All posts by gio

dolci, English, ricette

Tiramisu

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This is Veronika‘s glorious recipe, appreciated by and disseminated to countless people all around the world.

Beat the yolk of 6 eggs with 9 tablespoon of sugar for a while, until the mixture is kind of light, both in colour and texture. Add 500 gr of mascarpone (failing that cream cheese) and mix well until smooth. On the side, whip the white of the eggs until firm, then add to the mixture, stirring very slowly and always in the same direction (or the eggs will separate). Prepare a lot of strong coffee (don’t tell anyone, but even good instant will do). Put the coffee in a shallow bowl, roll the savoiardi (Lady Fingers can kind of substitute, you will need approximately 400gr of savoiardi) into it, and make a layer of coffee-soaked savoiardi in the bowl where you will serve the tirami su. The coffee should be hot and the savoiardi should not completely soaked in coffee. If you do that, the tirami su will be runny. Rather, the savoiardi should be rolled horizontally and quickly on the surface of the coffee. The centre of the biscuits will be still a bit hard. When you have done a layer of biscuits in the bowl, pour a layer of mixture on it, then a layer of biscuits, then a layer of mixture, and so on. How many layers you will have will depend on the shape of the bowl. Finish with a layer of mixture. With a sieve, cover the surface with a thin layer of bitter cocoa powder, then put in the fridge to rest at least 12 hours. For the people in Vienna, you can find all the ingredients in Billa. This makes a large tirami su, like a good portion for 10 people or so.

TIRAMI SU (Veronika=s glorious recipe)

Beat the yolk of 6 EGGS with 9 TABLESPOONS OF SUGAR for a while, until the mixture is kind of light, both in colour and texture. Add 500 GR OF MASCARPONE (failing that cream cheese, or failing even that Philadelphia cheese) and mix well until smooth. On the side, whip the white of the eggs until firm, then add to the mixture, stirring very slowly and always in the same direction (or the eggs will separate). Prepare a lot of STRONG COFFEE (even instant will do). Put the coffee in a shallow bowl, roll the SAVOIARDI (Lady Fingers can kind of substitute) into it, and make a layer of coffee-soaked savoiardi in the bowl where you will serve the tirami su. The coffee should be hot and the savoiardi should not completely soaked in coffee. If you do that, the tirami su will be runny. Rather, the savoiardi should be rolled horizontally and quickly on the surface of the coffee. The centre of the biscuits will be still a bit hard. When you have done a layer of biscuits in the bowl, pour a layer of mixture, 2 centimetre or so, on it, then a layer of biscuits, then a layer of mixture, and so on. You will need two 250gr PACKETS of biscuits. How many layers you will have will depend on the shape of the bowl. Finish with a layer of mixture. With a sieve, cover the surface with a thin layer of bitter cocoa powder, then put in the fridge to rest at least 12 hours. For the UN people in Vienna, you can find all the ingredients except the eggs in the Commissary. This makes a large tirami su, like a good portion for 10 people or so.

bibite, ricette

Limonata

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Come diceva l’Uomo Perlana, di solito la limonata mi viene una schifezza. Oggi avevamo fatto un giretto sulla Donauinsel in bici ed e’ la prima vera giornata calda e piacevole (infatti, le piste erano un macello di gente), e, tornati a casa, avevamo proprio sete. Mi sono offerta di fare una limonata e, miracolosamente, e’ riuscita buona, per cui voglio scrivere le proporzioni per i posteri. Ho fatto due bicchieri di quelli alti che abbiamo comprato di recente. Ho misurato e sono 350ml di acqua ciascuno. Ho messo due cucchiaini di zucchero bianco e uno di zucchero di canna in ogni bicchiere assieme a un rametto di menta. Ho aggiunto il succo di mezzo limone diviso tra i due bicchieri e poi ho aggiunto l’acqua. Magari la prossima volta metto due cucchiaini di zucchero di canna e uno di zucchero bianco, metto due rametti di menta per bicchiere, e pesto tutto un po’ di piu’.

dolci, ricette

Risolatte al cioccolato

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Era un po’ che ci pensavo, e questa mattina ho finito di fare la valigia per le nove e mezza, visto che comunque non saremmo usciti di casa prima delle dieci e mezza e visto che l’Uomo Perlana e’ un po’ giu’, ho pensato: provo a fare il risolatte, cosi’ glielo lascio in frigo e gli faccio una sorpresa stasera … naturalmente e’ arrivato a casa troppo presto … addio sorpresa.

Ho seguito la ricetta di tortealcioccolato.com, che e’ per sei persone e ne ho fatto un quinto delle proporzioni, quindi: 200ml di latte, 20gr di zucchero, 100gr di riso, 30gr di cioccolato fondente.

Non avevo piu’ baccelli di vaniglia, ma avevamo una bottiglietta di purissimo estratto di vaniglia. Da qualche parte in rete c’era scritto che 1/2 baccello corrisponde a 1 cucchiaino. Mi apprestavo a fare versare 1/5 di 2 cucchiaini a occhio (!), ma mi e’ sfuggita la bottiglietta, anzi, come dice sempre l’Uomo Perlana quando gli sfugge l’olio di semi di zucca sulla minestra, cioe’ ogni volta, ‘mi sono distratta’, e quindi ne avro’ messo quasi un cucchiaio.

