavoured cake, with a topping of almonds and sugar that is crunchy on top and slightly squidgy underneath. It was inspired by the Italian Easter bread, Colomba Pasquale, which is similar to panettone, but baked in the shape of a dove. The real thing uses a brioche-like dough, and whilst it is certainly worth the 18 or more hours it takes to make, I wanted to devise something that evoked some of its flavours and textures but was quicker and easier to make.

E Questo è un Bacio…?

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baci di dama, Biscotti, mandorle, nocciole, quanti modi di fare e rifare

An English version of this post will be found here.

I Baci di Dama sono l’oggetto della sfida di questo mese su Quanti Modi di Fare e Rifare, il gruppo on-line di cucina al quale sono stato felice di aver partecipato per quasi un anno. La ricetta è stata fornita da Artù, il cui bellissimo blog merita una visita per i tanti tipi di specialità regionali che ci regala. Lei ci informa che “i baci di dama sono dolcetti tipici Piemontesi, furono chiamati così perchè la loro forma creata con due calotte semisferiche ricordavano le labbra intente a baciare”.

You Call That A Kiss?

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Almonds, baci di dama, Biscotti, Biscuits, blanching, hazelnuts, lady's kisses, quanti modi di fare e rifare, skinning, toasting

Una versione italiana di questo post si trova qui.

Baci di Dama, or Lady’s Kisses, are a speciality of the Italian region of Piemonte. Crunchy and nutty, and sandwiched with chocolate, they are traditionally made with hazelnuts, but are also often made with almonds. I couldn’t decide which I fancied most, so I decided to try both.

Quanti Modi di Fare e Rifare… La focaccia dolce della sciùra Maria

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focaccia, focaccia dolce, quanti modi di fare e rifare

Quant’ è bello tornare a Quanti Modi di Fare e Rifare dopo la pausa estiva! Tanto più perché la ricetta di questo mese è così meravigliosa. La focaccia dolce della sciùra Maria è davvero deliziosa.

An English version of this post will be found here.

Fresh from the Oven Challenge for September – Salted Caramel Focaccia

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focaccia, Fresh from the oven, salted caramel

To my surprise and delight I find myself hosting this month’s challenge for Fresh from the Oven, after the scheduled host had to withdraw at the last moment. Being Signor Biscotti, I just had to come up with something Italian for people to get their teeth into. That’s quite an appropriate metaphor, as this focaccia has a crunchy caramelised topping of salty butter and sugar, which settles into the dips in the surface as a sort of caramel sauce.

Pizza Bases and Pita Bread

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Fennel, Fresh from the oven, Pita, Pizza

One of the challenges of making home made pizza is to get both the base and the topping cooked correctly. It’s all too easy to end up with an undercooked base or a carbonised topping. A solution I like is to pre-bake the bases, and I recently came across a very good recipe, courtesy of the Fabulous Baker Brothers, which I have adapted below. The mix of ingredients make for a very good flavour, which is further enhanced by the very long and slow rises which I have used.

As it happened, the Fresh from the Oven challenge for June, hosted by Anita at Slice of My Life, was for Pita breads. I realised that both the dough and the method for these was very similar to the one I use for pizza bases, so I decided to include both in one recipe. I have never been very inspired by Pita breads in the past, but as with Bagels, I discovered that the home made variety are definitely far superior to the ones you find in the shops.

Puccette Pugliesi – Puglian Rolls

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puccette, puccia, Puglia, quanti modi di fare e rifare

These round rolls from the “heel” of Italy were the subject of this month’s challenge from the on-line Italian cooking group Quanti Modi di Fare e Rifare. From my researches it appears that they can be made with a number of different flours, and with or without the addition of ingredients such as olives, tomatoes or potatoes. So I felt I had a fairly free hand in adapting the gluten free recipe provided by Vale in order to make a non-GF one. My dough ended up rather like one for Ciabatta, but with the addition of the mashed potato she recommended.

The resulting rolls were light in texture and tasty. I don’t know if they were authentic but they were certainly good to eat.

Questi panini rotondi sono stati il soggetto della sfida di questo mese di Quanti Modi di Fare e Rifare. Dalle mie ricerche risulta che possono essere fatte con diverse farine, e con o senza l’aggiunta di ingredienti come olive, pomodori e patate. Così ho pensato che avessi mano libera per adattare la ricetta priva di glutine fornita da Vale per farne una versione con glutine. Il mio impasto è stato un po’ come quello per la ciabatta, ma con l’aggiunta delle patate schiacciate come raccomandato da lei.

Non so se le mie puccette fossero autentiche, ma erano certamente leggere e gustose.