Biscotti Da Te

For my last IRP project I wanted to make something a little easier and fun, so I decided to make
biscotti da te from The Il Fornaio Baking Book. “Biscotti da te -  literally, ‘tea cookies’ -  are buttery
confections that are  baked either plain or topped with a fruit jam.” (Galli 147). The cookies turned out
delicious and were greatly enjoyed.  

Adding egg

Creaming the butter and sugar 

The first step was to mix the butter and sugar. I added both ingredients  to my mixer then creamed
them together for about 5 minutes. Next I added one whole egg and continued  creaming the
ingredients together. Finally I added the last of the wet ingredients, an egg yolk, vanilla, and lemon
zest. Then slowly I mixed the flour into the wet ingredients,  as I added the flower the dough began to
come together and become easy to work with. I turned the dough out onto a counter top and kneaded

Scraps and cookies with jam before baking.

a few times before flattening it into a disk and letting it chill in the fridge for about an hour. Once the
dough had chilled, I rolled  the dough out then using a cookie  cutter  shaped as many cookies as
I could. I gathered the scraps and rolled the dough out one more time. I cut out more cookies but,
since Galli recommends not to roll out the dough again or risk your cookies developing a tough texture (Gali 147)
I decided to bake the leftover scraps.

I immediately baked about half of the cookies but decided to try jam on the other half.  Galli
explained how the jam is spread over the top of the cookie. “Make a shallow indentation in the center
of each cookie and spoon ½ teaspoon raspberry or apricot  jam into each hollow.” (Galli 147). I
carefully followed Galli’s instructions trying to avoid dripping the jam and mostly succeeding. I baked all
the cookies for about 15 minutes, until they were solid and dry.

Cookies after baking

The cookies got many rave reviews both the ones

with and without jam. I think that the jam ones were a bit better because the jam made them less dry and the lemon and raspberry flavors compliment each other.  Over the course of the last quarter I have learned a lot and I am a better baker now then I was when I started. I now know have a better understanding of Italian baking and all the work it requires.

Works Cited 

Galli, Franco. The Il Fornaio Baking Book: Sweet and Savory Recipes from the Italian Kitchen. Chronicle, 2003.

Challah

       This week I continued improving my bread baking skills by spending about five hours creating a delicious challah or egg bread. I used a recipe from The Il Fornaio Baking Book by Franco Galli. This dish was easier than I thought it would be with a very light and easily manipulated dough.  I had some problems with the presentation of the bread but the end product was delicious and rich.  

Kneading the dough 

Three strands ready to braid. 

The first step was to make a biga or starter, if you want more information on this piece, check out my first blog post. Once the biga spent 20 hours rising, I mixed flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl and created a well. Then I added eggs, oil, and biga to the well and began stirring with a spoon, working the dough until it was well mixed and sticky. At this point Galli recommends to, “ begin kneading the dough in the bowl (it will be quite sticky), keeping one hand clean in order to hold and turn the bowl and using the other hand to work the dough,” (Galli 77).  I quickly followed his instructions kneading the dough until it came together easily into a ball. Next, I let the dough rise for about one and a half  hours in a covered bowl. When I return the dough had about doubled in size. I carefully punch the air out with my fingertips before laying it out to rise for another hour.

Finished braid! 

Finally it was time to braid the dough. I divided the dough into three equal portions then following Galli’s advice, “Working with one portion at a time and using the palms of your hands, roll it into a “strand” about 12 inches long and 1 inch in diameter,” (Galli 77). I carefully rolled the three sections into strands then I began to weave  them together like one would  braid hair. The braid came together surprisingly easily and looked good once finished. I covered the braid and let it rise for another hour.

Unfortunately, in my rush I didn't think about covering the braids and once it has risen most the braid had stuck to the towel! The  braid design was completely ruined but I used an egg wash and baked it anyways. Although I didn't have the nice braided look, it tasted delicious.

Oops! The ruined braid. 

Next time I try this recipe I will be careful about covering the braid and perfecting my presentation. Have you ever baked a braided or woven bread before? Have you ever enjoyed one? Let me know in the comments below.

Final product. 

Torta Maddalena (Sponge Cake)

     While on winter break I wanted to continue to improve my baking skills, so last week I took a crack at Torta Maddalena also known as sponge cake. I found this recipe in The Il Fornaio Baking Book by Franco Galli. This classic recipe is used to construct the famous Italian Tiramisu, but before I try that trickier desert I wanted to practice the cake. Galli explains that he doesn’t know where the Italian name of this desert came from, “But Italians often name dishes after saints, so perhaps it honors Santa Maria Maddalena,” (Galli 159). No matter where the name came from the dish is a great classic that can be used in a multitude of sweet treats.

Mixing the egg mixture into a mousse. 

     For a perfectly formed sponge cake Galli recommends a springform pan which has sides that can be easily removed from the bottom. This pan allows for cakes with soft and fragile bottoms to be easily removed from the pan. They are commonly used to bake cheesecakes, quiche, and coffee cakes. I greased my pan and placed a sheet of parchment paper  on the bottom. The paper helps stop the cake from sticking to the base of the pan. I then preheated the oven to 350* F. Next, I sifted flour and baking powder together into a bowl before mixing the wet ingredients.
     To mix the wet ingredients I made a double boiler. I filled a pot filled with water and set a bowl on top of it.  As the water in the bottom pot reached a boil, the top bowl heated up warming the ingredients.  I added the honey, lemon zest, eggs, sugar and the egg yolks to the warmed ingredients in the top bowl.  To separate the yolks, I squeezed a plastic water bottle over the yolk so the yellow center of the egg was sucked into the bottle. It was tricky to get the yolk in to the bottle without it popping but eventually I got three yolks separated and added to the double boiler.

