Baci di Dama - Piedmont's Lady Kisses cookies

I don't know about you, but I have been in a very low key mode this year during this holiday season. There is still so much to catch up on after a satisfyingly busy season and a more than quiet Christmas period, that I find it easy to not go too over board on making holiday foods. However saying that, I do like to make a few specialties and try some new ideas and recipes or it just wouldn't feel like the holidays. So if you are looking for a special addition to your holiday cookie plater, look no further. Baci  di Dama, which translates as Lady kisses, are an ancient traditional favorite biscotti in these parts. They are not necessarily a specially cookie made just for the holidays, as there isn't really that sort of tradition here, but are enjoyed year round. They cookies are delicately flavored with one of Piedmont's most prized nuts, the ever so enticing hazelnut, made in to small balls, baked to crumbly perfection and when cooled sandwiched together with melted dark chocolate. You can't really go wrong there in my humble opinion. I think you will find these little "kisses" will become a star in your holiday cookie repertoire. The sparse ingredients, in which hazelnut plays the staring role, belie their delicious nature. Whenever I go to Colorado, I find hazelnut or filberts as the cultivated version are called in the states, are one of the most elusive ingredients to find in the wild west. If you are blessed to have access to them, do try these, as they look lovely mixed in any cookie platter or as a star in their own right. I know every time I have opened the cookie tin when someone has stopped by for coffee or if my mother in law is over, the little sigh of recognition and anticipation is more than worth the effort. 

This recipe which came from a friend of Fabrizio's, is in grams, which I find so much more accurate than the much faster scoop method of cups and spoons, but I have attempted to put it into ounces when I can and close enough cup or tablespoon format. It will probably need a little adjusting to your technique, but worth it.

Baci di Dama - Lady Kisses

Ingredients:

180 g ((1 cup / 6.3 oz)) sugar (I will use 160 g or 3/4 cup next time as I felt these were too sweet)
150 g (1 1/4 cup /5.3 ox) all purpose or plain flour 80 g (5.5 Tb or 2.8oz) butter, room temperature 100 g (3.5 oz) hazelnuts or filberts, lightly toasted, just barely any color
100 g(3.5-4 oz) dark chocolate, melted

Method:

Lightly toast your whole or pieces of hazelnuts in a medium hot oven or on top of the stove in a pan, shaking frequently so toast evenly. Set aside till cool. 

In a food processor ( I used my attachment for my immersion blender), add the sugar and the nuts and blend till evenly ground to a fine sandy texture.

Beat your room temperature butter by hand or with a mixer till smooth and light (yes, I did it by hand, with a flat whisk).

Mix the sugar and nut mixture into the butter and when thoroughly blended, add the flour. 

Blend well to incorporate the flour, but don''t over handle.

Shape your dough into small nickel sized /1 inch balls and place on baking sheets. Give the a slight press downward to help them stay in place and not roll around when moving the tray, I set my trays in the cold for a little while to make sure the dough was firmed up before baking.  

**The cookies in the photo were just a little too large, so next time this should yield a few more cookies. I got 25 sandwiched cookies this time but can see it increasing next time.

Bake the cookies in a 320*F / 160*C oven till just beginning to get color. Be careful not to over bake them. The recipe called for 15-20 minutes in a conventional oven. I have a convection oven and that was way too long, as it dried them out and made them hard. Certainly not inedible, but better when they crumble.

Once the cookies have cooled you can pipe or spread an abundant amount of melted chocolate on flattened cookie half and place another flatten half together with it. Once the chocolate has cooled, it will firm up and hold the cookies together. I know some people like to use Nutella or milk chocolate , but it doesn't always firm up as nicely as dark chocolate.

Enjoy them with a little cup of espresso and think of us in the Alps of Piemonte.

World Nutella Day 2013 - Nutella Frolla Bites

Way Hey, It's World Nutella Day

Mini muffin type  sweet pastry cups,  filled with Nutella goodness inside

What can I say? I live in the Italian province of Piedmont, where Nutella was born, so I can not resist joining the World Nutella Day celebrations that started a few years back. This event was conceived and spearheaded by Sara Rosso, who writes the Ms Adventures in Italy blog, amongst all the many other hats she wears and Michelle Fabio who too wears many hats of which the blog Bleeding Espresso  is one of her creations. You can learn more about World Nutella Day here.  I have a few recipe offerings from past  years that you might want to check out after you try this one.I'll put some links at the botton of the post. I have to say that we are all rather taken with this one and think it will make it into the rotation a little more frequently that maybe it should. It's basically a cookie cup filled with Nutella creaminess. They keep well in a cookie tin and served with a little caramel or chocolate sauce, they can double as an easy dessert in a pinch. I find it a delight alongside an afternoon espresso. Mmm, Mmmmm. Give it a whirl and see what you think.

