Castagnaccio

This is not an Umbrian dish, it´s Tuscan, but it´s never too late to try good things.

Ingredients:

500 gr. of chestnut flour

750 ml. water

40 gr. of raisins, soakedin tepid water and then dried carefully

80 gr. of walnuts, coarsely chopped

80 gr. of pine nuts

olive oil extra vergine

1 twig of rosemary

Preheat the oven to 200°C

Mix the flour and the water carefully until it´s a smooth paste. Set aside some of the raisins, pine nuts and walnuts to cover the pie later. Add the other raisins, walnuts an pine nuts to the paste and mix carefully.

Cover a shallow tin with ample olive oil. Put the dough into the tin and carefully divide it equally. Cover with the left over raisins, walnuts and pine nuts. Spread the rosemary-needles over the pie. Sprinkle two spoons of olive oil over the pie.

Put in the oven for half an hour until the castagnaccio has a golden colour.  

Fall - chestnuts

Another great thing about the fall is the abundance of food you can find just outside. I told you about mushrooms already and I am longing for the day I can tell you about truffle hunting. It´s one of my biggest wishes to experience that.

But, as you can´t always get what you want, this blog is about another fall product that I like. Chestnuts.

It is very comforting to light a fire on a cold fall day and roast chestnuts for dinner. You should not be afraid of a little dirt because it gets a bit messy, but it´s worth it. You carve the chestnuts with a sharp knife, roast them on the glowing ashes and put them in a wet towel. 

Leave them for a minute, peel them and enjoy the taste. The go particularly well with vino novello and a jacked potato with sage.

One of my dearest Italian friends told me that it is almost an art to know how to end your dinner. Should you have a chestnut last, or a sip of wine? Just try, and try again, and again, because you want to be very certain. I probably don´t have to tell you who got a little drunk.

Related chestnut products, like chestnut mash serve many purposes. Think about a chestnut-quiche. I use canned chestnutmash, you can prepare your own but it is a lot of work and it just never seems to get right.

Heat the oven to 180°C. For the puff pastry click here. Put the dough in a greased cakepan. To fill it: I fry a little bacon, some shallots and garlic until lightbrown. Mix it carefully with the chestnut mash. Add grated parmesan, salt and pepper. Cover the dough with it. Mix two eggs, 1 spoon of milk, salt, pepper and some more parmesan and pour it over the pie. Shake slightly to spread it well. Leave it in the oven for about 40 minutes until the eggs are colored.

You can also prepare a sweet chestnut pie. In that case, mix the chestnut mash with 1 sachet of vanilla sugar, 2 spoons of table sugar, 2 spoons of cream, and a beaten egg white. Spread it on the dough and leave it in the oven for about half an hour.

Chestnut flour has a lot of possibilities. I especcialy like castagnaccio, a Tuscan pie of chestnut flour, raisins, walnuts, rosemary, olive oil and pine nuts. You can find recipes everywhere.

My own recipe is a chestnut-chocolate pie.

Ingredients:

150 gr. chestnut flour

30 gr. white flour

20 gr. cocoa powder (the sweet one)

200 gr. butter

175 gr. sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar

4 eggs

Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease a cakepan. Mix the chestnutflour with the white flour and the cocoa. Beat the butter with the sugar and add the eggs one by one. When it´s an equal substance, add the flour little by little and keep beating until you have a smooth, equal batter. Spread the dough in the pan and bake it for 45 minutes.

And if ater all this, you have still chestnuts left.... use them to decorate your autumn home.  

Lazy lemon pie

With a minimum effort you can reach a very fresh effect with this lemon pie.
If you want to make it easy on yourself, use instant puff pastry and a jar of lemon marmelade (by the way, any marmelade will make a nice pie).

Ingredients:
Puff pastry
Lemon marmelade

Start preparing the lemon marmelade, for it has to cool down completely. You will find the recipe here.

Prepare the puff pastry with 125 gr. of flour, 125 gr. of cold, hard butter and 62.5 ml. ice water. Let it rest in the fridge for half an hour. Roll it, fold it back together again and give it another rest for half an hour. Repeat that once more. Or, use the instant pastry.







Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Grease and flour a baking pan and put the puff pastry in it. Put a leaf of baking paper on it, and fill it with a support stuffing of dried beans.
Bake the pastry with this stuffing for about 20 minutes, then remove the beans and the paper and bake for antoher five minuts.
Let it cool down and spread the marmelade on it.

Dolce freddo - a chocolate desert.. when nothing else matters

This is an extremly heavy desert. It tastes great, but you should only have it after a light dish like a salad..unless you don´t mind. Like me.

Ingredients:

100 grams of butter
50 grams of cocoa powder (the sweet kind is the best)
50 grams of sugar
2 egg yolks
1 cup of espresso
100 grams of biscuits
100 grams of amaretti

Melt the butter and beat it with the sugar until you get a foamy substance. Add the eggs one by one. Add the espresso. Carefully add the cocoa powder. Keep beating until it is smooth.

Crumble the biscuits and the amaretti. I use the kitchen machine, but it works well when you put the biscuits in a towel and use a rolling pin.

Mix the biscuits and amaretti with the cocoa mixture and put it in a greased cake pan. Leave it in the fridge for a night.

You can serve it with mascarpone, or whipped cream but maybe orange parts will be better to hold the illusion of a healthy life.

An apple a day

To be honest, I prefer chocolate to fruits but when it comes to apples I completely understand why Eva took a risk with her place in paradise. I would have chosen the apple above that Adam guy too.

Apples are great to experiment with. Of course there´s nothing wrong with the standard apple pie but try to dip apple parts in a little melted chocolate. Let it harden for a few seconds and you can serve a completely different tea.

Or try my apple cake, click here for the recipe. 

I made one today and prepared a huge bowl of compote. 

Speaking of which: have you ever tried a variation of the sweet apple compote by using fresh green herbs? I recommend!

Ingredients:

1 kg of apples – goldreneits are the best, but if you dont mind some larger pieces you can practically use every kind of apple.

2 spoons of sugar

fresh thyme, rosemary and marjoram

Remove the skin from the apples.

Cut them into really small pieces.

Put the pieces into a pan and add the sugar.

Chop the herbs and add them to the apples.

Add some water or apple juice, make the whole lot boil then lower the fire and let simmer for a least an hour.

Let them cool down.

Serve the apples with thin sliced veal or pork chop or a not too strong cheese, like a provolone dolce.

Sweet variation:

1 kg of apples – goldreneits are the best, but if you dont mind some larger pieces you can practically use every kind of apple.

2 spoons of sugar

1 spoon of cinnamon

2 spoons of honey

Remove the skin from the apples and cut them into small pieces. Put everything into a pan add a little water, applejuice or calvados. Make it boil, then lower the fire and let simmer for at least one hour.

The sweet versions goes very well with goat cheese.  

Snowwhite - a winter cake

A nice final for a winter menu..it looks like the earth, slightly covered with just a little snow.

Ingredients:

For the cream:

200 ml. whipped cream

80 gr. of dark chocolate chopped into small pieces

1 spoon of water

1 egg, beaten

2 spoons of vanilla sugar

For the cake:

150 gr. flour

150 gr. butter

140 gr. sugar

10 gr. of cocoa powder

4 eggs

1 teaspoon Of baking powder

Prepare the cream first. Beat the cream without sugar and leave it in the fridge until use.

Melt the chocolate with a spoon of water au bain marie (or use the microwave).

Mix the chocolate with the vanillasugar and the egg. Do it quickly to prevent the chocolate from hardening again.

Carefully mix the chocolate mixture through the cream. Poor the mixture in a flat bowl and leave it in the fridge for at least three hours.

In the meantime, prepare the cake.

Heat the oven to 180°C. Mix the sugar and cocoa powder. Beat the eggs with the sugar mixture until foamy. Add the butter. It works very well to melt it first, but it´s not necessary.

Add the flour little by little, add the baking powder and beat for a few minutes until you have a smooth batter.

Grease and flour a cakepan, pour the batter in it and put in in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Let it cool down.

Cut the cake in two in the length. Spread half the chocolate cream over one half, then cover it carefully with the other half of the cake. Wrap it in plastic foil and leave it in the fridge for another hour.

Dust the cake with a little sieved icing sugar. Serve with the rest of the chocolate cream.  

