Il pane naturale: Pane ai Sette Cereali

This time I've chosen a wholemeal flour (Farina PANE NERO Molino Spadoni) for my bread, the procedure is always the same even if the ingredients changed:

300 gr Sourdough
500 gr wholemeal flour
250 ml water
1 teaspoon salt

This brown bread tasted delicious with Wildflower honey

Pizza di Formaggio

Do you have a special food that shouldn't be missing on a Feast meal? 

For me Easter without Pizza di Formaggio isn't fine. This is a typical receipt in the Center of Italy. In general you can buy it some weeks before Easter in every Bakery, but since I'm now living in an other region (NW) I had to bake my own Pizza di Formaggio, because here they don't know it.

I had a receipt in a cuisine magazine that was pretty good, even if really poor in cheese! So, I modified it adding more cheese types. The result satisfied me, even if in my favorite Bakery they make them more cheesy and spicy.

My Pizza di Formaggio:

300 gr Bread dough (obtained by fresh Sourdough)

50 gr grated Emmenthal

50 gr grated strong Provolone

80 gr grated Parmigiano Reggiano

150 gr chopped Caciotta or fresh Pecorino 

6 eggs
Flour as you need (more or less 250 gr)
50 gr Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

In a large bowl beat the eggs with all grated cheeses, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon Pepper. When the mix is ready put it in the stand mixer bowl with the dough, stir well for some minutes until the dough has adsorbed the cream. Than start to add slowly the flour. I suggest you to stop when the dough consistency allows you to form a ball.

Oil a large bowl and let the dough's ball rest for an hour in a warm ambient (your oven, for example). When the ball doubles its size you can put it in a paper mold for Panettone, it has to be filled for 3/4 its volume. Let it rise for three hours than bake it at 200°C until the upper crust has a golden brown color.

My dough was too much for my paper mold, so I did three little Pizza di Formaggio using Muffin's paper molds. They looked pretty, I think it could be a really good solution for a party. You can serve them like cupcakes or use them as a support for place cards at your table, can't you?

Il pane naturale: i panini :D

Fragrant home made bread in different shapes :P

Crostata alla marmellata

Last week I was baking bread, trying to stabilize my process and in the meantime I took advantage of the hot oven baking something more. One of my classic tart and also one  of my husband's favorite is Crostata alla marmellata. 

You will find a lot of recipe for this cake, I think every family has the own one, but I can assure you that my Crostata is really good.

How to make a good Crostata? The secret is a good Shortcrust. The crust has to be crumbly and soft. So, which is the secret? Make the dough as fast as possible. When you see the ingredients well blended, form a ball and let it rest in the fridge for half an hour.

My recipe for shortcrust is:
300 gr Flour
2 Eggs 1 Yolk
150 gr Butter
120 gr Sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

 On top you can use your favorite jam (Peach, strawberry, raspberry,...), or marmelade, or custard, or Nutella, in other words whatever you want ;P

Wild flowers

 Last week I spent some days in my hometown. During a little walk in the country I was attracted by a bunch of wild anemones, then nearby I found something more...




I always called them "Wild Iris", but I'm not sure it's its real name. They are so little (20 -25 cm) and their aspect is so mimetic, that is not easy to see them from a distance. However their smell is so good and intense like wooden Sowbreads. Beautiful, isn't it? 

    PS: I found it's name Hermodactylus tuberosa (Widow Iris)

Il Pane naturale 2

This is my second tentative of home made bread.
I used:
200 gr sourdough
250 gr all purpose flour
120 gr Manitoba flour
130 gr super fine flour
250 ml water
1 teaspoon salt

After 4 hours I obtained this! :D
 

This bread tested wonderfully with my Sister-in-law's Patè (Direct from France ;P)

Il Pane naturale

I decided to bake bread using sourdough instead of yeast, so I started to read blogs, posts and recipes all around the web. The universal suggestion is: once you have your sourdough try different solution in order to find your favorite bread.
Here you can find the method for the Sourdough
For my first loaf I used simple all purpose flour...

Primo tentativo - First tentative

L'interno - Inside