Those are real bis-cotti, which in Italian means cooked twice.
The inspiration comes from Cantucci, the world wide acclaimed Tuscan biscotti, made with almonds.

Those are a little different, and they probably look like a heresy to Tuscan people

They are part of my hamper for Menu for Hope (read about the whole hamper here).

For around 50 biscotti

200 g flour
60 g cocoa
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100 g sugar
60 g chocolate chips
3 eggs, beaten
172 teaspoon vanilla extract
50 g pistachio
50 g pine nuts

Preheat the oven at 180° C.

Mix with a mixer, or by hand, all the ingredients, except pistachio and pine nuts.

Once the mixture is smooth, but still coarse, add, by hand, pistachio and pine nuts.

Dust your hands with flour and form 3-4 sausages 2,5 cm wide and 30 cm long.
Bake for 25 minutes.

Take them out of the oven, and let them rest for 5 minutes, or until you can touch them without burning yourself.

With a jagged knife, cut each sausage in 5 millimeters  thin diagonal slices and arrange them on the baking sheet, well apart.

Bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Let them cool on a rack.

Store in an aright container for up to three weeks.

Recipe inspired by Hors d’Oeuvres, by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell

As last year, and the three years before that, Pim is organized the biggest found rasing of the food blogosphere: Menu for Hope!

Last year we raised more then 100.000 $ for the World Food Program, and this year we would love to raise even more!!!

I decided to put together an Italian & French hamper for this year (code EU16, sent to Europe only), made of:

- homemade dates chutney

- homemade cantuccini (hard cookies, filled with almond and pinenuts)

- Italian traditional torrone

- Marmellata di mandarino tardivo, from Sicily

- Rilettes d’oie façon Landaise (goose paté)

- Terrines de Faisan aux Noisettes (pheasant paté)

- Paté de Campagne, pur porc (porc paté)

- Terrine de Canard aux Cèpes (duck paté with porcini mushrooms)

- 3 spread: Crevettes au Calvados (Calvados shrimp), Thon a l’olive noir (black olive tuna) and Huîtres et Wakamé (oysters and wakame)

And if you are interested, with my Italian blog and altogether with my friend Sara, the host for Europe, we are offering something too:

Milan Walking Tour with Breakfast, Open-air Market, Food Lovers’ Highlights and Aperitivo for 2 people: start your walking tour with a classic Italian breakfast, stroll through an open-air fruit and vegetable market and then head to the historic center of Milan for a traditional Italian aperitivo with a few food lovers’ highlights on the way. Duration: 4-5 hours. Saturday only, or Sunday w/o markets.

Code: EU14

All you have to do is to follow this simple donation Instructions:
1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at http://chezpim.com
2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.
3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win.  Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Donate! Donate! Donate!!!

My dear friend Sara organized a wonderful cookies swap to celebrate Christmas!
She invited over some other girls, Italians, Americans, a French girl and we swapped all different kind of cookies.

I brought 3 different kind of cookies: simple Italian cookies in the shape of hearts, cranberries rockies and this sablée Breton.
Sablée Breton are basically made of butter, flour and sugar. But the butter is a special kind of butter: demi-sel, that means salted butter.
Bretagne is very famous for its salted butter, and for its sablée too.
the recipe I used is by the best, the unique, the one and only patissier in the entire world: Pierre Hermé!

For 30 4×4 centimeter square sablée Breton

133 g demi-sel butter, room temperature
60 g sugar
50 g butter, room temperature
1 g fleur de sel (or crashed Maldon salt)
7 g hard boiled egg yolk, room temperature
167 g flour
34 g potato starch

In a mixer bowl, with a paddle attachment, make a paste with demi-sel butter and sugar.
Add the rest of the ingredients in the order stated above and form a smooth bowl.
Let it rest for at least 1 hour in the fridge.

In the mean while, preheat the oven at 170° C.
Lay out the dough, 5 millimeters thin.
Bake for 15 minutes, then cut out 4×4 centimeters squares and bake again for 5 minutes, until golden.

To give a bit of color I added some pistachio nuts before the second bake.

Let them cool completely before serving.

I had many different kinds of dates around the house!

Let’s state something: I do not like dates! they are too sweet, too soggy…

So dates are something that only my husband eats. And as he doesn’t eat kilos of them, well, we have many around.

The best way I found to get rid of them is chutney. Simple, soothing, satysfing! And perfect with roasted meat!

