Happy EASTER

A Re-Post worth sharing today:

It isn't Easter for me without these:

Being Italian and raised Catholic you have to have Easter Pie on Easter. My family makes 2 pies: Sweet Pie and Meat Pie. They are made only at Easter time.

The Sweet Pie is made with a special crust called "pasta frolla", it is rich with eggs, lightly sweet, and I like to add a little grated orange peel. (This dough makes excellent cut-out cookies as well) The filling is creamy and rich with ricotta, cream and grano--an Italian wheat-grain berry that adds a nutty, toothsome texture to the pie.

 Through the years, I have modified the "Meat Pie" into 3 versions: the original, with 4 cheeses, ham, salami and proscuitto, a spinach vegetarian verson, and plain cheese (for my salami-hatin' kids--can you believe?)

They are perfect for that saturday morning before Easter, eating and savored cold from the fridge with lots of hot coffee. Save one of each pie for yourselves, and bring the rest to wherever you're going for Easter! I guarentee it to be a unique addition not many people have ever had.

Click to Enlarge collage showing steps for Sweet Pie.

Recipe for Sweet Pie:

Pasta Frolla Dough (or use Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts)
2 cups flour, sifted

1/2 cup sugar

pinch salt

1/4 cup butter

3 egg yolks

1 Tbsp. milk

2tsp grated orange rind

Mix the butter and flour, then add eggs and the rest. Knead to form a soft sticky dough. Refrigerate at least 3 hrs or overnight before rolling out.


FILLING

2 cups cooked wheat (I purchsed mine dry and cooked it on low in a crockpot w/equal amounts of water to grain and a pinch of salt for 4 hrs or until water was almost all dissolved and grain was puffy, or buy canned at Italian grocery)

1/4 cup cream, scalded

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. sugar

1/4 cup citron, diced (optional)

1/4 orange peel, diced

1 1/2 lbs. ricotta(whole milk please)

1 cup sugar

6 eggs

1/2 cupcMINI choc chips, opt

1 Tbsp. orange water(or orange extract)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp. confectioners sugar



In the scalded cream, mix wheat, salt and sugar. Set aside off heat.

Remove from heat, add citron and orange peel, set aside. To prepare
filling, beat ricotta and sugar, then add eggs vanilla and orange
water, blend well. Stir in prepared wheat . Pour into pie shell.(pasta frolla or atore bought Pillsbury if lazy, pressed for time, still good) Arrange lattice topping over filling, flute the edge.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for approx 1 hour or until set in center. (Don't overbake or it is dry--better to underbake)

Let cool then Refrigerate. To serve dust with confectioners sugar.  Serve Cold.

I am sorry but I can't part with my Meat Pie recipes just yet... but a little hint: Google "Italian Easter Meat Pie" and I promise you will have a plethora of recipes to choose from. They're all good.

Buona Pasqua!!!

Happy Passover Recipe:Chocolate- Toffee Matzoh

OK, people, you must try this recipe....

so delicious.....

You will find the recipe for Chocolate Covered Toffee Matzo here. And it's EASY...oh, yes dangerous!

RECIPE:

1/2 lb matzos

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

8 ounces chocolate chips

Directions:

1 Line a cookie sheet with foil and lay matzo on pan.

2 Melt brown sugar with butter in saucepan; boil until mixture coats a spoon.

3 Pour brown sugar mixture over matzos.

4 Bake in 350 degree oven for 3-4 minutes (watch closely-it burns easily!!!) until it starts to bubble.

5 Cover with chocolate chips and put back in the oven until the chips start to melt.

6 Spread the chocolate to cover the matzo.

7 Freeze until hard, then break into pieces.

8 Option- sprinkle chopped nuts on top.( I use almonds)...I have also seen it covered with a little sea-salt...looks good - gotta try that

HERE is the BEST tutorial...with amazing pictures too. LisaDang.com blog "Dang it Delicious" great reads!

Make it a Great Day!
Ann

Strawberry (very) Short Cake with Marinated Strawberries

This is so simple I hesitated to blog about it. But here goes....

Just bake a White or Yellow Cake in a 9" round pan. (We added some red food coloring to keep things interesting...)
Meanwhile, make the marinated strawberries (this idea is particularly good when the strawberries are not as sweet as you'd like)

Marinated Strawberries

1 pint fresh berries, sliced

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 tablespoon sugar, or 1 packet of Splenda or other sweetener

1 tsp honey (optional)

Mix all together in a bowl. Keep in fridge while cake bakes and cools, until ready to use.

Let the cake cool and cut it in half through the middle.

Put the marinated strawberries with the juices in the cut part, top with Cool Whip then replace the other half and top with more Cool Whip and berries. The juices from the strawberries soak in and make it extra delicious. I used Splenda and "Free" Cool Whip to make it lower-calorie. We refrigerated leftovers and it was spectacular the next day too.

Make it a Great Day!
Ann

Italian Christmas Cookies

 

Growing up in New York, and on top of that Italian, there's no way it was Christmas without a huge platter of cookies from the Italian Bakery. These TriColors were always the favorite and went the fastest.

When we moved away from Brooklyn, sure we could find ones that looked like these, but never tasted as good as the Brooklyn ones.

