Posts filed under 'dolce'

Classroom foods parte due

NB: I had to change the name of the dessert because I copied myself.

What did we eat? I’ve not forgotten! Yummy foods from the South — or in Italian il Meridionale.

Antipasto was burrata, which may be the single most luxurious cheese made in any country. A firm exterior of mozzarella di bufala surrounds a center packed with fresh cream. How could that be bad? It was sliced and drizzled with a little oil and sprinkled with fine chiffonade of fresh basil leaves.

The primo was Pepata di Cozze con tagliatelle, and this is when I discover that Alberta does not eat mussels. But you should because they are delicious, cheap and good for you. Buy farmed ones if you aren’t positive that the wild ones come from clean waters.

The secondo was Agnello con Piselli, or lamb with peas. I promise you that unless you have eaten this in southern Italy, it is nothing like you expect. It’s very good, too. Unfortunately for Alberta, she also doesn’t eat lamb.


Dolce
was Crostata della stagione, named by me to reflect that the torte is made the same every time, but then you pile on the fruit of the season. This time it was strawberries, and quite nice ones, in spite of the cool and cloudy days we’re experiencing.

Agnello con piselli

Lamb with peas

Ingredients for 4

I onion
80 g pancetta in small cubes
800 g pieces of lamb, cubes
500 g frozen or shelled fresh peas
salt
1 coffee cup of hot broth– about 3 ounces
a large handful of grated Pecorino (or Parmigiano Reggiano) cheese, about 1 ounce
2 eggs
1 tablespoon grated Pecorino cheese
pepper

Method:
Thinly slice the onion and gently brown it with the little cubes of pancetta. When it is well browned, add the lamb and continue to brown well. Add the peas and the cup of boiling broth, correcting the salt and pepper. Cover it and leave it to cook. When it is cooked to your taste, which for us took about 35 minutes, add the two beaten eggs, which will have been beaten with a tablespoon of grated pecorino. Stir it in to thicken the sauce and then serve immediately.

To make it easier to time the courses of the meal, we cooked this to almost done then removed it from the heat. When the first course was over, we brought it back to a simmer, stirred in the cheese and then the eggs and finished it. It would easily have served six of us in this multi course meal.

Corstata della Stagione

for six people

Pasta Brisee for one torta
80 - 100 g of fresh, soft goat cheese
the finely grated rind of a lemon
1 tablespoon sugar
about 400 g of prepared fresh fruit
2 tablespoons sugar

First, make pasta brisee using any recipe you like. Here is a good recipe which you can half if you are making this crostata.

Pasta Brisee

2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (4 grams) salt
1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 - 120 ml) ice water

In a food processor, place the flour, salt, and sugar and process until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds). Pour 1/4 cup (60 ml) water in a slow, steady stream, through the feed tube until the dough just holds together when pinched. Add remaining water, if necessary. Do not process more than 30 seconds.

Alternately, you can make a pile of the flour, salt and sugar on a work surface, then put the cut up butter in the center and using your fingers, mix it until it looks like coarse meal. Then add some of the water, kneading it in, adding only as much as it takes to form a ball, which you should wrap and chill for a few minutes before rolling it out to make the crostata shell.

Turn the dough out onto your work surface and gather it into a ball. Divide the dough into *two equal pieces, flatten each portion into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to one hour before using. This will chill the butter and allow the gluten in the flour to relax. At this point you can also freeze the dough for later use.
*unless you have halved the recipe as mentioned above.

For each disk of pastry, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to fit into a 8 or 9 inch (20 to 23 cm) tart pan. To prevent the pastry from sticking to the counter and to ensure uniform thickness, keep lifting up and turning the pastry a quarter turn as you roll (always roll from the center of the pastry outwards to get uniform thickness). To make sure it is the right size, take your tart pan, flip it over, and place it on the rolled out pastry. The pastry should be about an inch larger than your pan.

When the pastry is rolled to the desired size, lightly roll pastry around your rolling pin, dusting off any excess flour as you roll. Unroll onto the top of your tart pan. Never pull the pastry or you will get shrinkage (shrinkage is caused by too much pulling of the pastry when placing it in the pan). Gently lay in pan and with a small floured piece of pastry, lightly press pastry into bottom and up sides of pan. Roll your rolling pin over top of pan to get rid of excess pastry. With a thumb up movement, again press dough into pan. Roll rolling pin over top again to get rid of any extra pastry. Prick bottom of dough (this will prevent the dough from puffing up as it bakes). Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten.