750 g stoned dates

1 litre white wine vinegar

A piece 5 centimetres long of fresh ginger, finely diced

4 teaspoons salt

3 cloves

4 cardamoms

1/2 teaspoon of ground ginnamon

1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper

200 g sugar

150 g sultanas

Bring vinegar and halved dates to the boil. Cook for 40 minutes, or until dates are tender.

Add sugar, spices, salt and sultanas, and cook for 30 more minutes.

In the meanwhile, half fill jam jars with water, and eat in the microwave, at maximun power, for 10 minutes. Take the jars out, discard the water, dry them with a clean tea towel.

Fill the jars still hot with the hot chutney. Close them and put them upside down to cool.

Let them rest for at least 10 day before opening.

They’ll make a perfect Christmas present

After a long period of thinking I decided to surrender to the urge I felt to write in Italian too!

And here it is, brand new, and growing

Mele al forno

Do not worry: I’ll never leave this blog and I’ll keep updating it for ever

Mele al forno is actually a project: less personal stuff, more basic recipes. Or at least for now

Have fun!

The concept of brunch is not part of the Italian culture: it is imported from the Anglo-Saxon countries.In Italy we are more attached to sweet, light breakfast, and we have difficulties to have coffee as a beverage that will last for the whole lunch…

But once in a while brunch is actually a very enjoyable ritual, especially on Sundays, when, even inside the city, there is that strange and wonderful silence, broke only by children screaming or bells singing…

So last Sunday we woke up late and we thought, well, why not enjoy a hot salty platter for a late breakfast, early lunch?

And so we did

Frittata with mushrooms (sautéed with a bit of butter, salt&pepper and crème fraiche at the end) and turkey sausages!

Perfect ending: cranberries scones (actually made for friends that were coming over last saturday)

Enjoy! Or better, what’s you favourite brunch plate? Share it with us!

Ah, la vendange!

This year we had the wonderful possibility to participate to a photo vendange (thanks Marco!) with other Flickr people in Oltrepò Pavese.

Oltrepò Pavese is a part of Lombardy, just south of the Po (”oltre” means beyond), lavishly filled with castles, hills, and, of course, grapes!

We had the opportunity to visit Tenuta il Bosco and its extensive grapes fields. The actual harvest tooked place 2 days before we went there, but it was quite inspiring and fascinating even without the grapes…

Few where still there

And of course, after the tour, well, we drank

Have you ever been in Oltrepò Pavese? Tell us everything about it!

Or better, the best pizza dough I’ve ever made!

As you know, I’m Italian, and for some types of food I’m so snob! One of them is pizza, no wonder! Pizza was invented in my country, and any pizza I ate out of the border of Italy were practicly disgusting! Aka, I’m a food snob (but I don’t think I’m telling you anything new!)

But this pizza dough is really one of the best I’ve ever tried!

Maybe it’s because it rests overnight in the fridge, so it can develop a good texture…

Maybe it’s because it made with high gluten flour…

Maybe it’s because it’s knead for a long time…

Maybe it’s because there is a good amount of water…

Maybe are all this features together…

At the end you get a very thin pizza, like the pizzerie here in Milan…

One was topped with tomato sauce (quickly pre cooked with garlic and olive oil), Italian sausages (100% pork meat) and mozzarella, added only the last 3 minutes.

The other was always with the same tomato sauce, ricotta and arugula, added once out of the oven.

I have other pieces, and I think I’m going to freeze them for the future!

Check out all the other Daring Bakers!

Yep, still here!

I haven’t blogged for 1 moth and half, doomed working too much on a new job…

And I realized 3 thing:

- Working too much is not worth it

- I missed my blog, desperately!

- Life is too short and I would love to spend most of our time having fun and ejoying it…

So, back to life

And back to the old good habits Shall I really explain you how to make this French classic???

Please…

Les eclairs sans glaçage sont moche!

That’s what my French husband declaired while we were discussing about this Daring Baker recipe! And who can disagree with him? Sure not us Daring Bakers!

When I saw that this month’s recipe was Eclairs au chocolat I was absolutely pleased! And when I read that they were a Pierre Hermè recipe, well, I was in heaven! And I think I wasn’t the only one, right?

The best part about a Pierre Hermè recipe is that they are absolutely infallible! It’s impossible something can go wrong: they are just perfect!

I’m in heaven… And my husband too!