Almond and Chocolate Chip Biscotti

When you are looking for something a little more glamorous and rusks don't quite fit the bill, these hot beverage dippers are just the thing.  Actually, they were traditionally dipped in dessert wine or sweet wine, for example, Vin Santo, which is a style of Italian dessert wine.  The nutty almond or hazelnut flavours are an ideal compliment to sweeter wines that have aged a while

Italian-Inspired Desserts, part 3

Unforunately, i don't have any mouth-watering pics of this yummy dessert.  It is a recipe that i tried loooong before i knew what a blog is!  This is a recipe from, as you know, one of my favourite recipe books: Marie-Claire Flavours, Donna Hay, Murdoch Books, 2000.  On page 121 of this gem of a recipe book, you will find a recipe for chocolate panna cotta. Beware, this is not for the faint-hearted!!  This Italian dessert is extremely delicious and just as rich!

Chocolate Panna Cotta
Serves 6
4 cups cream
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
185 g milk or dark couverture chocolate, chopped
2 teaspoons gelatine
1/4 cup water

Place the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a saucepan and allow to simmer slowly, stirring occasionally until the liquid has reduced by a third.  Be sure that the cream doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan.  Add the chocolate and stir until smooth.
Place the gelatine in a bowl and add the water.  Leave to swell for 5 minutes.  Place the gelatine mixture in a saucepan over low heat until the gelatine has dissolved.  Stir into the hot cream and chocolate mixture and simmer for 1 minute.  Pour into six 1/2-cup capacity moulds or ramekins and refrigerate for 4-6 hours until firm.

Italian-Inspired Desserts, part 2

Now for part 2: Panforte!


Thanks to Wikipedia, i have just learnt that panforte literally means 'strong bread', referring to its spicy flavours.  This Italian sweet bread has been around for centuries and could possibly date back to 1205, when it was suspected to have been made for the first time in Siena, Tuscany.  If a panforte has been made 'properly', it is apparently supposed to contain 17 ingredients, for the 17 Contrade within the city walls of Siena (a whole other story, interesting, but not food-related, so i will spare you!).


Because this recipe has been around for such a long time, there are several different versions.  Originally, panforte didn't contain chocolate, but now most do contain either chocolate or cocoa or both.  In some more modern recipes, the pepper has been omitted.  The medley of spices is another thing which changes significantly from recipe to recipe.


This is something very different, not for everyone.  I made this recipe because the picture looked so good and not, as i usually would, because of the ingredients listed.  I would actually recommend making this around Christmas time.  The flavours and aroma's reminded me so of Christmas - cinnamon, cloves, honey, roasted nuts...  Yummy!!

Panforte
4 small sheets of rice paper
100 g skinned hazelnuts
100 g blanched almonds 
(you can use macadamia or walnuts too)
1 teaspoon each of whole coriander seeds, cloves, nutmeg and black peppercorns
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
50 g dried figs, finely chopped
15 ml cocoa
200 g candied orange and lemon peel, roughly chopped
grated zest of 1 lemon
50 g all purpose flour
150 g sugar
60 ml honey
30 ml butter
icing sugar,to dust


Butter and line the base of a 20 cm spring-form cake tin with rice paper.  Cut a few strips to line the sides as well. 
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.  Lightly brown the nuts on a baking tray for approximately 6-8 minutes.  Check often as they burn easily.
Grind the whole spices together in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar.  I found that my spice grinder couldn't get the spices as fine as i would have liked.  Upon tasting the end result, one every now and then bit into a peppercorn or a fragment of clove.  This is, to me, too overpowering.  When i make this again, i would prefer to use the spice powders.  Also, to make it more palate-friendly, i will omit the pepper.
Put the nuts, spices, figs, cocoa, candied peel, lemon zest and flour together in a metal or china bowl and mix well.
In a heavy-based saucepan, melt the sugar, butter and honey together.  Stir briefly until the butter melts into the sugar.  Do not stir again to prevent the sugar from crystallsing.  Bring to the boil and cook until the syrup reaches 120 degrees Celsius on a sugar thermometer.  Alternately: if a little drop of the mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.
Immediately pour the syrup over your nut and spice mixture. Work quickly to combine all the ingredients evenly.  Pour into your prepared tin and smooth with the top of a spatula. If you find the spatula sticking to the mixture, just wet it with a bit of water.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes.  Unlike other cakes, Panforte will not seem very firm when cooked, but it will harden as it cools down.  Once cool, remove from the cake tin and place on your serving dish.  To serve, dust with icing sugar.

Italian-Inspired Desserts, part 1

The thing with book club is this:  you want to be drinking wine and chatting with your ladies the whole evening.  You don't want to be stuck in the kitchen, but you do want to show off your kitchen prowess with delicious food!  Here are two recipes (both from Great Tastes Italian, Bay Books, Murdoch Books Australia, 2009) to help you do just that...

For a bit of extra book club glam, i
served my tiramisu's in martini lasses!

 Tiramisu
Serves 4-6
5 eggs, separated
180 g castor sugar
250 g mascarpone
250 ml very strong coffee, cold
45 ml brandy or sweet marsala
44 small sponge fingers
80 g dark chocolate, finely grated


Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the mascarpone and beat until the mixture is smooth.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean dry glass bowl until soft peaks form.  Fold into the mascarpone mixture.
Pour the coffee into a shallow dish.  Add the brandy.  Dip some of the sponge fingers into the coffee mixture, taking care not to let them become too soft.  Arrange the biscuits in a tightly packed layer to cover the base of a 25 cm square dish.
Spread half the mascarpone mixture over the layer of biscuits.  Add another layer of soaked biscuits and then another of mascarpone.  Neatly smooth the top layer. Leave to rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
Before serving, dust with the grated chocolate.

My amendments:  Even though i made good quality very strong filter coffee, i found it too watery for the biscuits.  One should either have something more substantial than finger biscuits (less porous) or use a coffee flavour that is more concentrated.  Considering that the finger biscuits are so a part of the tradition of tiramisu, finding a stronger coffee flavour would be the better solution.  When i posed this dilemma to my sister, she suggested the use of coffee liqueur.  I think that that would work very well.  Just drizzling the coffee liqueur over the finger biscuits.  One could then omit the brandy. For a dessert, actually for most dishes, i like to have a contrast of textures on the plate/dish.  With this tiramisu, i would like the fingers to still have a bit of firmness to contrast with the soft smooth custard.  I think that that can be acheived by using liqueur instead of coffee.


Here is another recipe, apparently by the lady who got it from the restaurant that first made tiramisu... only as far back as the 1970's.
http://www.annamariavolpi.com/page30.html
I prefer the idea of this one, as the eggs are actually cooked. Can't say that i am a huge fan of the idea of eating raw eggs!  I will definitely give this recipe a try sometime soon (hopefully) and let you all know how it goes!


I've just realised that i've written quite a bit more than initially intended, and i haven't even attached photo's yet!  So i think that we will have to split this story up... Panforte to come tomorrow...