To pre-bake the shell: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line the unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Fill tart pan with pie weights or beans. I use beans and I keep them in the pantry wrapped in the foil I re-use many times. Bake crust for 20 to 25 minutes or until the crust is dry and lightly browned. Remove weights and cool crust on wire rack.

While the crust is still warm, spread the goat cheese over the bottom of it with a silicon spatula, being gentle, then grate the lemon rind over it, and then sprinkle the first tablespoon of sugar over that.

Arrange the clean and prepared fruit to cover the crostata completely. That means pit and half plums, peel, pit and slice peaches, etc. Berries just need to be clean and possibly hulled. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar over the fruit.

You may want to serve this with lightly whipped and lightly sweetened cream, or you can make a pool of cream or sour cream on the plate and serve the slice of crostata on top of that. We garnished it with mint sprigs from my garden.

I personally could have eaten this entire crostata by myself. Only the fact that I liked the student and I need to lose weight prevented that happening. It is a very good thing that I have no fresh fruit in the house at the moment, because I could otherwise whip this up again in no time flat!

5 comments June 2nd, 2008

Watching the web

You know that blog I recommended last week? Well they’ve got something different for you today.

Torta di riso

Rice pie. Bet your mom didn’t make that often.

5 comments May 21st, 2008

Made in America: Doughnuts


I come from a place where the doughnut is king. I even have my own joke about it that goes: the reason why New Englanders don’t make good fried chicken is because when we see that much hot fat we make doughnuts.

When my sisters and brothers and I came home from school in the cold afternoons, we were as likely to be greeted with fresh, hot doughnuts as other kids were greeted by peanut butter and jam sandwiches. It is supposed that policemen especially like doughnuts, and I always thought that were I to have a jewelry shop I would put it next to a doughnut shop to be sure I was protected well by the policemen.

To a great degree that day is over. Factory made doughnuts, not one of which is worth one crumb from a freshly homemade or even shop made doughnut, have all but withered away the once common practice of creative doughnutry. What does it matter that you can buy a maple glazed doughnut rolled in chopped nuts if the doughnut itself is heavy, dense, cold and tasteless? Although it should not be saved in my personal kitchen, doughnut making should be revived and saved. Perhaps the Italians who have managed to maintain a recipe for making noodles out of breadcrumbs for 550 years will taste these and decide to save doughnuts as well?

The truth is, these are really easy to make. They are too easy to make. I feel like Pandora opening this box for you. You can whip these up in minutes. They can disappear in seconds. They are delicious just as they come out of the pan or rolled in sugar and you really only need to learn about glazes and various things they can be rolled in if you open a shop near the Piazza di Spagna, where I will be your occasional client for one plain and one sugared.

It probably leaps to your mind that we do not have doughnut cutters in Italy, and that is true. That’s why mine are doughnut sticks. If you have a sharp biscuit cutter, you could use that and then something tiny to remove the center, or you can order a doughnut cutter and let the dogana figure it out, but ALWAYS claim that it is a cultural object. It’s true; doughnuts are definitely a cultural object. Do not try to wrestle these into a circle like a bagel; this dough is way too delicate. Or go ahead and try anything, and if it works please tell me.

This recipe, which is half a recipe, works. It is from a 1960 edition of Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and is a recipe from New England. To make a lot of them, double it—if you run a B&B or have six children or are married to a policeman?

Doughnuts

2 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon seed oil
3/8 cup milk
1 ¾ cup sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Oil for frying

Beat the egg yolks well, and then beat in the sugar and oil. Stir in the milk. Sift together the dry ingredients and then beat them into the liquids until smooth. Turn the dough out onto a generously floured board, turning it to lightly cover all of it in flour. It is quite sticky, so use plenty of flour. Gently roll it out to 1/3” thick. (I actually patted it out with a floury palm.)

Heat the cooking oil or fat 3 to 4” deep in a heavy kettle or a fryer. Heat it to 370-380° F (a cube of bread will brown in 60 seconds).

