Making apple fritters

Fritelle de mele ~ Italian name

Today I made apple fritters which is basically fried apples.

The book describes the process of making fritters generally as: "Make them of any of the batters directed for pancakes by dropping a small quantity into the pan, or to make the plainer sort, put pared apples or lemons sliced or currants into the batter. Any sweetmeats or ripe fruit may be made into fritters." (Grazia, 217).

What this means: Fritters can be made by dipping things into a pancake like batter (fruits, or meats) and then frying them like you would pancakes.

The ingredients needed: I like this recipe because it involves gold delicious apples, which are my favorite. The rest of the ingredients are pretty easy to find.

Making the fritters: The first step is to make a pancake batter with the milk, flour, eggs, sugar, pinch of salt and possibly rum. My family doesn't have rum and my dad would not buy any so I didn't use any. However, I doubt it made a big difference. 

Next it was time to peel 4 golden delicious apples, and cut them into 1/4 inch chunks. I just left them how my apple cutter cut them, because later I tried a batch with thin slices and thick slices and the thicker ones were better.

Then you could start immersing the apples into the batter, but not fry them yet. I would recommend only cutting up 3 apples because the batter barely covered them all with me doing 4.

After that, it was time to fry the apples in the batter. This is done by making a pan of vegetable oil into a simmer, and the oil is crucial. This is basically just like making pancakes, but it may splatter everywhere (and burn!!) so I didn't take pictures during this part.

Lastly, once the apple fritters had cooled down it was time to add confectioners sugar and cinnamon. That is optional, but I really liked the combination because it tasted like apple pie.

Final result: Overall I liked the recipe, and it turned out enough. Some fritters tasted like apple pie and others tasted like pancakes. This makes a LOT of fritters, which isn't exactly the healthiest. I probably wouldn't make this again, because it is easier and healthier to just eat the apples plain. It was fun to try though.

Question: Have you ever fried things other than potatoes? How do you think it tasted? What spice would you add?

Citation: Barilla, Academia. Italian Desserts and Pastries: Delicious Recipes for 100 Authentic Sweets. Vercelli: White Star, 2014. Print.

Making Lemon Granita!

Granita Al Limone

What is lemon granita? 
From the book: "The Granita is a cold dessert that is of typical Sicilian sweets. It is traditionally a semi-liquid concoction of water, sugar, and fresh lemon juice. The origins of Granita date to the Arabian domination of the island. The Arabs introduced an iced drink flavored with fruit juice or rosewater, often prepared with the snow collected in Mount Etna, and kept in "nivieri", freezers built of stone." (Grazia, 170).

What this means: Granita has many different variations and dates back to when Arabians controlled Sicilia, and in older times when stone was used as a freezing tool.

picture from the book of Lemon Granita

Ingredients;

The first step was to boil sugar and water for one minute to create a syrup. Once it had boiled, it was time to take off all heat and then add the lemon juice in. 

doesn't this look scrumptious?

boiling wow!

After that, all you had to do was put the syrup mixture into a bowl and freeze it for 2-4 hours. However, the recipe states that you should mix up the ice every hour, and only continue once it reaches a uniform consistency. I basically waited for it to resemble the picture which took 3 hours. I also bought an extra lemon for the sake of the picture #89cents@fredmeyer 

The final result:

fun quote from my dad: "why are you using shot glasses"

Review: YESSSSSSS it finally looks like the picture! I think this was maybe an overly simple recipe but that's fine with me. This was definitely my favorite Italian dessert to make because it tastes the best, looks the best, and was the easiest! It tastes like lemonade, but better. It is somewhere between maybe a lemon slushy and lemonade yet is quality. 

Questions: What is your favorite cold/ice drink? Do you still drink them in the winter?

p.s do you like the yellow background? Yellow and lemons are fun. Three best things in a girls life (or maybe just mine); lemonade, mac n' cheese, and cats.

Citation: Barilla, Academia. Italian Desserts and Pastries: Delicious Recipes for 100 Authentic Sweets. Vercelli: White Star, 2014. Print.

Italian Fruit Sorbet

Italian Fruit Sorbet

(Sorbetti Alla Fruita)

For this post, I decided to attempt something that doesn't really depend on presentation. Sorbet from the picture provided seems easier. 

As you can see the consistency is not too much like ice cream

The history of fruit Sorbet from the book: "Sorbet, a cold dessert eaten with a spoon, is an ancestor of Gelato. Ancient Romans enjoyed Sorbet as a pleasing way to beat the summer heat. Apparently, the emperor Nero had ice brought in from the Apennines so that he could enjoy delicious, refreshing fruit sorbets. " ((Grazia, Mario, and Academia Barilla. Italian Desserts and Pastries. Vercelli: White Star, 2014. Print.)

Paraphrase: Sorbet is one of the signature desserts in history consumed by many and especially Italians. It is not to be confused with Gelato, or Granita (what I will be making next!).

