Prep Time: 10 minutes | Sitting Time: 2 hours | Yields: it serves 4.

Ingredients:for vegan cherry jelly 

• 6 G agar-agar powder
• 320 G cherry pulp, about 400 G cherries washed and deprived of stones and stems, diced
• 350 G water
• 32 G white sugar

Method:How to make vegan cherry jelly

1. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and boil for 4 mins. Blend with an immersion blender.
2. Meanwhile, lightly grease 4 small tins with vegetable oil. Pour cooled jelly into tins through a sieve. Refrigerate for 2 hours to set completely.
3. Remove from fridge and use the point of a sharp small knife to carefully release the dessert from the tin along the edges. Lightly grease your serving platter with oil. Place the platter upside down on top of the tins, then swiftly flip them over so that the tins is now upside down, and (hopefully) allow the dessert to fall out onto the platter.
4. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to eat.

NOTES

+ 2 hrs refrigeration.

http://Agar-agar WikipediaBrief history of agar-agar

DARK CHOCOLATE CAPRESE CAKE

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Prep Time: 30 minutes | Sitting Time: 30 mins | Yields: it serves 8.

Ingredients

• 200 G (1 cup) coffee
• 10 G (1 tbsp) instant coffee
• 200 G (1 cup) water, cold
• 360 G (3 cups) icing sugar, sifted
• Cocoa powder to sprinkle
• Ice

Tools

• 2 bowls, one bigger than the other, kept in the freezer
• Electric whisk (hand mixer)

Method

After making the coffee, pour it in the small bowl, add sugar and instant coffee when it is still hot, so they melt perfectly, then add the water and put it in the freezer.

Chill for 20 minutes, put ice in the bigger bowl, put the smaller on it and begin to mix using the electric whisk.

Begin to use the electric whisk at minimum speed and gradually increase it until maximum speed is reached. It must be whipped for a total time of 15-20 mins.

Serve in individual glasses or cups and sprinkle with cocoa powder through a sift.

If you do not serve it all immediately, the leftover needs to be whipped again.

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Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Yield: Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients for a 7 IN (20 cm) mold

• 6,5 oz (g 185) almond flour
• 4,5 oz (125 g) dark chocolate 70%, crumbled
• 4,5 oz (125 g) butter, soft
• 3 medium eggs, room temperature (kept out of the fridge at least 12 hours in advance)
• 4,5 oz (125 g) white sugar
• 1 tablespoon dark rhum

Instructions

The post DARK CHOCOLATE CAPRESE CAKE appeared first on Cooking with Carlotta.

The traditional dessert is arranged like a pine cone or pigna, from which its name, pignolata is  derived.

There is another recipe, with my mother-in-law’s doses, enough to feed an army, in the best southern tradition. On the other hand, sometimes a bit of innovation can be stimulating, since creativity is a fundamental ingredient of cooking.

I added some raspberry puree which you can make very easily with the fresh ingredients: just blend a cup of raspberries mixed with 2 tablespoons water and press through a sieve.

Prep Time: 50 minutes | Cooking Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 90 minutes (+ 2 hours for cooling the ganache) | Yield: Makes 6  servings.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 2 ¼cups  (300 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 3 eggs
• A pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) Anise or Sambuca liqueur
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 1 organic lemon zest, finely grated

For finishing

• Vegetable oil (sunflower) for frying
•  14 oz (400 g) honey
• ½ cup raspberry puree

For the dark chocolate ganache

• 8 oz (250 g) semi-sweet baker’s chocolate, chopped
• ½  cup (125 ml) whipping cream
• 1 tbsp (15 g) unsalted butter

Preparation

Mix all the ingredients (except the honey and vegetable oil) in a bowl, you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook. Work the dough until it is smooth. This doesn’t take very long: about 3 minutes or 5 minutes by hand.

Let it rest in the bowl, covered with plastic wrap, for 2 hours.

Flour your work surface and turn out your dough. Then divide the dough into 10 roughly equal pieces, each about the size of a golf ball. Take 1 ball and roll it out into a rope approx. 1/2 inch thick, then with floury hands, divide this into about 20 small pieces, and roll each piece between your hands (flouring them again if this helps) to make marble-sized balls.

Fry them (deep frying) in small batches until they are golden and lay the marbles on kitchen paper. When you have finished frying, discard the oil and clean the pan with kitchen paper.