Ho usato il riso basmati, e, sara’ il riso, sara’ il fatto che, mi diceva l’Uomo Perlana quando e’ tornato a casa, c’era troppo poco liquido nella pentola, ci ha messo un’eternita’ a cucinarsi, una mezz’ora abbondante, invece dei 20 minuti della ricetta. Per di piu’ ho dovuto aggiungere liquido in continuazione, prima altri 100ml di latte caldo o giu’ di li’, e poi ho cominciato ad aggiungere acqua bollente dal bollitore.

Stasera sentiremo il verdetto dell’Uomo Perlana. Qualche cucchiaino rubato a caldo era veramente buono, ne avrebbe tirati molti altri …

dolci, English, ricette

Orange flower water crostata

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This is the cake that I made for Eli’s birthday today!!! I had made a similar version at another dinner, and, although the filling was not the same, in reality what you taste is the orange flower water, that’s why I called it this way. We had also a little discussion on how to translate crostata and could not come up with a good word. I do not think that ‘tart’ is exactly the same, and, although ‘pasta frolla’ is similar to the dough that you make for pies, it is not the same and a crostata is not a pie. Also wikipedia does not translate crostata, so crostata it is!

First, we have to make pasta frolla, the dough. I am using the version of gennarino.org.  The thing about pasta frolla is that everything needs to be very cold and you need to work it as little as possible.

So you take 240gr of flower, 80gr of powder sugar and half a packet (8gr) of baking powder, you mix them together and, if you feel like it, you sift everything. At this point, you take 160gr of butter straigth out of the fridge and you cut it in little cubes on the flower mix. Use your fingers to mix it with the flower making a heap of crumbles. Add 2 yolks and one table spoon of orange flower water and mix first with a fork and at the end with your hands, until you have a uniform ball of dough. The least you work on it with your hands, the better! Put the ball in a close container or wrap it in cling-film and put it in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour, a hour is better.

While the dough is resting in the fridge, we can prepare the crema pasticcera, which is an easier version of custard cream. Warm 250ml of milk with one teaspoon of orange flower water. In another pot, mix two yolks, 60gr of sugar, 20gr of corn starch, mix well so that the mixture is smooth. Add the warm milk little by little until everything is mixed together and put on medium heat. As the mixture comes to the boil, it will thicken. Cook for another few minutes, mixing well so that it does not burn on the bottom of the pot and it remains smooth. Don’t worry if it looks lumpy, just mix faster. Put the crema aside.

Prepare a 26cm pan (it can be a low one, this cake does not rise much) by rubbing the inside of the pan with butter, adding a tablespoon of flour and shaking it around to lightly coat the inside.

When the time is up, take out the pasta frolla from the fridge and put some 1/5 of it aside. Don’t forget to put the oven on at 180 degrees. Roll the rest of the dough out on a lightly floured surface and transfer to the pan helping yourself by wrapping the dough around the roll. Now, with pasta frolla this is very difficult to do, so don’t dispare. In fact, what I usually end up having is a patchwork of PIECES of pasta frolla in the pan, but that’s ok because you can gently press on the dough in the pan with the palm of your hand, and it will be all right. Make the border uniform and a bit thick.

At this point you can take the crema pasticcera and spread it on the cake. Then, you can take some jam or marmelade and spread a think layer on top of the crema. Finally, take the 1/5 of dough that you had left aside, roll it out, and cut strips of dough to arrage them in crossing squares on the cake. Bake at 180 for 45 minutes or so and enjoy cold!

dolci, ricette, torte

Crostata al profumo di acqua di fiori d’arancio

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You can find the English version of the recipe here!

Questa e’ la crostata che ho fatto per il compleanno di Eli oggi!!! Ne avevo gia’ fatta una simile una volta per una serata cinema a casa di Andrea ed era piaciuta molto. Vedo che il profumo dell’acqua di fiori d’arancio diventa dominante anche con una marmellata diversa e con la crema, quindi e’ cosi’ che si chiamera’.

Praticamente ho fatto la solita pasta frolla usando la ricetta di gennarino.org, ma ho aggiunto mezza bustina di lievito e un cucchiaio di acqua di fiori d’arancio alla pasta. Ho poi fatto una crema pasticciera con due tuorli e 250ml di latte e un altro cucchiaino di acqua di fiori d’arancio, che ho spalmato sulla torta e ricoperta di uno strato di gelatina di mandarini e melograno che avevo fatto a dicembre dalla ricetta trovata sul mitico blog di briggis. Credo che, piu’ o meno, qualunque confettura o marmellata vada bene, il gusto non cambia cosi’ profondamente. Ho messo tutto in forno a 180 gradi per tre quarti d’ora, era appena un po’ troppo (eravamo andati a portare fuori Laki!), ma non ci sarebbe voluto molto di meno.