Cut dough with a floured cutter, which should be sharp. The dough is delicate and must not be over handled. Take the cutting board near the oil when you are ready to fry the doughnuts. Using a metal spatula, lift the shapes off the board and slide them into the oil. Don’t crowd them. Fry as many at a time as can easily be turned. Turn the doughnuts as they rise to the surface and show a little color. This allows the center to break the crust as it swells, making the outsides much crispier. Fry a few at a time for just 2 to 3 minutes, until just browned on both sides. Lift the finished doughnuts from the fat with a long fork, but do not prick them. Drain them on paper towels in a warm spot. You can then roll them in sugar, cinnamon and sugar or glaze them. Makes 12 doughnuts.

You can re-use frying fat several times by merely frying potatoes in it, then cooling, straining and storing it in a clean bottle. Whether you eat the potatoes is up to you. The flavors of what you’ve been cooking go into them, and therefore leave the fat ready to use for a different recipe.

In italiano

Questo dolce è comune a prima colazione, ma anche è fatto della mamma per la merenda dopo scuola. Ho tanti ricordi dei doughnuts tra la mia gioventù. Sono cresciuta in uno stato dove faceva un freddo polare tra l’inverno, e il doughnut è perfetto quando una bambina entra la casa, con il profumo un po’ speziato, un po’ zuccherato e c’è anche che dove sono i doughnuts, diciamo che c’è anch il poliziotto. I poliziotti vanno pazzi per i doughnuts. Come mai non fate almeno una volta un dolce che porta felicità e anche securità? Come si pronuncia questa parola? DO-naht.

Doughnuts

2 tuorli
115 g zucchero
1 cucchiaio olio di semi
100 ml latte
240 g farina 00
2 cucchiaini di té di lievita in polvere (quella chimica)
1 g sale
pizzico noce moscato
pizzico canella

Olio per friggere

In una ciottola, battete bene i tuorli, e poi aggiungete lo zucchero e battete bene, bene per sciolgiere lo zucchero. Aggiungete il latte e l’olio e mescolatela.

Mescolate gli ingredienti asciutti e aggiungetegli alla pasta, battendola bene. Disperdete generosamente qualche farina sul un piano di lavoro. Fate girare per infarinarla bene la pasta che sarà morbidissima a delicata. Distendete la pasta a un centimetro. Usando un coltello ben farinato, tagliate la pasta in bastoncini circa 2 cm larghi per 7 cm lunghi.

Riscaldate l’olio per friggere fino a 187 – 193°C. Un dado di pane sarebbe arosolato in un minuto.

Quando l’olio è caldo, alzate le strisce di pasta con una spatula al’olio bollente. Si può cucinare 3 o 4 alla volta, ma dovete lasciare lo spazio a girarle. Vanno subito al fondo, e poi vengono alla superficie, leggermente arosolate di sotto. Girare le strisce fino a tutte sono gonfiate e arosolate e dorate. Togietele a qualche carta da cucina. Continuate fino a tutti sono cotti. Si può spargere lo zucchero come mostrato, o anche un misto di zucchero e canella.

Sono buonissimi tiepidi, ma anche a temperatura ambiente. Possono essere congelati senza lo zucchero, poi riscaldati a quel punto anche zuccherati se volete.

Fa un piatto di circa 24 stecche, o colazione per 8-10 persone normali o 3 poliziotti.

14 comments May 16th, 2008

Nuts to you, nuts to me and to everyone we know

Some days ago I went here and was inspired to try the recipe because I had just done some very different caramel covered nuts from another source.

That David never misses, does he? This took some time, but it is excellent and easy. The only thing you need to watch out for is not to let that blazing sugar touch you.

I followed his directions to the letter except I cooled them on my Silpat to avoid leaving any temptation for ants. The added plus was by rolling up the Silpat I was able to separate more of the nuts than was easily accomplished with two spatulas.

The other recipe is good too, but entirely different. I’ll post a photo of the result as soon as I scan it. I gave them to my neighbors as fast as could be!