Two crusted pasta Frolla bites. I ran out of tops for the last one, but it tasted just fine.

Nutella Frolla Bites

Yields: 24 double crusted mini bites

Oven Temperature: 350*F / 180*C

Pasta Frolla dough:

2 c (280g) plain flour
1 tsp (4g) baking powder (about half a package that you find here in Italy)
1/2 c (100g) sugar
Zest of 1 orange or lemon, I like to use a rasp micorplane, just try not to get any of the white pith
Pinch salt
4 ounces (110g) unsalted butter, chilled but not straight out of the refrigerator, cut into small pieces

1 large egg
1 large egg yolk

Nutella Filling

Method:
Measure your flour into a largish bowl (Italians often make this directly on the wood work table)
Add the baking powder, salt, citrus zest, and sugar. Lightly stir to mix all. Drop the cold butter into the flour mixture. Either cut the butter into the mixture or use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour quickly to get small clumps and it starts to form a dough. Work quickly so the butter doesn't get too soft. Make a shallow well and add the whole egg and yolk. Mix in a circular motion until the dough begins to come together. Form in to a cohesive dough, Cover and refrigerate at least an hour. You can leave it overnight if you prefer.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4'/ 1cm thickness. 
Make the bases larger than the diameter of the mini muffin tin. I used a round cookie cutter to make the bases slightly larger bottoms than the tops if you have a couple of sizes. I couldn't find my set of cutters, so the tops were the same size as the bases and bigger than needed. Place the pastry disc into a greased and floured (or a no stick) mini muffin pan, or petit four cups. Press the dough in lightly. Place a small dollop of Nutella into the depression. Cover the filled bases. I either tucked the top into the depression of the filled base or pinch the dough around the edges. I didn't seal it and used a light touch. They seemed to self seal when baked. 
Bake the bites at 350*F / 180*C for about 15-20 minutes till they start to get some color, but be careful not to over bake.
Cool slightly before removing from the muffin tins, to cool completely.
Delicious warm or cold.
I think you'll find they disappear quickly.

Viva la Nutella!

Inside the folla bites

My other World  Nutella Day recipes:

- Nutella Crumb Crostata

- Nutella Cornetti/ Hazelnut cream filled pastry horns 

- Banana Nutella Cakelettes/Tortino di Banana e Nutella

- Bugie al Carnevale / Nutella filled Fried Dough

May Day and and Multi Frolla Cookie Crust

A happy, albeit somewhat soggy. "May Day" to all of you out there. I do hope you are still there. We have had odd weather, like most of the rest of the world, in that we seemed to have had a couple of weeks of summer back in March only to have April with more than it's fair share of showers, bone chilly too. That is normal, although it usually is broken up with more sun with warm and wavering temperatures. Oh well, at least the flowers are still blooming and furry creatures still want to scamper about. 

I wanted to share a recipe I have been working on ever since I stumbled across some multi cereal cookie bars in a bakery we popped our head in to a few weeks back. I'm not sure I have replicated their recipe, as mine seems far darker than their buttery, flavorful bars, but we found these to be quite tasty and thought you might enjoy them as well. My original recipe is in grams, as I have happily adopted what I think we were foolish not to adopt in America, the metric system. In cooking it just makes life, well actually baking,  so much easier, as it is so much easier to get even number to divide in and out and balance a ratio when needs be. I still seem to think in terms of cups as a first basis, as the lifetime of imprinting never seems to completely fade. I don't think I will ever get all that familiar with temperatures in Celsius other than hot or cold, as the temperature subtleties relating to outside temperatures are lost on me. I said all of that to say this... the cups and oz in the recipe may need slight adjusting as they don't always come out exact when adjusting on a conversion chart. The only thing you might need to adjust would be the amount of flour. If it seems like the cookies are spreading too much when baking add a little more flour when rolling out. I think it should be fine though. 

