sabato 25 agosto 2012

giovedì 23 agosto 2012

Baking Ammonites

Mary Anning Speculoos cookies!



Do you know who Mary Anning is?
Well,  she was a young "fossil hunter" in the early 19th century
who lived and worked in the small town of Lyme Regis
on the South coast of England.



Since she was a baby girl,  she use to comb the reef
looking for fossils to sell
and the easiest to find were snake-stone namely "ammonites".



At the age of 12 or something more, she found her first "crocodile" 
probably with the help of her brother.
That ancient strange animal was named
by the first natural scientist 
"Ichthyosaurus"




So... this is the recipe 
give the shape that you like 
and Enjoy it!

I have only a suggest
if you want redo the ammonites cookies
use kind of coarse sugar
that do not dissolve well 
and give it a stony plot!

mercoledì 22 agosto 2012

Mulberry Tart



 Mulberry Tart

  24 cm / 9 inch. pan
 oven 200 °C / 392 °F                                      

for the Crust:  Pasta Frolla

 250 g all purpose flour
125 g cold butter
 1/4 tsp baking powder
 a pinch of salt
 3 egg yolks
  100 g caster sugar
  a tsp lemon zest

for the Filling:

 4 tbsp home made mulberries jam
  1 tbsp water
 1 cup fresh mulberries
       a spoonful of home made creamy ice-cream for serving!
 Enjoy! 
                              

                                          Method:


    Pasta Frolla is an italian traditional buttery sweet pastry for tarts and bisquits,
it's not to difficult to prepare but it need a very cold fingers and fast movements.

Start putting the flour on the work space adding salt and baking powder,
put cold butter cutted in small pieces in the middle and 
start work with a fork until they're well combined.

then place the mixture like a volcano,
add sugar, eggs yolks, lemon zest 
and mix well with a fork.

Now you're ready to start mixing by hands,
work the dough faster until smooth
then make a ball and wrap in the plastic,
 let it stay in the fridge for half an hour.


Roll out the dough no more than 6-7 mm
and put in the greased pan.

Mix well the jam with the water and spread it 
to the bottom of the dough with a spoon
and cover with fresh mulberries.

At the end drizzle the remain pastry on top
as a crumble and bake until golden.





lunedì 13 agosto 2012

Honey Sweet golden Prune Pie






RECIPE:

Pie Crust  No.1


2 -1/2 cups  flour plus more for rolling

1 tsp  salt
2 tsp  white sugar
1  cup  cold butter
1/4 cup  iced water plus more if needed

Filling


1 pound organic golden prunes  (quantity depends on your pie plate)

2 or 3 tbsp of your favorite honey
1 tsp  thyme leaves 


Bake at  200°C / 390°F  until the crust become golden (about a hour)








For the Crust