San Lorenzo’s Kitchen

A little while ago, I published a recipe in my personal blog for panna cotta with yogurt and honey. The taste of honey, so delicate and mellow, fascinated me so I wanted to try the recipe again with premium grade honey like the Rhododendron honey by San Lorenzo, and with cream instead of yogurt.

400 ml cream
300 ml of milk
1 full spoonful of Rhododendron honey
1 vanilla pod
4 sheets of gelatine

Soften the gelatine sheets in cold water.
Cut the vanilla pod and use the blade of a knife to extract all the black seeds.
Bring the cream, milk, honey, vanilla seeds and the pod to the boil.
When boiling, turn off the heat, cover the pan and leave to infuse for 5 mins.
Throw away the vanilla pod, add the gelatine (well squeezed) and allow to dissolve. Keep stirring the hot liquid.
Divide the panna cotta into individual moulds and place in the fridge to solidify for at least 3 hours.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 8:18, in Dessert, La ricetta, Dolce

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Semifreddo are so simple, that, well, why not making them all the time??? :)

This one is made with crumbled torrone, you know, the one left in the box when you already eaten the rest of the stick! :)

20 g sugar
2 super fresh eggs, yolks and whites divided
250 ml cream
Crumbled torrone

Mix sugar and egg yolks until white.

Whip cream slightly, until soft peaks form.

Whipped egg whites until peaky and firm.

Add crumbled torrone, whipped cream and egg whites to egg yolk, and fold in gently.

Divide in serving bowl and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 18:14, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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The king of comfort food, the king of easy life, the king of pudding!
A perfectly baked sweet risotto that can be served as a dessert or for breakfast, better warm, but even cold as a refreshing summer treat… And all this thanks to the wonderful Organic Carnaroli rice from San Lorenzo and Donna Hay, the ultimate kitchen queen!!!

875 ml milk
6 pieces lemon zest
2 tablespoons butter
220 g Organic carnaroli rice
75 g sugar

Preheat the oven at 180° C.
In a sauce pan, hot the milk (without boiling it) with the lemon zests and the butter.
Place rice (uncooked) and sugar in a oven proof shallow dish. Cover it with the hot milk. Stir it, cover the mould tightly with foil and cook for 30 minutes.
Remove it form the oven, stir for 2 minutes. Then remove the lemon zest. It should be still creamy and slightly soupy.
Serve and enjoy!
A drop of vanilla won’t hurt!

Which one do you prefer: white on white or black on white?

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 12:53, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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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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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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Or, in other words, a nice French pudding, perfect for a quick and comfy spud!

It’s traditionally made with prunes, but in this case I’ve used the great San Lorenzo Plum jam: a perfect substitute!

3 eggs
2 tablespoon of sugar
170 g of whole grain flour
100g of melted butter
60 cl of milk
San Lorenzo Plum jam

Preheat the oven at 160° C.

Beat eggs and sugar until white. Add melted butter, flour and milk (better do it in a mixer, so you won’t end up with lumps: we do not want lumps in here!).

Butter a cake mould, pour the mixture in it, then add the jam by spoonfuls, evenly.

Bake fro 45 minutes or until set. Let it cool before to serve it.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 14:03, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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Well, yes, jam “thingy”, because I do not really know how to call them… They look somehow like a cobbler, but way less juicy, and with pastry underneath, so, not really a cobbler…

Anyway, the original recipe is from Donna Hay, who’s my inspirational goddess!!! Simple, special and quick: the 3 must of Donna’s world! just a minor change: rolled oats instead of coconut to cover everything…

125 g of butter, soft
60 g of sugar
135 g of flour
1 teaspoon of yeast
1 egg yolk

1 jar of Blueberry Extra Jam

To cover:
50 g of sugar
1 egg, bitten
100 g of rolled oats

Preheat the oven at 180° C.

Mix all the ingredients, except the jam and the cover ingredients, in a mixer. Cover a cake mould with greaseproof paper and lay the dough from the mixer, pushing it with your fingers.

Cook in the oven for 25 minutes, or until it begin to golden.

Let it cool, spread the jam over it. Mix the cover ingredients, spread it over the jam, and bake for additional 20 minutes, or until golden.

Let it cool, then cut it in squares.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 11:38, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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Fill in a shortcrust pastry shell (here the recipe for the pastry) with son Strawberry extra jam and cover it with apple slices. Bake until golden.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 10:02, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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Some French classic are so good that you wouldn’t say it’s an old recipe, from a granmother or so!

It is the case of this wonderful tart, normally made with fresh cherries, but works perfect with the extraordinary Cherry Jam produced by San Lorenzo. As you can see in the picture, there are actually cherries in side, or better: there is only halved cherries inside!!!

For the pastry

250 g wholegrain flour
50 g cane sugar
150 g butter, room temperature
A pinch of salt

Quickly work all the ingredients with the tip of your fingers. Add some water, and work it until you have a smooth pastry, then let it rest for at least 1 hour in the fridge.

For the almond filling

50 g confectionery sugar
70 g ground almonds
1 teaspoon of cornstarch
1 egg
50 g butter
3 cl cream

Mix all the ingredients.

Preheat the oven at 160° C and cook the empty pastry shell for 25 minutes.
Spread the almond filling on the cooked pastry shell, pour over the Cherry Jam and cook for other 20 minutes.

Serve it warm.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 7:38, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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I always wanted to make the semifreddo recipe on Jamie’s The Naked Chef: it always looked extremely appealing to me! And for once I had all the ingredients at home (except cream that I substituted with ricotta: much lighter!) and why not use the last Hazelnut cookies to ad some kind of crunchiness to the creamy texture?

500 g of ricotta
4 eggs, yolks and whites divided
4 tablespoon of sugar
Few Piedmont Hazelnut cookies

Whisk ricotta, egg yolks an sugar, until fluffy. Whisk in a separate bowl the egg whites, until stiff. Mix the two together. add the crumbles cookies, spoon in little moulds or glasses and freeze for at last 3 hours, remembering to take them out of the freezer at least 1 hour before serving.

Scritto da Sara - Piperita alle 10:49, in La ricetta, Merenda, Dolce

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