little capresi with extra virgin olive oil (glutenfree)

I could not miss the contest on Montersino's recipe... I'm a follower-fan, my blog is full of his recipes. I have elsewhere had the occasion to share with you my enthusiasm and my unbounded admiration for the Master, how he's called around the web; what I really appreciate about him, is the clarity of his explanations and the complete sharing of his knowledge. Many things in pastry that before I could not even think to do, now are clear and give me satisfaction. The secrets (like doing pastry cream without turning, or before whisking the eggs and sugar you must heat them over low flame) mean to me a sort of Copernican Revolution, that I apply in my kitchen with a smile. As if he was there.

crostata meringata

In my almost daily training to bake cakes with the guide/book of the pastry-guru Luca Montersino, I came across this recipe  faster more tasty and with the advantage of being glutenfree. 

Ingredients for about 8/10 patties

200 g whites

200 g sugar

100 g hazelnut flour 

100 g chopped hazelnuts

5 g bitter cocoa powder

icing sugar

How to make:

Preheat oven to 170°
1. Whip with electric mixer the egg whites and sugar ((I whipped for several minutes to earn a frothy cream). Add with a spatula by hand the hazelnuts flour, the chopped hazelnuts and the sifted cocoa.
2. Fill the mixture into molds shaped like a half sphere of silicone previously greased (I used seed oil, but perhaps butter is better) and add at the bottom of each the chopped hazelnuts. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the molds, let cool and decorate half with powdered sugar.
Serves: 8

cream of lentils soup (by Colfiorito)

A creamy soup, some toasted bread, a bowl of red wine, is what we need in these cold evenings. I bought these lentils in Colfiorito and cooked this way: 

rich bread

In my "career" made of flour-water-yeast, I tried this bread so rich, full of winterly flavours conferred by nuts, made with dried sour dough, a natural yeast that you can buy in health food stores, and it's perfect for its digestibility and conservation. The recipe is taken from the latest issue of Open Kitchen Magazine. 

cookies (recipe by Luca Montersino)

After the Christmas festivities, let me make a simple recipe: the cookies by Montersino, that I worked as a pastry dough instead of using a pastry bag to make little circles on the baking tray, as suggested by him.

HAPPY 2012 TO ALL OF YOU !!!

Ingredients for about 50 cookies

• 300 g butter at room temperature
• 225 g brown sugar
• 120 g free range eggs
• 30g honey
• 200 chocolate drops
• 450 g all purpose flour
• 6 g baking powder
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 g salt

Preheat the oven to 180° 

Whip the butter with the brown sugar, the vanilla seeds, the honey and the salt. Pour the eggs one by one while the mixture is whipping at low speed; then add the flour sifted with the baking powder and finally the chocolate drops. Roll out the dough between two baking papers, flatten with a rolling pin into the desired thickness and then give the biscuits the shape you most prefer. Bake at 180° for about 15 minutes. Let cool on a rack.