Franci

In this case I'd wait for the bread to cool. The butter shouldn't melt on the bread .

I have been refreshing my durum old dough, cannot call it mother really. I made a biga yesterday, added my old dough plus some yeast and salt, a little more flour and water, 80% hydration. I didn't have time to bake yesterday so left in the fridge to proof until today. Took out of the fridge, I gave the dough some folds, preformed, formed and final proof in the banneton. I decided to use only 750 g for a 1kg banneton and use 250 g of the dough to make a large pita with some crumb. I was thinking of making "pane cunzato" with it. I finally figured out how to use the steam in my Cadco oven ( it's a manual device)...wow, what a difference in oven spring! I should have baked at higher temperature to get a thicker crust (I also let the steam escape by opening the door oven a bit at the end of cooking).

Oh, Anna, I wish you were there too! Had a great time with Kerry. Now I have to come up to Canada, so you two can convince my husband of the beauty of SV :)) P.S.: Kerry, the bread really deflated, tiny crumbs, but still good flavor!

For my daughter school party the other day I was supposed to bring sandwiches...so I decided to make panettone gastronomico. This is a typical buffet item in Italy, it's an enriched bread baked in a panettone mold. Then it gets sliced horizontally and filled then built back. It was really good, all parents (more than kids) liked it a lot. I didn't have a panettone mold so I made one myself. I used a not so sweet brioche recipe. It's better to make the bread one day in advance, so it's not so crumbly when slicing and if filled with some hours in advance tastes nicer. I wasn't particularly creative with the filling because was meant to be for kids, so I did: one layer of mayo and ham, another one with tapenade and ricotta, another with brie and speck, then butter and genoa salame. I realized later that I didn't take a photo of the dressed panettone...I made some skewers with tomatoes to stick on round top. These were 2 panettoni of 850 g each, weight before cooking. After cooking, I let it cool head down. Then when you build it back the second layer need to be staggered and so on.

Oh, wow, I've not been at Rice to riches in a decade! Ah, ah, and also confess that I've never been to DA. Can I call myself local? But I've been to Despana in the last 6 months

Kerry and I were on the same page on almost everything. The baked alaska was really good, the acidity on the strawberry sorbet perfectly balanced the sweetness of the meringue. Delicious. I also enjoyed very much the crab salad, the marinated foie gras with the thin crispy top was very good. Also the caviar benedict very rich but quite enjoyable. Overall in a world that moves toward lighter and fresher tastes I found it a little bit too rich for me and I'm not one person stingy on fats. I found some recurrent ingredients or flavors: potato, morels, sorrel, a lot of radishes. A great service and a lot of attention to details from the nice wooden trays where the appetizers were served, they pile high and mimic the chandeliers. To the paper on the mast brothers chocolate and the nice granola they gifted us with the tin where we were served the caviar benedict with a printed menu included.

Ok,not sure how to do it on egullet from my phone, but I posted on Instagram. Here

Good morning! You got great pictures Kerry. The halibut was poached with radishes and some orange blossom (very in the background I need to say). The beef is I recall correctly was dry aged for 140 days with eggplant and broth. I'll try to upload the video for the baked alaska now.

Hi! Just managed to put my kids to sleep...Great night with Kerry! Looking forward to upload all our pictures.

Crostata alla confettura

Cakewalk, many focaccias out there. In the US people think as focaccia as a fluffy flatbread mainly, that is at least the idea I got. In reality there are many shapes and kinds. This dough is pretty dense, I cannot call it flaky but the oil and the potatoes make it quite tender, in the middle has cheese, tomato pulp and ham. But my favourite is with onions. Focaccia genovese, focaccia barese, focaccia di Recco (although this to me is border to the other Ligurian savory pies), gnocco ingrassato, crescente bolognese, sfincione palermitano, just to name a few...

Beautiful bread Diana, you have a very good hand! I am back into making the focaccia I grew up with...sometimes I miss those flavors. I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I used an old dough made from durum flour (that I'm using to make durum bread as well) and made also a biga with AP flour, potatoes in the dough and a good amount of extra virgin olive oil. This is not supposed to be a tall focaccia at all, tender, with good taste of olive oil. Love it. Next time, I'll make my favorite, with onions. Unfortunately I cannot find the right olives...