When the family moved to out west, fuhgetabbowtit...no more cookies. Until my mom found this recipe. It's unbelievably close, and now I make them every year. People who never heard of them, try them, and then clamor for them.

Trust me, they are that good.

The recipe is not for the faint of heart; its not hard but its a lot of little steps.

Before starting, make sure you have room in your refrigerator; these need to be chilled and weighted overnight.

Italian TriColor Cookies

1 cup almond PASTE (NOT marzipan, there is a difference--check the label)

1 1/2 cups butter(3 sticks), softened not melted

1 cup sugar

4 eggs, seperated

4 teaspoons almond extract

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 drops green food coloring

8 drops red food coloring

1 8 oz jar apricot preserves

1 8 ox jar raspberry preserves (no seeds)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 13x9x2 pans with parchment;lightly spray the parchment with Pam

2.Break up almond paste, add butter, egg yolks, almond extract. Beat with electric mixer till fluffy and smooth.

3.Beat in the flour and salt.

4. Seperately, beat the egg whites till stiff. Fold into the batter mixture.

5. Divide batter into 3 bowls: leave one plain, add red coloring to one , and green to the third.

6.Pour each color into their own pan...it will be a VERY thin layer. VERY thin. Tap to level. Its OK.

6. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until just the edges look golden. Do not over bake.

7. Lift cakes off the hot pan by the edges of the paper; let cool slightly while:

8. Heat up the preserves in the microwave until warm and spreadable.

9. Layer the preserves between the cakes as follows, leaving the parchment under the bottom layer on one pan. Bottom to top:Green, then raspberry, White, then apricot, Red on top. Top with more parchment, then wrap the whole thing tightly in foil, and place in fridge with another pan on top flt side down on the cake with a couple of heavy cans to weight it down.

10. Refrigerate overnight.

11. Take out, remove top layers of foil and parchment.

12. Melt chips in the microwave and stir till smooth and melted.

13. Pour chocolate on top of cold cake and spread evenly over top.

14. When chocolate is set, measure your cakes and mark into 1 x 2 inch rectangles, cut carefully, wiping and dipping knife in warm water before each cut.

These can be frozen in tupperware and keep for about 3 months.

Italian Bakery Cookies...yours will taste even better!

Make it a Great Day!

Ann

Love Affair with French Macarons

Last Easter, I attempted to make French Macarons, after becoming obsessed with their images.....These are definitely not your grandma's heavy, gooey, coco-nutty macaroons, French Macarons (ma-ca- RONS) are light, airy, and oh so subtley favored with almond and whatever second note you'd like to add.

Here's a recipe I adapted from dozens I perused over the internet:

Ann’s French Macaron Recipe
3 egg whites at room temp (¼ cup plus 2 tbls if using carton egg whites)
almond flour(granulated almonds, find in health food or natural foods store) (1 cup)
powdered sugar (1 ¼ cup)
granulated sugar ¼ cup
a few drops of food coloring
Almond extract (or raspberry, vanilla, orange, etc. for a different flavor)

In a food processor, grind the almonds and powdered sugar together to make sure they are really fine. Break any lumps with fingers. It will feel mealy. Set aside.

Start whipping the whites on low speed to break them up, and slowly increase as to obtain a soft foam. Slowly add the granulated sugar, one Tbls at a time until the meringue is tight and glossy. Add extract.

Stop the machine and fold in the coloring and the almond/powdered sugar, carefully, so as not to callapse the puffyness too much. The batter should flow smoothly but not be runny. Try a spoonful on a plate. The little peak created by the meringue should flatten when tapped on the counter top.

Line 2 baking sheets with non-stick aluminum foil (imperitive--no subs here!) and preheat the oven to 320 F.

Fill a gallon freezer ziplock bag with the batter, cut a small hole in one corner, and pipe rounds (very small circles, no more than 1” diameter ) on the baking sheet lined with non-stick foil.

When they seem puffed and a “foot”* forms, lower heat by 10 degrees.

*Feet/Foot refers to the frilly bottoms of the cookies formed as they rise in the oven.

Bake total 8-11 mins.

Remove each macaron carefully from foil with a thin metal spatula (this should be easy with the non-stick foil) onto a cooling rack. They will deflate slightly as they cool.


Once they are cooled: fill each with about 1 Tb. of the frosting, jam or nutella, forming a sandwich-cookie.

Store in a covered container in the fridge, letting set, uncovered at room temp for 20-30 minutes before serving. They can also be frozen up to 3 months, in a covered container between sheets of waxed paper.

TIPS:Make on a sunny dry day.
Oven door was slightly ajar. Do not sieve almond flour, leave it slightly grainy; I am convinced that’s how I got the best results. Do not over-mix, but also do not under-mix(over mixed will not form “feet*“, under-mixed will crack and puff too much!) It was the mixing that was the crucial thing. Bake until tops are light-colored and puffy-- a couple batches I pulled out too early and the tops looked darker and sunk and cracked a bit after cooling. But they still tasted good.
Non-stick foil allows you to pull them off after about 5 minutes out of the oven.

This is Tartlette's version by way of Bakerella:

http://www.bakerella.com/tartelette-these-are-for-you/