The cake baking. 

     Once the double boiler had heated the mixture to about 120* F. I poured the yellow liquid into a bowl and began to whisk it at high speeds. After about 10 minutes of whisking the mixture had formed a fluffy, creamy, and smooth mousse. Slowly I sifted the flour mixture into the wet mousse. Galli explains the best way to combine the wet and dry mixes, “Using a wire whisk combine the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients with a folding motion: gently move from top to bottom of the batter in a continuous action until no lumps remain” (Galli 159). Once I had carefully followed Galli’s instructions, I poured the batter into the cake pan and placed in the cake in the oven. I baked the cake for about 40 minutes before pulling it from the blistering oven. The cake had 5 minutes to cool before I carefully unclasped and lifted off the sides of the pan.  Then, 10 minutes later I lifted the base of the pan off the cake bottom and then pulled the paper from the bottom. Thanks to my prep, the cake easily came free of the pan with having to be cut. After freeing the cake from the pan, it was ready to enjoy.

Finished slice of sponge cake. 

The cake after it was cut. 

     For my first time baking a sponge cake and my first time using a double boiler the cake came out pretty good. Next time I try this recipe, I want to combine the wet ingredients in a bowl and then pour the mixture into the boiler so everything starts cooking at the same time. I would also whip up a creamy frosting to cover the cake and add more flavor. I learned a lot from this recipe and I’m excited to use my new skills on other recipes. Have you ever used a double boiler? Did it work for you or do you need to keep practicing? Let me know in the comments below.

Forming Focaccia First

The biga once it had fermented in the fridge

While Italy is known as the world leader in fine leather goods, marble, and ancient masterpieces, it is less known as the birthplace of a often overlooked craft, gourmet baked goods. Many recipes for the delicious goods lining the counters of bakeries around the world originated in Italy. I am embarking on a mission to learn about and be able to craft breads and I sweets to astound every customer at a bake sale. In the past, I have enjoyed trying out different bread recipes with varied success; I have had trouble getting dough to rise consistently. However, after reading The Il Fornaio Baking Book, by Franco Galli, I have found new strategies and tips to insure that my dough will rise as well as challenging new recipes. My first challenge was to bake a Focaccia Alla Genovese, a flat bread covered in olive oil that I remember enjoying all along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Galli’s method involves making a biga to leaven the bread. If you have never heard of biga think of well fed yeast. If you paid attention back in fifth grade science, you would remember that yeast is a living organism that produces carbon dioxide. This chemical reaction is used in most bread recipes to produce light and airy bread, but packaged yeast cannot always do the job on its own. The old Italian way of getting bread to rise, biga is a mix of yeast, flour, and water. This mix is set in a cool place and allowed to ferment, activating and feeding the yeast until a baker scoops some up and combines it with other ingredients to create soft, fluffy dough. If a biga acida or sourdough starter is required, the yeast is kept alive and “fed” flour and water until it forms spores that contain the sour flavor. Jars of starter can be kept for years, used again and again and referred to as “mother dough.” One woman claims to have a starter that is 122 years old!  

Kneading the dough.

After my biga had fermented in the fridge for two days, I was ready to start my dough. I gathered my ingredients and brought them up to room temperature before mixing packaged yeast and water to supplement the biga in the dough. I combined all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then carefully added the wet ingredients. Kneading is one of the toughest parts of making bread, working the dough like an elastic band across the countertop and trying to force it into a smooth, well mixed ball.

This accomplished, I placed the dough into an oiled bowl, covered it with a damp washcloth to keep the surface from drying out, and put the bowl aside in a warm space, where it rose for the next hour and a half.

The dough finally ready to bake.

Once the dough had doubled in size, I turned it over and then set it back to rise again for another hour. When it was considerably larger in size, I shaped into a square per Galli’s instructions and then set to rise one more time. Galli recommends baking loaves on stone because “porous unglazed stones gives them a wonderful crisp crust that baking on sheets cannot match”(Galli, 15). I happened to have a pizza stone that I set on the bottom shelf of my oven, which I preheated to 425*F. Gali also recommended misting with water before baking. This was a step that was entirely new to me but I tried it out, trusting the expert.

Finally the dough was done rising for the last time. To make the standard dimples in the top of the focaccia, I pressed my finger into the dough before painting the surface with a light coat of olive oil. Carefully I transferred the dough onto the blistering hot pizza stone in the oven. Galli recommended baking the bread for five minutes, misting the oven, and then baking for 30 more minutes. Once the crust looked like a corgi’s rear end, I pulled the bread from the blazing hot oven and set it on wire racks to cool.

The bread cooling after it was done baking. 

Overall I’m happy with the way my bread turned out -- especially for my first try. Not only is it edible, but I got some compliments when I shared it with my family. If I had a chance to try this recipe again, I would paint it with a little more oil and mist it less often, hoping to make the crust turn out a little softer.

What delicious Italian recipe should I bake next? Calzones, Braided bread, or Sponge Cake? Let me know in the comments what you recommend.