Pour the honey in the pan and, when the honey is warm, tip all of the fried dough balls into it and, using a soft spatula, turn them gently to coat them.

Get out a large plate or cake stand with a slight lip or rim and place a wet glass or a pastry ring on it. Arrange the balls in the shape of a pyramid or a wreath with a serving spoon.

Add the raspberry purée to the honey and mix for 6 to 7 minutes, until the purée is caramelised.

The small balls can then be arranged in individual dessert plates in a random shape or again, into a pyramid or wreath.

Make the Ganache.

In a saucepan, pour the cream and butter and bring to an almost boil. When the cream is simmering and starts bubbling, add the chocolate and switch off the heat. Mix with a whisk and move to the fridge. Let it stand for at least a couple of hours, then move to a piping bag with a wide star tip.

Decorate the plate piping little amounts of ganache.  Add some green candied fruit.

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These Christmas marble-sized honey fritters are deep-fried and then rolled in honey before being assembled into a cone or a globular wreath.

This dessert belongs to the tradition of “peasant cooking”, and it is about customs, celebration, and sweetness. I decided to make Pignolata for my husband, as it was one of the few Calabrian dishes his mother made that he loved.

Like many Italian Christmas dishes, these fritters are the fruit of a collective effort, of many generations around the kitchen table working together. Rolling these little balls is child’s job, as their little hands are particularly apt to it.

This simple version, with no candied fruit, glacé cherries, or almond dragées is typical of my husband’s family. In other far richer cities like Messina in Sicily, this simple version was despised by the rich. For them, the local pastry chef created a double lemon and chocolate frosting, which could suit the more demanding palates (and bigger budgets) of aristocratic Sicilians. In Naples, the decoration is very multi-coloured, a real visual joy, full of all the most coloured candied fruit and silver dragées.

If you prefer something a bit more original, try the red raspberry version.

Prep Time: 60 minutes | Cooking Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 90 minutes | Yield: Makes 12  servings.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 4 ¾ cups (600 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 6 eggs
• A pinch of salt
• ¼ cup (60 ml) Anise or Sambuca liqueur
• 4 tbsp white sugar
• 1 organic lemon zest, finely grated

For finishing

• Vegetable oil (sunflower) for frying
•  28 oz (800 g) honey

Preparation

Mix all the ingredients (except the honey and vegetable oil) in a bowl, you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook. Work the dough until it is smooth. This doesn’t take very long: about 3 minutes or 5 minutes by hand.

Let it rest in the bowl, covered with plastic wrap, for 2 hours.

Flour your work surface and turn out your dough. Then divide the dough into 10 roughly equal pieces, each about the size of a golf ball. Take 1 ball and roll it out into a rope approx. 1/2 inch thick, then with floury hands, divide this into about 20 small pieces, and roll each piece between your hands (flouring them again if this helps) to make marble-sized balls.

Fry them (deep frying) in small batches until they are golden and lay the marbles on kitchen paper. When you have finished frying, discard the oil and clean the pan with kitchen paper.

Pour the honey in the pan and, when the honey is warm, tip all of the fried dough balls into it and, using a soft spatula, turn them gently to coat them.

Get out a large plate or cake stand with a slight lip or rim and place a wet glass or a pastry ring on it. Arrange the balls in the shape of a pyramid or a wreath with a serving spoon.

The post PIGNOLATA, THE CHRISTMAS TRADITION appeared first on Cooking with Carlotta.

The festivity’s name itself – Easter in English and Ostern in German, comes from Eostre, the ancient Northern goddess who is at the origin of many traditions related to this festivity.

The egg, never mentioned in the bible, is present in many Indo-European cultures as a symbol of fertility, and eating it is a way to celebrate Spring, the renewed cycle of the seasons and the new agricultural crops.

In the Middle Ages, eggs were cooked and decorated with flowers and leaves. Being in lockdown because of the coronavirus, I had no time to indulge in buying decorations at the grocery store, so I used pansies from my garden.

If you have other supplies in the fridge (I had bought an incredible quantity of raspberry puree before the lockdown, and I always store supplies of gelatine and baking products in my pantry), it could be fun to make some namelaka – a Japanese word that means ultra-creamy.

Prep Time: 40 minutes | Cooking Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour + 15 minutes | Yield: Makes 8  servings.