I didn't know what to call this recipe as it is a basic Italian pasta frolla dough, which here is used for making sweet tarts or pies and is in reality a cookie dough and so makes delicious cookies as well with a little adjusting. I didn't want to call it multi cereal as it had seeds also and I made a single crust apple tart with the dough as wel, so the name multi frolla cookie crust was born. Feel free to try other flours.  I really love the buckwheat flour here and am always trying to find more ways to use it. This being polenta country it seemed like a natural mix with the buckwheat. I think they gave it an intriguing flavor with the seeds giving it a nice bite. I think spelt or farro would be another nice addition or change. Give it a whirl and see what you think. The cookies were crispy for a few days and softened as they sat in my cookie tin. The softening is a good thing when used as a tart crust so that your tart doesn't go skittering across the plate when cutting it. The photo at the bottom of the post is a very simple apple tart that I normally add a crumb topping but didn't this time. I just thinly slice apples on to the prepared tart crust drizzle a fair amount of marsala wine over the apples and add a crumb topping. I keep it simple so the flavor of the crust comes through.  Without the crumb topping the tart is only slightly sweet and your apples may get a little brown, but it makes for a flavorful and not so sweet afternoon snack and dessert. i think the cookies would taste great sandwiched together with a dab of apricot jam. The possibilities are endless. So be my guest and enjoy my multi purpose "Multi Frolla Cookie Crust"

Multi Frolla Cookie Crust

Yield: 36 cookies approximately and 1-10” / 25cm crust

Ingredients

¾ c / 125 g Sugar, granulated

14T or 9 oz / 200 g Butter, softened 

2 Eggs

1 tsp vanilla

½ c / 70 g buckwheat flour

½ c / 70 g cornmeal

1 T / 10 g each of sesame seeds, light and dark flax seeds, (3T / 30 g total)

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 ¼ c / 300 g flour, pastry, all purpose, plain

Method:

Place sugar with the butter in a medium to large mixing bowl.

With a whisk or hand mixer, cream until fluffy. Normally, I do this by hand, of course you can use a hand mixer.

Add two eggs along with vanilla and incorporate thoroughly.

Mix your 3 types of flour with your baking powder and salt before adding to you wet ingredients.

Mix until it starts to come together.

Finish by bringing the dough together with some flour on your hands, either in the bowl or on the table with a light dusting of flour.

Gingerly, knead into a smooth dough.

Flatten into a rectangle, divide in half if you want two uses and cover in a bag or your bowl.

Refrigerate for about a half an hour to an hour.

You can let this sit overnight as well if you wan to prepare ahead.

I used half for cookies one day and a couple days later made a tart out of the other refrigerated half.

Roll out on lightly floured table or between parchment paper for ease.  Make sure you keep lightly flouring and lifting the dough so it doesn’t stick to the table or paper.

Work somewhat quickly so you don’t let the dough get too warm as it will become sticky and more difficult to manage.

Roll out to about 1/4” (1/2 cm), thicker if you like.

Cut into shapes or bar lengths. I cut out scalloped rounds and cut out the center. The tiny centers fit perfectly on a small espresso cup and saucer. I also made some bars for dipping in our cappuccinos as well.

Bake at 350*F / 190* C for 8 -10 minutes depending on how thick your dough is and how quickly your oven bakes. Mine is convection and tends to bake quite fast. 