Banana republic or monkey world?

I will give you nice way to get rid of a few bananas you forgot to eat. The cake has a special taste and goes very well with vanilla ice cream. The compote is very sweet and has only one disadvantage: you should use it immediately, for it turns brown while you´re still looking at it.

For the cake:

150 gr. flour

150 gr. sugar

150 gr. butter or margarine

3 eggs

2 – 3 bananas, mashed

a little cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a cakepan and dust it with a little flour.

Beat the butter and the sugar and add the eggs one by one.

Add the flour to the batter little by little and continue beating until you have an equal, fluffy dough.

Mix the banana with the cinnamon. Mis the dough with the mashed bananas, use a wooden spoon. Mix very well.

Put the dough into the cakepan and bake it for about 45 minutes in the middle of the oven. Let it cool down.

Bananacompote:

3-4 bananas

lemon juice

1 full spoon of honey

4 spoons of (cane) sugar

cinnamon

Mash the bananas and sprinkle them with a little lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown immediately. Heat the mash with the sugar and the honey on low heat until the sugar is dissolved completely. Add a little cinnamon and let it cool down. Stir now and then.

Serve it immediately with the cake. 

Cappuccino cake

This is a great recipe, it fits in practically every menu, though I especially like it when days get shorter and temperatures get lower. You can serve it as a part of a grand dessert, but it will also impress at a high tea, or when you´re gifted with Italian genes, for breakfast.

It is not hard to fix this. But very important: use only the best ingredients you can get. That means fresh eggs, strong coffee and creamy butter. And love.

Ingredients:

150 gr. flour

150 gr. sugar

150 gr. butter

3 eggs

1 espresso

1 sachet of instant cappuccino powder (take nescafe)

2 spoons of milk

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a cake pan and sprinkle it with a little flour. Beat the butter and the sugar, mix well. Add the eggs one by one. Add the espresso and the milk and keep on beating until it´s a creamy, equal substance. Mix the flour and the instant cappuccino powder and add it, little by little, to the batter. Continue beating until you have a fluffy dough.

Put it carefully into the cakepan and bake it for ca. 45 minutes in the middle of the oven.

Don´t open the oven in the meantime and make sure nobody runs around hitting the oven, for the cake will collapse immediately.  

Suggestions:

• This cake can replace the chocolate cake I posted before, click here for a few more recipes.
• If you like, mix two spoons of vanilla sugar with a teaspoon of cinnamon and dust the cake with it.

Chocolate cake - and more

This cake is a very fast and easy way to make a simple dessert with a great effect. If you don´t mind to take a little more trouble, you can namely use it as a basis for a grand dessert. Maybe my suggestions can help somewhat.

Ingredients:

100 gr. Butter or margarine

80 gr. Table sugar

10 gr. Vanilla sugar

10 gr. Cocoa powder, try to get the sweet kind, but if you can´t, the bitter one will serve as well

100 gr. Flour (sifted'

2 eggs

Heat the oven to 180° C.

Mix the sugar, vanilla sugar and the cocoa powder. Shake the bowl a little to ensure that any lumps will disappear. Melt de butter or margarine.

Beat the eggs with the butter and add the sugar mixture little by little untill the mixture is smooth and then add the flour, again litlle by little. Beat the mixture for about 5 minutes.

Butter a small caketin and gently put the mixture in.

Put it in the middle of the preheated oven for about 45 minutes.

Suggestions

For a grand dessert, you can serve the cake with:

chocolates

whipped cream

vanilla and/or chocolate icecream

chocolate mousse (no, I won´t give my secret recipe)

mascarpone

my fast tiramisu – recipe below

Fast tiramisu

Half the cake, thin sliced

250 gr. Mascarpone

50 gr. Vanilla sugar

2 – 3 egg yolks (it depends on the size)

cocoa powder to cover

Cover the bottom of a small shallow dish with the slices of the cake. If you wish, you can sprinkle it over with a little vanilla essence, but it is not necessary.

Beat the mascarpone with the yolks and the vanilla sugar until it´s smooth and evenly.

Spread it evenly on top of the cake and let it rest in the fridge for at least three hours.

Cover it with shifted cocoa powder.