A simple rustic Italian apple pie recipe. I like this one mainly because it is mostly about the apple, without any other overwhelming flavors from other stuff, along with a crunchy crust you can’t go wrong. So over all an over a basic practical every day apple pie recipe.
[Read more…] about Apple Pie Recipevanilla
Italian crostoli pastry
Every part of Europe seems to have a version of the Crostoli pastry each with their own name, also called called “Angel wings”. I guess because of a strong influence from Italian immigrants in Australia we simply go by the Italian Crostoli.
Sometimes only Crostoli hits the spot. Light, sugary crunchy add a Cafe Late – perfection.
[Read more…] about Italian crostoli pastryBiscotti – Italian cookies
“Biscotti” simply means cooked twice, which, no surprises, is exactly how biscotti are cooked. These are a traditional Italian cookie that, according to wikipedia, goes back to roman times as the second baking would allow them to have a much longer shelf life. These days biscotti just make a great cookie to dunk in your coffee.
Biscotti
Ingredients
- 4 eggs 700gram
- 120 grams castor sugar
- 100 grams of chocolate bits I used dark
- 60 grams almonds (choped up to a “rustic” size)
- 190 grams dry fruit
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup olive oil light (not extra virgin as it has to strong a flavour)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract I actually used extract concentrate so 1/2 a tablespoon
- 1 tablespoon orange essence
- 1 tablespoon aniseed essence
- Rind of 1 lemon
- Rind of 1 orange
- 250 grams self-raising flour
- 150 grams plain flour
Instructions
- Beat eggs and sugar together until thick.
- Add nuts, chocolate and fruit and mix in.
- Add oil, milk, orange and aniseed essence, vanilla extract, lemon and orange rind and gently mix in. (At this point the mixture looks like an absolute mess)
- Sift the flours together and add, folding it into the mixture.
- Pour onto baking paper on a large baking tray, 6 – 8cm wide, 2-3 cm high (This bit will depend on the size of the oven 2 trays may be needed). There is an ancient Italian trick of folding up the baking paper to stop the dough spreading.
- Bake for 25-30 min until golden brown, the oven should be 200 C. Then remove it from the oven and let them cool right down.
- Using a very sharp knife cut up the log into 1-2cm wide slices.
- Spread pieces slice side down on a tray and grill each side until toasty golden brown. Should take a few minutes (Lets face it this will depend on how good your grill is, mine took 30 min a side)
- Cool down on a wire rack, good for 2 weeks (if they last that long)
Notes
Nutrition
Pizzelle Italian waffles
Pizzelle are a thin Italian waffle. When just cooked the waffles may be bent into various shapes such as cones or tubes. Lets face it, actually finding some where to buy the iron to cook the waffle is half the fun of cooking these. Any importer of Italian kitchen equipment should have these with a range of patterns and sizes. I prefer the low tech approach with a gas stove top and iron but you can also get an electric version.
Heating up the iron
Pizzelle Italian waffles
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 32 g sugar
- 22 g light oil i.e. without a strong flavour
- rind of 1/2 orange
- tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon ginger
- tablespoon brandy
- teaspoon anise essence
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 76 g plain flour
- 44 g self raising flour
Instructions
- Add all ingredients except flour into a bowl and mix well.
- Sift flour into bowl and mix into a thick paste.
- Oil the iron (a light oil spray works well)
- Heat up the iron on the stove top, turn occasionally to heat both sides.
- Open the iron and add a tablespoon of waffle paste and return to stove top.
- Squeeze the iron shut and turn every 30-45 seconds to keep heat even.
- After a minute open to check colour
- Tip out onto a cooling rack. (While hot they may be moulded into shapes)
Nutrition
For a slightly different Pizzelle erecipe see Laura Vital on YouTube