Nutella Bullseyes for World Nutella Day 2012

Here we are again on February 5th, at what has come to be known as World Nutella Day according to 2 bloggers, Sara and Michelle that I have come to know through their blogs and other various cyber space adventures. In their own words, "Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso solemnly declare Sunday, February 5th “World Nutella Day 2012″ – a day to celebrate, to get creative with, and most importantly, to EAT Nutella." You can find them on Facebook, Twitter (hashtag #nutelladay) and over at the WND site all day sharing what's going on today.
This is the 6th year they have hosted this event, exhorting  one and all to indulge in what is one of Italy's most beloved treats, Nutella, in any way you see fit, but most of all enjoying it. This is my 5th year to participate. You'll find some links to my other recipes through the years at the bottom of the post. 
Nutella is a fairly sacred household staple in most Italian homes, especially if there are children still at home. It's a staple in our house and we're the only children indulging. It is quite beloved through out Europe as well with Germany being the number one consumer of Nutella. The formula varies from locations and tends to be a stiffer version as you go north and even in America as well, but here in Italy, it is a super creamy chocolate hazelnut spread suitable for spreading on all sorts of things. This year I chose to spread it between two layers of semi crispy cookie layers with the top having a heart cut out of it for a peek a boo effect that would be perfect for using for Valentine's day also. I can't imagine anyone turning away from one of these.  
Nutella has a special place in our hearts here in Piedmont as it was born here in nearby Alba. The combination of milk chocolate and hazelnut was born in Turin due to necessity. Napoleon's blockade made  chocolate supplies difficult and necessitated a  way to stretch the chocolate that the Torinese so loved. Hazelnuts were a natural addition as our region especially from the Langhe territory grew ample supplies of them. It wasn't long before this combination came to be a symbol of Torino. Nutella was born in Alba as a creamier version of the original Gianduja. It was due to shortages due to WWII and the desire to stretch  the favored treat that Nutella was born into the Ferrero family in Alba. There are many claims to the various origins of both Gianduja and Nutella but that is the general story line from my understanding. I found Wikipedia a bit lacking and not really authenticated in its various descriptions. 
Our home here in Chisone valley is a part of the vast  province of Torino and part of Piedmont,  so chocolate hazelnut combinations are an important part of our identity and traditions. That is one of the reasons I enjoy participating in  world Nutella day. I think you will enjoy my recipe for Occhie di Bui con Nutella cookies and if you want to know more about Nutella and have a few more recipes, Sara and Michelle have also put together an inexpensive and fun "Unofficial Guide to Nutella" ebook available at Amazon and you don't need a kindle to read it, just a computer. Check it out.
My recipe for my Nutella Sandwich Cookies was born out of a local cookie specialty called Occhie di Bui or Bull's Eyes. The original cookie consists of two small cookie disks, one that has a disk cut out of the center and the are sandwiched together with jam, usually apricot or cherry, with the tops dusted with powdered sugar. They  seem to give the appearance of an eye or a bullseye. I ran with that theme, making my cookie dough, which here is called a pasta frolla, a combination of ricotta and butter base and used some buckwheat flour for a more unique and wintery flavor. This recipe will work just fine using all butter and all white flour if you prefer, but I think you'll find the buckwheat is a welcome addition. The cookies are not extremely sweet if you forego the powdered sugar and I think you will find them tasty either way with a steaming strong cup of coffee or tea. Oh yes, I used a small heart cutter to cut out the center for a heartfelt treat. The cookies store well in a tin and retained their gently snap over night,  although I think over time they will soften up. 

Nutella Bullseyes or Occhio di Bue con Nutella

Makes 24 - 2 inch/ 4cm sandwiched cookies and several small hearts
Ingredients:

1/2c (100g)butter, room temperature
2/3c (125g) sugar, I like organic raw cane sugar, but granulated is fine
1/2c (100g) ricotta
1 t vanilla
1 whole egg
1 yolk
3/4c (115g) buckwheat flour
1 1/2c (220g) white flour
2 t baking powder
pinch salt
**Nutella, enough to sandwich the layers together
I used almost half of a 400g jar of Nutella
Powdered sugar, optional if you prefer a less sweet cookie

Method:
Cream your butter together with the sugar till smooth. I mix mine with a flat whisk by hand. If using an electric mixer, don’t whip too much just till it is light and mixed well.
Add the ricotta and and vanilla. Mix well.
Add the whole egg and yolk and mix till completely incorporated.
Blend the 2 flours, baking powder and salt till all is distributed.
Combine the dry ingredients with the egg butter mixture thoroughly mixing, being careful not to handle too much.
Divide the  dough into 2 equal portions, flatten, place back into to your blow, cover and refrigerate the dough for about ½ hour. It will be easier to roll out.
Remove one disk of dough from the cold and keep the other in the fridge while you roll out the disk between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper, being careful to work as quickly as you can so the dough doesn’t become too warm and sticky. Return dough to the cold if too soft to handle.
You can also roll it out on a floured surface being careful not to pick up and add much flour into to your dough.
You want the dough to be about ¼”/1cm thick.

Too thick and they won’t be so crispy and a big mouthful.

