Edible Christmas Gifts - II

The majority of the homemade Christmas gifts I have cooked up this year seem to have an Italian theme. And there's certainly nothing wrong with that. What better way to tackle the excesses from the festive night before than with a strong dark espresso complemented beautifully by a sweet Italian riciarelli biscuit the morning after. Sounds good to me. I hope my friends think so too.

These little biscuits can often be found in the window displays of Italian cafés. They originate from Siena and are essentially a combination of ground almonds and icing sugar, bound together by egg whites. Wonderfully simple and enjoyable to make.

Riciarelli biscuits

Sweet Italian almond biscuits, perfect with the morning's strong coffee. No flour involved.

Makes about 24 biscuits

1. 250g ground almonds
2. 250g icing sugar, plus extra to coat
3. ½ tsp baking powder
4. 2 large free-range egg whites
5. 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix well so they're equally distributed. In a separate large bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. Add the vanilla extract to the bowl of dry ingredients, then fold in the egg whites using a metal spoon or spatula. Don’t worry too much about knocking the air out of the egg whites – the dough will quite bit sticky and heavy.
2. Tip If you want 24 pieces, divide your dough in half, then quarters, then eighths. Then divide each of these into three pieces, and you'll end up with 24 separate pieces of dough. Separating the portions out all at once before creating each biscuit means you'll be more successful in keeping them closer to the same size. If you would like each biscuit to be small (say half the size of the ones in the picture) then feel free to divide each final piece into two for 48 pieces. Don't forget that these would cook quicker.
   
   Shape each of these pieces of dough into a ball, then roll in a shallow dish of icing sugar to coat. Flatten the ball lightly in the palms of your hands, then pinch the sides into a rough diamond shape. Lay on a non-stick baking sheet about a centimetre apart (they do puff up a little during the cooking process), then repeat with the remaining dough.
3. Tip You can of course choose any shape for the biscuits. Trying to make all the diamonds look uniform and not like squares on their side can be a bit fiddly, so feel free to opt for the flattened ball, or perhaps a flattened oval.
   
   
   Transfer to the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes until the biscuits start to turn golden brown. Remove the tray from the oven.Leave the ricciarelli to cool completely on the tray (pick one up early and it will leave its base on the tray). Once cool, you can lift them easily off the sheet with a flat knife. Give them another light dusting of icing sugar and they're ready to enjoy.

   
   

   In order to package these up as gifts, I had initially intended to store them in glass jars. However, they turned out far too large to fit into them (I will make the biscuits in my next batch much smaller so I can do so). Instead, I decided to stack them and wrap in cellophane.
   
   I did so by taking a long strip of plastic, laying a row of the biscuits on top of it and bringing in the bottom and sides of the cellophane and securing with clear tape, a bit like wrapping a present.  I then gathered the excess at the top and secured with jute string. I tried to make sure any gaps in the wrapping were sealed so it was as airtight as possible, to prevent the biscuits from going soft. Regardless, I informed the recipients that once they had enjoyed the decoration, it would probably be best to transfer them to Tupperware in order to keep them fresher for longer.
   
   

   These are simple, beautiful and delicious gifts, well received by my wonderful friends and family they were intended for.
   
   There is no need to restrict the making of these to just the festive period - they are worthy in their own right to be rustled up at any time of year.
   
   A perfect way of using up egg whites left over from some decadent chocolate fondants, perhaps.
   
   Afiyet olsun.

buttermilk & blueberry pancakes with crispy bacon - recipe

Tonight I need to squeeze into a clingy burnt orange floor-length piece for my work’s black tie Christmas ball. In order to do so, it would make sense to hold off any large volumes of food today. Especially as the evening will include a three course meal my dress will need to contend with. Lettuce for lunch then, right?

Sod that. It’s the 1st of December. It’s a Saturday morning. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. It’s an excuse for Matt’s infamous pancakes. And lots of them. 

Yes please.

Matt’s American buttermilk and blueberry pancakes with crispy bacon and maple syrup

Makes around 12-14

120g plain flour
120g fine polenta / cornmeal
1 egg
100ml milk
300ml buttermilk 
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
Large handful of fresh blueberries
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon
Quality bacon rashers
Canadian maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 180C. Lay your bacon rashers on a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray. On top of these, lay another layer of paper and another baking tray to weigh them down – this will prevent the rashers from curling up while cooking.  Cook in the oven until crisp.  

