Food and Mood

In Italy, october is the chocolate month. Here you can see a selection of little chocolate with fashion mold.

We use  it for party favours too.

This is one of our more secret recipe  (our italian blog is “Ricette Segrete” wich means “Secret Recipes”) and once a year we try a new version. Here you can see a step by step video and below the recipe translated. This time we use 3 different kind of silicon pan, by Silikomart, an Italian company that sells  worldwide.

Ingredients:

For the base: 150 gr digestive biscuit, 80 gr melted butter.

For the dough: 300 gr ricotta cheese, 2 eggs, 150 gr sugar, Cointreau 3 teaspoon, 3 gelatine sheet,200 gr sour cream, 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 lime.

For strawberry jelly: 250gr straberry, 2 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon Cointreau, 2 gelatine sheet.

Direction

Mix the biscuit crumbs and butter really well, then press on the base of a loose-bottomed 20cm cake tin. Chill.

Mix the strawberry with sugar and 1 tablespoon of Cointreau and gently simmering until becamo clear.

Put cold water in a small bowl, then sprinkle over the gelatine and leave to soak for 5 mins until spongy. Then sqeeze gelatine and put on fire in a litlle bowl with the strawberry souce, add another teaspoon of Cointreau and gently simmering until it turns clear. Put the result in the silicon rose pan (we use the Silikomart Pan, an italian company that sell around the world) and put in the fridge.

Beat the egg yolk with sugar  than add ricotta cheese and orange, lemon and lime zest. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into cheese mixture adding whipped sour cream then stir in the gelatine and fold in the cream. Add the dough at the jelly already fridged and finally cover with the biscuit. Freeze all  for 24 h.

This time we have prepared our Easter present, creating a box using a Martha Stewart Template.

Here the recipe:300gr ricotta cheese, 15 gr yeast, 3 eggs, 300 gr sugar, 150 gr all purpose flour, 150 gr potato flour, 120 gr butter, 1 little glass of cognac, 1 orange squeezed, 100 gr raisin,50 gr candied orange and citron

How to make
Beat eggs with sugar. Melt butter and add it with all the other ingredients.
Finally add yeast sifted.

Frosting Ingredients
45 gr almonds, 150 gr sugar, egg white,Grain of sugar,Almonds for the top

Howto frost: Grind almonds, add sugar and then add egg white until you obtain a cream.
Put the cream over de dough and add grain of sugar and intire almonds

In the same pack we put frosted cookies too.

With little dove, which is a typicol italian easter icon.

with a new cookies cutter, the same dough have a new, interesting shape.

For S. Valentine?

It’s easy and you can prepare glamour and lightness cookies for your family and friends. 

Ingredients: 500 gr flour double 0, 300 gr butter at room temperature, 200 gr sugar, 1 egg and 2 yolk, lemon peel scratched, a little spoon of yest. Put all togheter and when you have an uniform dough put in the fridge for 2 hours.

Than you can lay down your dough, doing cookies witha an apposit cutter, make a little hole, put crushed candy and cooked for 10minuts at 180°

This is a very typical florentine recipe, and in my family pass from mother to daughter, from many generations.

Ingredients: 500 gr flour “0″ typ, 25 gr beer yeast, 1 glass milk (tepid), 2 kg grapes, oil, sugar,anise pip

Preparation:In a bowl melt yeas with a little bit of milk and a 1 table spoon Extra virgin oil, sugar 4 teaspoon. Than add flour with a little bit of salt. At this point if you need you can add milk to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Cover and let in a warm place. Heat up 4/5 table spoons with of extra virgin oil and a little bit of rosemary. clean grapes and add sugar as you want. After 2 hours of rising, deflate the dough, add oil and rosemary and continue to work the dough. Divide the dough in 4 pieces. Take one and flatten the dough, put in a baking tin, put grapes, press it and add anise pip. Add another part of dough, and again grape, anise pip and sugar as you want. Put in the oven at 190° for 1 hour.