Ingredients for chocolate bavarois

• 200 g dark chocolate, chopped finely
• 200 g fresh whipping cream
• ½ L (2 cups) milk
• 200 g white sugar
• 4 yolks
• 20 g gelatine

Ingredients for namelaka

• 112 g raspberry purée
• 7 g icing sugar
• 170 g white chocolate, chopped finely
• 2.5 g gelatine
• 200 g whipping cream

Instructions for chocolate bavarois

Put the chocolate, the milk, and half of the sugar in a saucepan and melt the chocolate, stirring constantly.

Soak the gelatine leaves in water to soften.

Prepare a bain-marie. Whisk the yolks and the remaining sugar in the bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy. Squeeze the gelatine, add it to the mix, and melt. Add the chocolate and str until it becomes thick.

Let it cool, and when it reaches room temperature, whip the cream and add it to the mixture. Incorporate slowly, folding it in with delicate movements from top to bottom.

Pour into the mould and refrigerate 4 to 5 hours before serving.

To remove it from the mould, dip it into a bowl of hot water for 2 or 3 seconds, then turn the bavarois over onto a dessert plate and remove the mould.

Instructions for namelaka

Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie.

Soak the gelatine leaves in water to soften.

In a saucepan over low heat, combine the fruit purée with the sugar, squeeze the gelatine, add it to the purée and melt.

Combine the fruit mixture with the white chocolate and emulsify it with an immersion blender.

Add the cream and emulsify with the immersion blender again.

Place in the fridge and let it sit all night.

The day after you can whip with a mixer and use it with a pastry bag.

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This tangerine gelo is a very simple and light dessert that uses fresh fruit, offering you the opportunity  to create a dessert that is fresh, seasonal, vegan and perfect for avoiding all kinds of food allergies and intolerances. The use of corn starch adds thickness to the gelatine since traditional gelatines do not work with acidic ingredients. Moreover, not only do you avoid using ingredients of animal origin, but you also enjoy the freshness of tangerines. The same basic recipe can easily be turned into other gelatines with other seasonal fresh fruits, like watermelon and melon in summer, or even with cinnamon.

The tangerine is quite sweet, but the addition of lemon adds an acidic note that is offset by the piped decoration. If you are lactose intolerant, substitute the whipping cream with the lactose free variety, or with sugar pearls if you are vegan.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Freezing Time: 4 hours | Total Time: 4 hours and 20 minutes | Yield: Makes 2 servings.

Ingredients

For the gelatine

• 45 g (⅓ cup) corn starch
• 1 kg (2.2 lbs) tangerines, juiced and filtered
• 1 lemon, juiced and filtered
• 55 g (¼ cup) white sugar

For decorating

• 125 ml (½ cup) fresh whipping cream
• 20 g  (3½ tbsp) powdered sugar, sifted

Instructions

Pour all the ingredients except the corn starch in a saucepan and put it on the stove. Simmer over low heat for 3-4 minutes, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the corn starch, sifting it directly into the saucepan and mix thoroughly.

Pour into glass bowls and let them set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

For the decoration, chill a medium mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for 10 minutes before beginning. In the chilled bowl, whisk the whipping cream until it begins to foam and thicken. Add the powdered sugar and continue to whisk until soft peaks form. Do not over-whip. Pour into a pastry bag and decorate the top of the gelatine.

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Cooked in a bain-marie, zabaione is usually served, still lukewarm with crunchy biscuits called lingue di gatto as they are reminiscent of cat tongues. Easy to make, these biscuits are made with egg whites, and they are ideal for scooping up the zabaione.

This recipe is quite similar to making eggnog, including the addition of fresh cream: in this case it is whipped, and with gelatine, it gives a unique texture to this dessert.
In this recipe I offer two different ways of serving it: either in a cocktail cup with a biscuit and mixed berries, or a type of sandwich made with two biscuits.

