Destination Anywhere

The smell from the results of page 82 of Dolce Italiano wafting upstairs even got my 17 year old out of bed at 8:30 on Sunday morning.

One large mixing bowl and four small bowls in the sink, around 10 minutes to put together, a bit of oven fiddling to edge the temp up to 350 for the last 15 minutes because my oven tends to run a bit cool, and a wonderful coffee-cake type breakfast treat. I had to make some adjustments, using regular flour, almond meal and sliced toasted almonds from Trader Joe's. Total baking time was 40 minutes, due to using a nine-inch pan instead of the 10-inch specified in the recipe. The cake has a nice texture--moist, a bit crumbly, and the sugared almond topping is crunchy and slightly chewy from the egg white. Great combination of textures, sweet without being overly so, and a subtle cinnamon scent.

A winner!

The dough for these was extremely easy. Just throw flour, salt, red pepper into the bowl, proof yeast in water and sugar and pour in, mix, add butter, oil and cheese, and mix again.

I love Aleppo pepper for its deep flavor.

Happy yeast

As suggested, I let my dough rise overnight in the fridge. In the morning, I let the dough warm up for 1/2 hour, and rolled out the breadsticks. I found the easiest method was to first roll the dough in my palms, and then finish it by rolling on the counter, beginning in the middle and then rolling to the ends.

This is a lovely recipe, and seems very adaptable. I actually had mini bundt pans leftover from my Family Childcare days (we used to bake on Fridays so each child could take home a mini cake). But since I then discovered I'd run out of cooking spray, and couldn't cope with greasing all those little nooks I used my large bundt pan. The mixture filled it halfway, and baked in 46 minutes. It easily came out of the pan, and looked gorgeous. It was fun to paint with the grappa syrup!

Here's a slice, with a dollop of whipped cream sweetened with some of the syrup, which I also dribbled around. Delicious! The downside of using the large pan is that you get less of the booze-soaked, slightly crunchy outer layer! Next time I'm definitely going to use the small pans.

This week's Sunday SlowBakers recipe was for a Grape and Hazelnut tart from Dolce Italiano. I confess I had my doubts about this one. Would grapes work as a tart filling? Wouldn't they cook down to a squishy jam encased in chewy skins?

I was proved wrong.

This was my selection for Sunday SlowBakers. I chose this recipe knowing that it would come during my local strawberry season; and assuming that we'd welcome a week without a complex, heat-producing recipe by now.

I was looking forward to this, having tasted a semifreddo at Babbo. And it's great to have more dessert options perfect for summer, where there's no hot oven needed.

More deliciousness from Dolce Italiano.

The interior reminds me of a less-sweet fresh marzipan, very delicate and almondy. I used almond meal from Trader Joe's, very reasonably priced. The outer coating of almonds fought me, sliding off the slippery eggwhite until I figured out to roll the fingers in the almonds with more force, pressing them into the dough. It's worth it though, as they add a wonderful crunchy additional layer of almond.

All my tasters were very happy. Even my "All Chocolate All the Time" teens really liked them.

'he name definitely sounds better in Italian, doesn't it?

I took huge liberties with this one. I didn't have apples, so I used peaches and raspberries. I also wanted to make this healthier, so I used butter spray, egg beaters, and skipped the honey butter drizzle in favor of Stevia, a plant-based sweetener.

It turned out really well, and made for a lovely breakfast. I did run into some problems flipping, due to not using butter to coat the pan. It's not pretty, but it is delicious!