Meanwhile, sieve the flour into a bowl and add the polenta. Add the remaining dry ingredients – bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Whisk the milk, buttermilk and egg in a separate bowl with a hand whisk for a minute or two to get some air into it, until it has thickened and looks frothy.

Tip You can quite easily make your own buttermilk if you don’t want to make a special trip to purchase it ready made – have a look at No knead to prove to find out how.

Slowly pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and add the blueberries, gently combining with the whisk as you go until all the dry ingredients are combined.

Tip At this stage you don’t want to over mix the mixture as this will result in tough pancakes.

Heat a heavy based non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat for 2 minutes.

Rub a stick of butter over the area of a circle in the middle of the pan.

Pour batter (use a ladle) into the pan and cook one pancake at a time. You can make them as big as you want, but remember the longer they cook the drier they will become.

Matt stood a large cookie cutter in the pan and poured the batter into them to keep the shape and thickness.  When the surface of the batter starts to bubble, flip it over.

Keep each pancake warm on a plate in a low oven while you’re making the rest – stack ‘em high.

You will be presented with delicious thick pancakes that are soft, light and fluffy on the inside. The addition of the polenta or cornmeal is traditional and creates a crisp surface. The salty bacon, sharp sweetness of the blueberries and the caramel flavouring from the maple syrup is a perfect combination.

Enjoy with a cup of strong coffee and no agenda for tight outfits that evening.

Afiyet olsun.

italian meringue

A question posed: how does one pep up a biting Monday morning after risking life and wheels navigating paths past bullish London bus drivers through Tooting in the morning rush hour? ‘With baked goods’ is the answer to that question.

My introduction (and by introduction I mean mandatory enforcement) of Baking Monday’s to my department commenced with my week being first up. Any excuse to exercise the elite biscuit making set complete with stainless steel icing gun – shamefully its first outing since given to me as a gift last Christmas from Matt.

Two hours and rolls of parchment later, I’ve managed my first attempt at Italian meringue in the form of amaretti biscuits. Double the amount than in the picture was made, with the most perfectly round and uniform ones selected for show and colleague consumption.  

They have the signature initial crunch quickly turning to chew. Anonymous and unanimous votes of 4/5 all round from colleagues, with many coming back for seconds, thirds and into double digits – the best rating of all.

Amaretti Biscuits

Perfect with the morning's strong coffee.

Makes 15-20

125g ground almonds125g icing sugar
3tsp plain flour
2 egg whites
75g caster sugar
1tsp almond extract

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F / Gas 4).  Mix the sugar, ground almonds and flour in a bowl so they’re evenly distributed.Whist the egg whites in a clean and dry bowl until soft peaks form, then add the sugar a tablespoon at a time until the mixture becomes stiff and shiny.

Tip I whisked these in my newly purchased electric food mixer – much easier to add sugar with two hands free.  If you don’t have an electric mixer stand than an electric hand whisk will do the job fine – just try to secure your bowl as you won’t be able to hold it whilst you’re adding the sugar with the other hand.

Fold in the almond mixture and almond extract until just blended.  Be sure not to over work the mixture with your spatula as you’ll lose all the air you just worked so hard to get.  Fold until just combined.

Spoon the mixture in a piping bag and pipe into 3-4 cm wide mounds well spaced out onto baking paper.  No need to grease the paper first.  I found using a relatively wide plain nozzle looked neatest.  Use a wet finger to smooth the top of each mound. The more you do here the more uniform they’ll look when cooked – don’t spend to long on this though.  Bake until they just start to turn light brown.

Tip This time will vary depending on the size of the biscuits you’ve piped but I found 3cm wide ones only took 5-10 minutes or so.  Which is strange as the original recipe states 40 minutes.  Any dark brown bits will taste burnt and be all crisp and no chew.

Carefully slide something thin underneath each one to remove from the paper – I used a bowl scraper. Turn the oven off and leave the door ajar with the biscuits inside – this will allow them to dry out.  Remove once cool and store in an air tight container. Scoffing a good few whilst still warm is recommended. 

What’s especially pleasing is that this weekly occurrence has spurred colleagues of mine who have never before sought after those illustrious stiff peaks of the egg white to don the apron, pre-heat the oven and pick up a wooden spoon.  

Not only was it their first practice attempt, but they enjoyed it.  Enjoyed it so much that baking will now feature as a regular in their daily lives.  Baking love shared. 

Alfiyet olsun.