Funny, how persons have a different taste. Me and my son (and a lot of Italians I know) like so much more choux that have been filled way ahead. In fact I don't think of it as soggy at all. And like them over many other desserts!

For lump free polenta, I bring a pot of water to almost boiling point (already salted) and start pouring the polenta in a stream (using a bowl with a beak) without piling, this is very important. And I whisk at the same time with the other hand. Once it starts boiling it will not form lumps anymore and I'll switch to a flat wooden spoon. I never follow the ratio of polenta and water on the box because is never to my liking. I stop pouring before it gets too solid to for me. Also this is very personal. My mom is from Bergamo and polenta there is bramata, the coarser version and thicker. I like it that way. If you go to Veneto is much finer and creamier, especially the white polenta. I don't like it as much. Just a matter of what you are use to. In the Como area, where my parents and sister live now it's always a mix of bramata and buckwheat. Very tasty, specially polenta taragna (cannot even think about calories there) For example this lady here, Bruna, is from Chiavenna (land of bresaola), see how thick is her polenta? Look instead at this polenta bianca from Veneto, so soft and runny. I'm not crazy for that but if you grill it and serve with some baccala' mantacato then I'm all happy If you really had very good polenta, meaning done the right way and with good flour, the instant polenta is a pale comparison. But there are good and bad instant polenta. Valsugana brand is terrible for me. Moretti is passable. I cook it all the time, especially if I do with the idea of cooling and grilling or frying it afterwards, but if I'm eating it hot soft it's really so so.

Cookies for breakfast

Oh Diana, what an adventure this loaf! I'm glad it turned so well despite everything working against it. What a lovely crumb.

The picture doesn't make it justice...loved this profiterole

My old dough weakly refreshed was looking better and better until I dropped the jar on the floor...at least I made bread yesterday night. Made awesome bruschetta tonight

Thanks John, I'll definitely try the recipe!

Since I had still many yolks and going to be left with more, I made another recipe from Giovanni Pina, his savoiardi. I made tons of trials on savoiardi last summer if anybody recalls. These are the best tasting savoiardi I made so far...I'm still in search of the perfect Sardinian savoiardo but for now, I'm satisfied. I also baked some in a whoopie pie mold cut the base and paired with jam for a savoiardo "peach"

I'm raising my children with the metric system. In the house we only use grams/cm/celsius. Also my husband who started with the metric system, reverted to the imperial system and now in the house is back to metric. I don't have a problem with Fahrenheit when it comes to oven temperature from 300 to 500 but when I go outside and people start talking about the weather I'm lost and need to check my phone. Also when it comes to inches, good to have a calculator with me.

Yes! There was a typo, turlo is tuorlo=egg yolk. 190 g of eggs yolks is a lot, 15-17 eggs but perfect for me

I followed a recipe, this if google translate is not enough, ask. I whipped the butter, added milk powder, honey, 10x and kept whipping. I added the cold yolks, vanilla paste and a drop of lemon oil and then folded in the shifted mix (flour, potato starch, baking powder, almond flour and a pinch of salt). I reserved a little bit of the flour and added some very finely chopped candied lemon peel and white chocolate chips and folded in at the end with a couple tablespoons of limoncello. I used a very small disher to make 15 g cookies, dusted some coarse Belgian sugar on top and refrigerated for 15 minutes. Baked at 350 for 12 minutes. With these quantities you get about 8 dozen cookies. If you get to make them let me know what you think about them.

I had so many yolks leftover for my cake making that I made these drop cookies, they have a lot of yolks, butter, 10X, a mix of APflour, potato starch and almond flour, some milk powder and baking powder. Since my daughter doesn't like raisins I made them more child friendly with white chocolate chips and lemon flavor (lemon oil, finely chopped candied lemon peel and a drop of limoncello). Going to become a staple of the house, melt in your mouth not too sweet.

Polacche aversane, a brioche from Campania with custard cream filling and sour cherries in syrup. My kids didn't even wanted to try because of the cream...I hope I'm not going to have the same reaction to the party at school where they are going. I tried one and found delicious