4 comments May 2nd, 2008

Pate à Choux– the gate to French Paradise

I made Gateau St. Honoré yesterday for Gianna’s birthday. To make it I had to unearth skills I had not used in years or even decades. No part of the job is very difficult, but unless you do some of them all the time, your result, like mine, will not look like a pro’s work. I am not a pastry chef and generally leave pastries to people like Shuna Lydon and David Lebowitz. Birthdays, however, bring out the sugar baker in me. Whether it is a layer cake filled with lemon curd and frosted with marshmallowy frosting and flaked coconut, or a chocolate sponge with raspberry sauce and chocolate ganache, or even nine pumpkin pies, if it is your birthday, you can count on me to make a “cake”.

This particular cake requires what Americans call cream puffs and Italians call beignets, which are made of pate choux. The recipe I chose made so much pate à choux that I ended up making cream puffs and éclairs for the neighbors as well as the cake for Gianna. It’s pretty darned easy to make pate à choux, not so darned easy to pipe it out evenly so it puffs up into predictable balls like those you can buy by the bag n the supermarket. My newest philosophy is quickly developing to be “If it looks sort of crazy and resembles farmyard animals more than pastry, it’s bound to be good.” As you can see many of my puffs resemble chicks more than Peeps do.

What the heck! I know from experience that most people have never had the real thing. Most people have only had this gateau made with ice cream as a frozen dessert or plopped together from a bakery that uses pastry cream from a barrel, stabilizer in the cream and the pate à choux comes in 50 pound sacks and you “just add oil and water”. The real thing takes four hours of steady work if you have one oven.

I don’t expect most of you or perhaps any of you to make the real thing, but you could. I promise you, it is just a series of easy things that then get assembled to become a rather complicated thing. What I do want you to know is how to make and bake pate à choux because it is one of the most useful easy things in the world of cookery. Make them big and stuff them with chicken salad, or shrimp, ham or vegetable and cheese salad. Make them big and use them as shells for a creamed chicken with sherry and mushrooms. Turn them into the éclairs and cream puffs of your daydreams, so much better than bakery ones that you’ll weep for lost years. The bagged beignets from the supermarket do not belong on the same page as these you can so easily make. They are also lovely filled with ice cream and sauced with chocolate, butterscotch or a berry sauce.


Pate à Choux

Preheat oven to 200°C or 400°F

17 ounces or 500 ml of water
4 ounces or 115 g butter
a good pinch of salt

2 cups or 260 g regular flour or farina 00

4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks

Heat the water, salt and butter until the butter melts and then turn the heat up to bring it to a boil. Remove it from the heat and dump in all the flour at once, stirring it vigorously until it forms a thick, smooth and sticky dough. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and yolks in one by one until the dough becomes very smooth and shiny.

Put parchment or baking paper on a baking sheet or placca and then, if you want the easy way, pipe the dough from a pastry bag in the shapes you want. Longish bars make éclairs, round mounds make cream puffs. You do not have to leave a lot of space around your shapes because most of their growth is up, and if they do touch as they grow, they are easily separated.

If you want to do it the hard way, use two spoons to form the shapes. The first time I ever made pate à choux as a young wife I had neither electric mixer nor pastry bag. By the time I finished them I was convinced I would never bother again. With those two inexpensive helpers, it’s almost child’s play. Almost.

Put one baking sheet into the oven on a middle rack and bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 190°C or 375°F and cook for 10 t0 15 minutes more. They should be puffed up, dry and firm on the outside. Using a skewer or a sharp knife, pierce each pastry to allow steam to escape. You’ll need to turn the oven up again for the next batch.

As soon as they are out of the oven and have been pierced, cool them on a cooling rack. If they seem too delicate they may be a bit undercooked. Bite into one and see. They can be put back into the oven and cooked a few more minutes with no penalty at all.

This recipe will make about three baking batches. The only time consuming thing is putting them in, taking them out. They mix up easier and faster than brownie mix.

As you can see from the picture above, part of mine had to be piped on to form a border on the base of the gateau. I needed a further 20 medium sized puffs to be glued on with caramel to that border, and then a bunch of little bitty ones to cover the pastry cream center. All of those puffs are stuffed with whipped cream using my trusty pastry bag with an elongated feed that came with it.