Cut out round disks with a 2 ½ inch (6cm) scalloped cookie or biscuit cutter and lay disks out on greased or paper baking sheets. My trays held about 20 cookies each.
Continue with the second disk till you have used up your dough. I also gathered up my dough scraps and rerolled them to use up all the dough. Keep at least half of the cookies as cold as you can while you roll the others out as it will make it easier when cutting the centers out.
Once you have all the dough cut out and on trays, Take half of your cookies and cut the center out with a small heart or round cutter about 1inch (3 1/2cm). You want to have enough border to keep the cookie together and yet have enough removed to see your Nutella inside.
I kept the heart cut outs intact and baked them as they were.
Bake at 325*F (180*) till lightly brown, about 10 minutes. I am not entirely sure of the time as I have a convection oven that bakes quickly so I tend to bake them on a lower temperature for a shorter time. A regular oven temperature and time may vary. You might need a 350* oven.
Cool so they are manageable and won’t break, but while they are still slightly warm spread your Nutella over the bottoms of the whole disks. The top will sit flat if you use the bottom of your cookies to cover with Nutella.** I use Nutella straight out of my jar as it is super creamy. If your variety isn’t you could soften it up with a little honey or a few drop of vegetable oil.
If you want to dust the tops of your cookies with powdered sugar, do so with a sieve or small strainer before you top the cookies that have the Nutella spread over them.
Other wise top all of your cookies with the cut outs.
I also spread Nutella over half of the heart cookies and sandwiched them together.
Serve with espresso or your favorite hot beverage. 

Prepping the cookies

My previous Nutella day recipe links

• 2011 Nutella Crumb Crostata 
• 2010 Nutella Cornetti 
• 2009 Banana Nutella Cakelettes
• 2008 Bugie Piemontese style

Benvenuta "La Befana" with Lavender Limoncello Stars

Were you naughty or nice? Coal or treats that is the question come the 6th of January in Italy. You just need to see what was left in your stocking to come to some sort of conclusion. I have written a number of posts over the years about the Italian tradition of La Befana, so I thought I might put up some links to blog posts past. Befana is an interesting mixture of what to me seems like Halloween and Christmas. Befana is a kindly old woman or witch on a broomstick who flies everywhere on the night before Epiphany or 12th night as it is also called, and either fills up your stockings, that should have been hung by the chimney with care, with treats or small presents, or you get a lump of coal. Fortunately, for Italian children, the lumps of coal have been transformed into black confections that make for a more more pleasant time taking your lumps of coal in stride.

Here are a few links to previous posts I've posted over the years. some have more of the story of La Befana's origins and others are recipes for dishes designed to serve on a Befana menu.

• "La Befana" has arrived
• "Le Befana" came and went
• Away with la Befana and a Carmelle di pasta per la Befana

Martha over at Go Italy has a great post on the origins of la Befana, that you might enjoy reading.

I also made some cookies this year called La Befana Stars. This version is a departure from the usual anise flavored variety and met with an appreciative round of approval. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a photo of them before they were all given away and eaten right up. Any size star cookie vutter will do. You can make a milk glaze and add sprinkles or just give them a dusting of powdered sugar. This was a great way to use some of my home made limoncello and abundance of lavender from our garden.

Head over to  "The Leftover Queen" to check out Jen's version of the La Befana traditional recipe for what are usually anise flavored cut out star cookies. You'll find the recipe in it's entirety. 

Crumiri Cookies, Not for Wimps

 

Why, you ask are these cookies not for wimps? Because they will build up your muscle trying to squeeze them through the open star tip on your pastry bag and maybe even have you saying a choice explicative or two as well. Yet, they really are a buttery corn meal "stick" and a delicious cappuccino dunker that hails from the Casale Monferrato region of Piedmont and worth the muscle building.

 

Domenico Rossi invented them around 1870 and named them after a popular drink at that time called Khrumiro. According to the Krumiri Rossi web site, when the king of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II died the biscotti's characteristic bend of the coookie was most likely introduced as a tribute to the king and his famous handlebar moustache. Later they patented the name and cookie. Perhaps the patent is why they are generally referred to as Crumiri by the rest of us. Anyway, what ever the name, they are quite tasty and worth adding to your cookie basket.  You will find them all over Turin in many of the pastry shops and they make their way on to the long line of biscotti on the grocery shelves as well. Making them is a great option if you don't have them readily available to you. I took the liberty to have my way with them and turned them into a small candy cane type shape for getting into the holiday spirit and you can to, but normally they are long sticks and bent mid way for an authentic shape. They are cooked until quite golden brown. I went a tad lighter as I love the contrast of the two colors, but going a bit further when you bake them yourself is quite acceptable and encouraged. Do give them a try and do enjoy them at other times of the year than the holidays as they are really worth the effort.