Zabaione is traditionally appreciated in all of Northern Italy. The recipe seems to have originated in Piedmont in 15th century, and there are probably individual variations. Is also typical of Romagna, where it was turned into a liqueur called Vov.
Near Forlì, a local restaurant owner found a precious recipe book (published in 1907), when helping friends clearing out an old attic. In it, a woman who lived there at the time had made notes. The ingredients are quite different, but it testifies the deep appreciation for this dessert and its taste. This mousse is quite often served in small dark chocolate cups, inside croissants or with poached pears in red wine.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cooking Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 60 minutes | Yield: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

• For the zabaione
• 1 cup (250 ml) whipping cream
• ⅓ cup (80 ml) dry Marsala wine or brandy
• ¼ cup (60 g) white sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tsp (5 g) gelatine

• For the lingue di gatto biscuits
  
• 3½ tbsp (50 g) butter – room temperature
• ½ cup (60 g) powdered sugar
• 1 egg white
• ½ cup (50 g) cake flour

Instructions

For the zabaione

In a large saucepan, bring 1 inch of water to a simmer. Remove from heat and melt the gelatine in the water.
In a large copper or stainless-steel bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until thickened and light yellow in colour. Whisk in the Marsala wine or brandy and place the bowl over the pan of simmering water. Mix slowly until the zabaione gets thicker, at least 5-6 minutes.
Add the gelatine to the zabaione, and stir until it is perfectly combined.
Turn off the heat and move the bowl to a cold bain-marie. Cover the bowl with food wrap and place it in the fridge to set for 20 minutes.
Whip the cream and fold it carefully into the zabaione. Fill a pastry bag with a star nozzle.
Place the biscuits on a dish, squeeze the mousse on them, and cover with another biscuit. Repeat the process and add some berries to add colour. Serve.

For the lingue di gatto biscuits
Pre-heat the oven to 375° F (190° C).
Get 2 muffin trays and brush each bottom and sides with melted butter, then cover the bottoms with parchments rounds.
In a bowl, mix the butter and the sugar carefully with a spatula, without letting it become fluffy. Add the egg whites, and mix until smooth. Add the flour until it is incorporated. Place the mixture in a pastry bag with a plain 10 mm tip.
Pipe a dollop of the mixture onto each parchment round and place in the oven for 10 minutes. When the biscuits are cooked, place them on a cooling grill to dry, and only when they are perfectly dry and crunchy, place them in a biscuit box.
To make the traditional cookies, lay parchment paper on a cookie sheet and pipe 10 cm-long rows.

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It represents the ancient tradition of burning a large log in the fireplace which started on Christmas eve and was supposed to last for the entire festive period, later replaced by this suggestive dessert. Nowadays, the different fillings for the sponge cake can vary from pistachio to tropical fruits. In the European tradition, we can find similar cakes all over the Western countries, such as in Spain with its Brazo de Gitano literally the Gipsy’s Arm, which probably share a very common concept.

Although it is not an extremely difficult recipe, it is fundamental to respect the temperature and cooking time for the sponge cake. If it dries out too much, it will be impossible to roll, and it will break.

Prep Time: 45 minutes | Cooking Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour| Yield: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

For the sponge cake

• 5 eggs
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tbsp (10 g) honey
• 1 cup (100 g) cake flour, sifted
• ¾ cup (140 g) white sugar

For the chocolate ganache

• 1½ cups (350 ml) fresh whipping cream
• 12.5 oz (350 g) dark chocolate, chopped

Instructions

Put a bowl in the freezer.

For the sponge cake

Pre-heat the oven at 425° F (220° C)

Separate the eggs, and put the yolks in the bowl of a free-standing mixer and in another bowl, whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt.

Add the honey, the sugar, and the vanilla to the yolks, and beat for 7 to 9 minutes with the whisk attachment.

Gently fold in the whipped egg whites in two batches using a large spoon, with large circular movements from top to bottom.

When it is well-mixed, add the flour in 3-4 batches. Pour the batter in a 12×15 inch (30×37 cm) baking pan, covered by parchment. Level it, creating a ½ inch (1 cm) layer.

Bake for 5-6 minutes until golden and firm.

While it is baking, prepare a film layer on the kitchen top, the surface must be larger than the one of the sponge cake.

When the sponge cake is ready, lay the top of it on the film, take the parchment off immediately, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar, in order not to make it stick together. Roll it immediately, using the film to help your work, close and leave it in the film.

For the chocolate ganache

Put the cream on the stove and bring it to almost a boil. Switch off and pour the chocolate in it. Mix it with a whisk until chocolate will be perfectly melted.

Move to the bowl you take off the freezer and whip with an electric hand whisk for 10 minutes.

Spread half of the ganache on the sponge cake, except 1-inch (2 cm) from the border. Roll it again, cut a small piece which shall be connected to the log, in order to make a small branch.

Spread the rest of the ganache on the log and use the prongs of a fork to simulate the surface of a log.

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