San Lorenzo’s Kitchen

Of course, to spend a real Merry Christmas you should have a lunch wet by our best wines (featured even in the Guardian blog!!!), that must end with one or our Panettone, but if you prefer to stick to tradition, which one I don’t know, here is a wonderfully simply Roulade with a thick layer of chocolate glaze, made with no chocolate, but with out outstanding Hazelnut and chocolate spread: once you’ll try it, you cannot live without it!

The recipe is freely adapted from January 2008 Delicious issue.

For the genoise/chiffon cake

5 eggs
70 g sugar
60 g flour
40 g cocoa powder

Pre-heat the oven at 180° C.
Whisk eggs and sugar until fluffy and tripled on volume. Fold in sifted flour and cocoa, carefully. Once mixed, lay a sheet of baking paper on a Swiss Roll tin, and add the genoise mixture. Cook for 10-12 minutes. Let it cool slightly, roll it and let it cool completely.

In the mean while, prepare filling and glaze.

For the filling:
250 g mascarpone
125 ml whipping cream
1 tablespoon of sugar

Whisk everything together until fluffy and creamy.

For the glaze
2 tablespoon of the above filling
1 jar of Hazelnut and chocolate spread, well mixed

Mix the Hazelnut and chocolate spread with two tablespoons of filling. Set aside.

Roll out the genoise, take away baking paper and lay on a clean piece of baking paper. Spread over it the filling, minus two table spoon, roll it.
Begin by glazing what will be the bottom of the roulade. Lay the roulade on a dish, glazed bottom down, and glaze the rest.

The roulade in picture is covered with dry cranberries (courtesy of Ms. Adventure in Italy!) left for 30 minute in hot water, dried and hen sprinkled over the top.

Merry Christmas!!!

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 14:58, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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I was born in Lombardy, a northern Italian region, where one of the specialities is polenta. My father is a polenta specialist: his polenta is really to die for!
So, when he’ll read that I used a quick cooking polenta, that I haven’t used the right flour (from the right mill), that I haven’t cooked it for one hour stirring constantly, well, he’ll probably take me out of his will (if he has one…) and tell the world he doesn’t have a daughter any more…
Anyway, the kind of polenta that my father cooks is not right for this king of stuff, as you need a polenta that makes a nice and compact block once cooled…

250 g quick cooking polenta
50 g Organic de-stoned Black Ligurian Olives

Delicate Garlic Mayonnaise (Organic) to serve

Cook the polenta as it is stated on package. As soon as it is cooked, add the olives. Then, without further ado, lay it in a greaseproof paper covered cake mould, and push it down to 2 cm thickness. Even the surface with another sheet of greaseproof paper and let it cool completely.

Heat the oven at 180° C. Cut the cooled polenta in finger sticks and let it golden in the oven.

Serve them with Garlic Mayonnaise.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 13:44, in Contorno, Antipasto, La ricetta

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Swiss people would excuse me if I attempted to slightly change one of their traditional recipe! But for me, honestly, 250 g of honey PLUS 100 g of sugar is bit too much…

I wouldn’t normally change the amount of ingredients in a patisserie recipe: you’ll never know where you’ll end up… But this recipe looked fairly simple, so I tried, and it turned out quite well!

100 g almonds
40 g dried figs
225 g of flour
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon grounded cinnamon
1 teaspoon grounded ginger
225 g Italian Orange Honey
1 tablespoon of Grappa di Moscato

For glazing
100 g of confectionery sugar
Lemon juice

Preheat the oven at 180° C.
Heat in a little saucepan the honey. In the meanwhile, roughly crash the almonds, mince the figs. In a bowl, mix flour, yeast, spices, add almonds, figs and then the heated milk. Mix everything together until you obtain a smooth dough.
Butter a cake mould 15×25 cm. Lay the dough directly in the mould, pushing it with your hands and trying to obtain an even surface.

Bake for 25 minutes.
In the meanwhile, mix the confectionery sugar with enough lemon juice to obtain a thick creamy consistent.

As soon as you take the mould out of the oven, bush it with the glaze, cut it in squares, and let it cool.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 13:33, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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