 

Crumiri Biscotti

Yeilds about 4 dozen small or less larger ones

Ingredients

280 g butter, room temperature ( 1 1/4 cup)

160 g sugar, caster or granulated (3/4 cup)

4 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract

280 g corn meal(1 1/2 cup)

200 g pastry or all purpose flour (2 cup)

Method

Cream the butter and sugar together, with a whisk by hand  or with a paddle on a stand mixer.

Add the 4 egg yolks and blend well.

Mix in the vanilla.

Mix the corn and pastry flour together, blnding well.

Add the mixed flours in to the butter mixture, just to fully incorporate.

Fit a medium/large open star pastry tip into a pastry bag.

Take half of your mixture and place it into your bag.

Pipe out on to a papered sheet tray or greased and floured tray.

Repeat with the other half of the batch.

The dough will be firm so take your time and squeeze it out

with steady pressure.

For traditional shape

Pipe out long 4 inch lengths

Bend the cookies in the middle to look like a <

Or pipe in the shape of a 9 or a cane.

Bake in a moderate oven 325* for about 12-14 minutes.

Cool completely before storing.

 

2013 January update.

Here's another version I found that purports to be close to the secret original recipe.  I need to finish the ones languishing in my Krumiri tin before trying this one out. 

Secret Original Krumiri knock off recipe (allegedly)

Ingredients:
butter 210 g 

sugar 120 g 

vanilla
3 egg yolks
salt 

white flour 150 g corn flour 210 g

Mix the flour corn, flour, butter, sugar, egg yolks, a pinch of salt and vanilla. 

Let stand before piping out.

New Year, New Adventures and most of all New People!

This past year has been quite a memorable one for a variety of reasons. Fabrizio and I came back here to the Italian alps in 2002 to live in his family home that his family built. With the 2006 Winter Olympics as a driving force to return and start the B&B where formerly there had only been the family restaurant, now retired and passed on to someone else, we arrived to try to breathe new life into Serre Marchetto. We have met multi faceted challenges along the way to try and transform the family business into something that stimulates our interests and supports us in a way that plays to our strengths and resourceful creativity. 2006 has proved our efforts has been worthy. Our business has started to take off and lead us in directions that were mere ideas that are now starting to take shape and legs. We have met so many people especially this past year between the run up to the Olympics and a steady stream of visitors since, from all over the world. To say that Fabrizio's parents, friends and neighbors have been surprised to have so many different countries find their way here is putting it mildly. Actually so are we!
As one of our guests put it, the internet works. Which brings me to to the original point of this blog, which was to send some cookies to some people I have "met" on the internet. What an incredible experience to have virtual friends as well as live guests too. Keeps me busy trying to keep up. I'm still a bit new and amazed by the world of the internet having only started using a computer when I started working in Europe a few years ago and wanted to try and stay in contact with my family in the states. I have met so many incredibly accomplished and inspiring, ordinary people, whose passionate lives and writing border on extraordinary. So much that I find it's hard to get some of the things I need to get done sometimes, as I am drawn into other peoples lives and expertise in my desire to discover more and more and more. I'm sure many of you must feel the similarly? Perhaps being an ex pat and struggling thru rapid Italian and Piemontese conversations all the time, I am even more drawn to the fountain of the internet.
Anyway, along the way I have discovered an amazing group of ever expanding food bloggers and a quite diverse network of people with an incredible depth of interest and expertize thru My Blog Log.
I felt compelled to send some cookies to a few people that have shown an interest about what I'm doing for a variety of reasons. A fellow expat here in Italy has been decorating Ginger people in her native Hawaii for a few weeks for the holiday season. Rubber Slippers in Italy
She has some great stories and amazing food. Particularly inpressed with her Sardian ravioli amongst many. Lora of the Power of Trinity asked me which cookies I made and so the picture above depicts a few of the ones that I have pared down the list to this year. Josh of The HOV Lane mentioned that he might like to stop by and have a few cookies if his tour included the Alps. Perhaps when gets thru all 50 states, he'll hop the pond and visit with us over here.
For many years when I worked for the ski resort of Copper Mountain in Colorado, my colleagues and I use to make hundreds of cookies for the holiday season. My particular favorite time of the baking year is the yule time, even though it was the busiest time. We made ginger houses for various units around the village and many various cut out cookies with little bags of colored frosting, sprinkles and draggees for the village and visitor children's cookie decorating party hosted by Copper Village. Most personally satisfying, was the employee party where our cookies were a prominent feature and always a topic of conversation later on. I still am unable to resist having a few decorated cut out cookies around every year. Also on the pictured plate are the traditional Butter balls, which go by many names, a pasta frolla coin, and Hazelnut sables. Missing from the line up are a few of my favorites, like occhio di bui (Ox eyes), local Baci Dama(lady kisses), linzer hearts, stain glass cookies, and English toffee bars just to name a few. Perusing some of those food blogs I keep mentioning, they had a lot of great ideas that I think might become my new favorites. I always try to have some type of cookie here as we have a fair amount of guests stop in and it's nice to have a home made cookie to go with that expresso or tea when the time comes. One other thing I miss, that I hope to some day start up here, is the cookie exchange. One of my dear friends use to have us over for a girls night and usually we kept it to 12 women. Everyone brought 12 dozen of one type of their current favorite cookie separated into 12 plates. So that everyone left with 12 different kinds of cookies. You sometimes found some new favorites and didn't have to make so many different ones yourself. That worked for a few years until everyone decided that many cookies were sometimes too much, so they then it turned into a food exchange and all sorts of interesting things got exchanged. One of my personal favorites was cranberry chutney. So there's an idea for you next year to have a bit of fun with. Perhaps I'll have a go on the internet with some of the food bloggers and see how that goes. In the mean time, new year, new adventures and always a reason to come to Italy and visit with us in the alps .....
Blessed Be to all of you known and all of you that I've yet to meet.
Marla (aka Pasticciera)