Now you all know how to make cream puffs, éclairs, and fancy shapes of choux pastry, all of which have a lovely cavity to be filled at whimsy. If anyone really wants to know how to make the pastry cream and glue this whole thing together, let me know and I’ll oblige. I think everyone ought to have the real thing once in a lifetime, but there’s always Paris, you know. Meanwhile, here it is finished and in a big copper pot about to be hauled off to Gianna’s house.

14 comments April 19th, 2008

Menu 7 April 2008

I wrote this yesterday and it went poof!

Some of the dishes on this menu are already on the blog as recipes. Those that are not are being written and will be published over time. Everyone seemed to really enjoy all of it, and all but one eater were Italian. I consider that a yea vote, right?

Antipasto:

purea di fave secche con peperoni fritti (puree of dried fava beans/broadbeans with fried sweet red peppers)
piccole patate arroste sotto sale con formagino di capra (tiny potatoes roasted under salt with goat cheese)

Primo:

tagliatelle ai carciofi con pecorino sardo affumicato (egg pasta with artichokes and shards of smoked Sardegnan pecorino cheese)

Contorno:

sformato di asparagi (puffy custard of asparagus)

Secondo:

Costolette di maiale ripiene di formaggi (double rib pork chops stuffed with a cheese stuffing)

Dolce:

palline di cocco con due cioccolati (coconut balls with two chocolate ganaches)

jump to recipe

Palline di cocco (coconut balls or cocopuffs to me)

Makes enough for at least 8 people

Preheat oven to 170°C or 350°F (yes, the F temp is higher than reality, but these droop and spread if the temp is too low.)

2 eggs
175 g sugar (6 ounces or about 7/8 cup)
240 g dried coconut (8-1/2 ounces or about 3 cups)

I have been fussing for years about how to use the coconut one can buy here, which is dried and not shredded, sugared or any of the things that are done to coconut in America. I checked, and you can buy dried or dessicated coconut in US health food stores and perhaps the nicer grocery stores. Check out Indian groceries, too, for lower prices. Anyway, at last I found a recipe for using it. I misread one of the directions in a way that made it intriguing to me, so away I went. When I discovered my error, I decided to go for it anyway and I really like the result. If you don’t try this you’re nuts, because it is just about the easiest way I know to please some diners.

In a large mixing bowl, break the eggs and toss in the sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat them on high speed until they become thick and almost white. Add the coconut and at low speed, stir it in until it is blended.

Here’s the tricky, cute part. Line a baking sheet (placca) with baking paper. Using an espresso cup, scoop up this coco-dough, about 2/3 full, and press slightly with your fingers, then turn it upside down on the paper, rapping sharply to release the little form. You can place them fairly closely because they should not spread. When they are all on the paper, put them into the pre-heated oven and cook 15 minutes.

If they spread or are not that lovely golden color, your oven is running cool and you should probably get it calibrated. Cook them a little longer this time.

These are delicious. Crunchy on the outside and chewy, damp and slightly sweet inside.

For the two chocolates, choose a good dark chocolate and a good white chocolate. In two very tiny pans put the chocolate and add an equal weight of heavy cream. Over the lowest achievable heat stir the two chocolates and when each is melted and blended with the cream — you can take them off the heat when almost melted and they’ll safely finish melting with no chance of overheating disasters — use a spoon to drizzle streaks and drops on a plate and dip the bottom of each pallina into the dark before placing it on the dessert plate.

Try it. It’s really good and dessert doesn’t get any easier unless you buy it.

9 comments April 9th, 2008

The easiest cake you’ve never yet made

cake and plate 1 cakeandplate5 cakeonplate2 1
This is a recipe that came together so fast and was eaten so instantly I could almost forget I made it up. The very first version was everything I wanted or expected it to be. That’s something of a record for me in baking. My worst grade in high school was chemistry. This, however, is a success. Not too sweet, fluffy, not overly rich or fatty—in fact most of the weight is in fruit. It should serve six easily or eight with cheese or ice cream and any Italian would like it for breakfast, too.