Ingredients needed for the strawberry sorbet

Making the Sorbet: The book had two different recipes of Sorbet but I decided to go with strawberry Sorbet. Overall this dessert was pretty simple. First, boil 300 ml of water then place the strawberries in. I made sure to cut them up after I measured them so they could boil under the water. Then you were to whisk the 200 grams of sugar into the mixture. The book wanted the overall temperature to be around 150°F. Once that temperature was reached, it was time to remove the pot from heat and wait for it to cool a bit before adding the lemon juice. I just gave it around 30 minutes and then added the lemon juice.

The syrup made about a quart

Later, it was time to put the syrup away for 6 hours. Since I had school the next day it was more like 9 hours, but I don't think that really matters.









The next morning, I let it unfreeze for a bit before moving on. The recipe called for an ice cream maker, but I do not have one so I just used a blender. While this sounds weird, I just put the mixture into the Puree setting and added some ice. The syrup was very sticky though, and fun to clean up!
                                                                             

Haha the syrup sticking to the sides funnn

This was the final product: 
Review~ In the picture it kinda looks like a smoothie but was actually close to the ice cream texture. It was more of a sludge. Sorbet pictures usually look a lot more like ice cream but I figured this works because it resembles the book picture and I did what I could. While making this, the fresh strawberries smelled really good. The taste of this wasn't super great but was still Sorbet so I liked it. The lemon juice was not at all prominent and the drink overall just tasted like a standard sugary drink. I still learned a bit from this experience though.



Questions:
Do you own an ice cream maker? Have you ever made your own ice cream or Sorbet? What suggestions do you have for me?

Citation: Barilla, Academia. Italian Desserts and Pastries: Delicious Recipes for 100 Authentic Sweets. Vercelli: White Star, 2014. Print.

Making lady fingers

Making Lady Fingers

(Savoiardi in Italian)

Today I made Lady fingers, which is described as "rounded, oblong shaped light cookies"

 

This is the professionally made lady fingers from my book, which one thing to learn is not to get discouraged by the outcome of your products versus those of  master chefs.

Included within the book is the history of Lady fingers:
"Lady fingers were created by the chefs of the Dukes of Savoy to celebrate the visit of the king of France. Despite their Piedmontese origin, ladyfingers are often found in the artisan confectionery traditions of all the regions of Italy that were once under Savoy influence. Thanks to their crisp, spongy texture, they are also used in creamy dessert recipes."
(Grazia, Mario, and Academia Barilla. Italian Desserts and Pastries. Vercelli: White Star, 2014. Print.)

What this means: Lady fingers derived from trying to please the king of France with scrumptious desserts, but has become traditional for Italians. This shows that there is history behind recipes.

 

      Making the lady fingers:

Making this recipe was for the most part was pretty simple. First, start by preheating the oven to 400°F, it didn't take long to prepare so heating up the oven right away was a good idea. Then you were to sift the flour and cornstarch and put it aside. In a separate bowl, you were to mix the 3 eggs and yolk and add dashes of vanilla and warm honey. To me this looked weird  because there was no flour or anything more solid yet, so the goo was not very appeasing.

1. mm cute

After that, it was time to add and mix the flour-cornstarch combo along with the lemon zest, which looked a lot better.

2. more acceptable

Then the hard part, you were supposed to take this mix and put it in an icing bag and somehow make the perfect shape on baking sheets to get the perfect cookie. This was a struggle, with the mixture shooting everywhere and not at all making perfect shapes. I definitely did not take pictures at this part because my hands were covered with icing. Maybe I'm just a spaz, but no matter how hard I tried the icing/mix would not stop coming out of both ends. #chefjenny

Side note: Before putting it in, it was recommended to put confectioners sugar so it would harden into the cookie. (Bake 10-15 minutes)
And so with the icing situation, once again the overall presentation of my cooking was not very great.  

Overall result: The book states that it should make 30 lady fingers. My attempt made about 15. This may have been due to my odd shapes and spilling of icing, but I don't think this recipe is overall accurate for average Joes. I made two batches, and slightly overcooked the first one. 10 minutes worked best for me, but that depends on ovens.  

Tastewise: It was very sweet. I like the pop of lemon zest and vanilla. I did feel a spongey texture (in the batch that wasn't overcooked haha). I did not like them as much as I thought I would, even with the sweetness they were still a little too bland, like eating a "meh" snickerdoodle. Icing could've helped, like it did with the glazed hazelnut cookies.

gotta add that cringey photo of me looking like a rat

Questions for you: What cooking struggles have you gone through? What are useful fixes? Do you think presentation is a big factor? What should I make next?

merry christmas lol - jenny

book: Barilla, Academia. Italian Desserts and Pastries: Delicious Recipes for 100 Authentic Sweets. Vercelli: White Star, 2014. Print.

Making Glazed Hazelnut Cookies