Club Papillon hosts "Golosaria" at the Stupinigi

Or........how to make a glutton of yourself yet again!

On a warm and slightly hazy grey type Sunday afternoon, what better way to enjoy your day than a food festival Italian style. Yesterday we made our way to the Stupinigi Hunting Palace heading in from the mountains to just outside of Torino. We were off to see and sample yet more of Piemonte's delicacies as well as see our friend Enrico, be recognized again by the "Paniere" designation, guaranteeing that his families very wonderful Bernard Mountain Elixirs, Genepy and Barathier are the superior products that they are and a typical product of the Provincia of Torino. Our B&B Bella "Baita" (beautiful mountain house/cabin) is located in the mountains of our good sized "county" if you will, looking across the valley to Val Germansca where the Bernard family have been making their tasty products for over 100 hundred years supporting their family and the mountain culture that surrounds these highly alcoholic mountian flower and herbal infusions. All the locals swear by the restorative powers of these drinks, good for absolutely everything that ails you, as well as a good ole welcome drink or after dinner digestivo that this part of the world is so very fond of.
There was a great turnout for this event and it has continued on today showcasing so many wonderful gustatory treats. Hand made pastas, salamis, cheeses, cookies, spreads of of everysort, grissini breadsticks and my personal favorite, a very long crispy flatbread named, "lingue di Suocera" or mother in laws tongue. We enjoyed a bit of Christmas shopping that we know will be appreciated.









"Club di Papillon"(or club of the Bow Ties) who hosted this event, is an organization dedicated to the preservation, education, promotion and support of typical Italian cuisine. The guiding energy behind and out front of this organization is the highly regarded journalist, author, TV food critic and "bon vivant" Paolo Massobrio, Mr. Bowtie himself. He opened the event with a splash of celebrity with the grandson of the Ferrari car designer, Pininfarina and a bevy of dignitaries helping to cut the opening ribbon. (so that's who was driving the beautiful Ferrari parked out front!) The drinking and eating had already been well underway but now continued on to a new level of frenzy. Later, sated with oh so tasty samples of just about everything and washed down with delicious Barbera and Dolcetto wines, some of the darlings of Piedmont varieties, and groaning under the many purchases, we made our way home. Too tired to have a tour around the hunting lodge, although there was a steady stream gathering every hour to see how the royal "Savoy"family lived way out here in the country all those years ago. From the looks of all the old businesses just around the lodge, I don't think they wanted for any of their "golosso" (greedy) urges to go unsatisfied. Apparently 5,000 visitors yesterday didn't either! The gluttony continues on today till 6 pm.. Not to be missed.