I took it around to seven various neighbors and they all agree: this is really good. The fact that it is really easy and designed to be made by anyone with an oven, even if they have never made a cake before, is just garnish. It started with yellow plums I froze last summer when they were so good and so everywhere you hardly knew what to do. I made a bit of syrup for them, so they’d come out as nice as they went in. I usually don’t, but they do stay prettier if you do. I thawed them about half way so I could taste them and see what I had to work with. They were firm, tart and very juicy, all good characteristics to work with.

cakeandplate2cakeonplate3 cakeonplate1
Here’s what you need:

An 8” or 20 cm round shallow pan that can go into the oven—I used a cake tin
A moderate sized bowl
A 1/3 cup measure
A liquid measuring cup
Two table knives
A fork
A teaspoon
An oven set at 425°F or 220°C

Here are the ingredients:

1 cup of plain flour (3 scoops with that 1/3 cup measure)
1/3 cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1/3 cup butter
½ cup of the juices of the plums
1 egg
About 14 plum halves
A little sugar

Butter really well the bottom and sides of the baking dish you plan to cook this in.

Put the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder and salt into the bowl and mix them up a bit. Add the butter, cut into pieces, and using the two knives, cut the butter into the dry stuff until it’s incorporated and looks mealy. You can also do that in the food processor, but it’s not in my list above.

Break the egg into the liquid measure and add the plum juice. Use the fork to mix it up well. Dump it onto the dry stuff and use the fork to stir it just enough so that it’s wet. It may still look lumpy and that’s okay. Then scrape it all into the baking dish and arrange the plums on top so that they look nice. Sprinkle a little sugar over the plums. Put it into the oven and cook it for about 30 minutes. Stick a toothpick in the center and if it comes out clean, it’s done, if not, give it another 5 minutes.

Let this sit 10 minutes before turning it onto a cooling rack. The juice cooks into a syrup and clings at first, but after a few minutes it releases the bottom. You can make this, wash the dishes, cool it a bit and serve it all in such a short time…
cakeandplate4 cakeandplate3

This is nice warm and I would have loved some Fior di Latte gelato or some vanilla ice cream with it. I thought of sieving powdered sugar over it, but the plums were so jewel-like I couldn’t bear to do it.
If you make it with fresh plums, use milk in the place of the juices. Or try it with any fruit that’s hanging around, fresh or frozen. Maybe cherries? Peaches?

10 comments March 29th, 2008

Hot crossed buns for Easter

7 comments March 23rd, 2008

Vinegar Pie: by happy cricket

I found this when Barbara asked the other day if I had a recipe. I didn’t even know what it was! America is a big country.
making the crust

It comes from a site I hadn’t seen before, “The Instructables“, but I am happy to have found it because a person can always use a lighthearted approach to things.

1 comment March 21st, 2008

Hot Uncrossed Buns


The other day I was discussing the many traditional Carnevale and Lenten sweets that people make around me. I think they are supposed to quit making them once Lent starts, but they don’t. You almost can’t walk into a home this time of year without the perfume of hot oil and sugar winding around you and wrapping you up for the fat farm.

Everybody is making them and posting about them except me. I am cajoled and teased and blackmailed into tasting them constantly and I can’t bear to have them at home as well. I’m asking around for someone who is willing to be followed and photographed so I can publish it for you, but if you look around the blogging world for Cenci, Castagnole, Fiochi, Chiaccherare, and the hundreds of other words used to describe the hundreds of versions up and down the boot, you will definitely find them.

I remembered then that I loved a seasonal sweet traditional to my culture. The mighty Hot Cross Bun! I was immediately told that it is not the season until Good Friday. Uh! Something that good eaten only three days of the year? Not in my world! I decided that if I didn’t put the frosting crosses on until Good Friday I could have them right away and even take them to my hosts this weekend for an easy breakfast.

I looked at loads of recipes on line and in old cookbooks. The cookbook recipes were way too simplified for me. They wouldn’t produce what I remembered from decades ago. Delia of British fame has a good looking recipe, but my scale is broken so I needed a US recipe that doesn’t need weighing.

The recipe I used in the end was from Bella Online where they also have the nursery rhyme and the story behind this old fashioned sweet roll. If you agree that mine are prettier than theirs, it’s because I added an egg yolk wash before raising the formed buns. I think mine are a bit too big, too. I would make 16 of them from this recipe instead of 12.

The above is how they look in the very welcome sunshine that is pouring over my counters today. I have already eaten two and given one to Olga. We are agreed that these are the best we’ve ever had– mind you she’s never had them before.

7 comments February 7th, 2008

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