Pignolata, also known nationally and internationally as Struffoli is a very popular dessert in Southern Italy at Christmas time. It is not hard to make but time-consuming, and the best advice I can give is collecting the family around the table in order to roll them into the small marbles.

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.

The tradition of Easter eggs is a very ancient one, as it stems from the celebration of spring as a rebirth. It is the only celebration in the Christian calendar which has a variable date, falling on the Sunday after the first spring full moon.

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.

This Christmas Log, also known as Swiss Roll, originates from the French Bûche de Noël.

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.

Usually I stick to the Italian tradition, but by now, this dessert has entered our kitchens too. Moreover, I added a personal touch, since I had fantastic organic oranges at home, at the top of their Sicilian flavor.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 50 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Yield: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (500 ml) fresh whipping cream
• ¾ cup (200 ml.) milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 organic orange
• ¾ cup (100 g.) icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons Cointreau
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180C) and put 6 small ovenproof ramekins in a baking tin.

In a medium bowl, combine yolks and icing sugar, and mix with a whisk. Shave the orange zest in it.

Keep mixing while you slowly add all the ingredients except the caster sugar.

Divide the mixture between the ramekins and pour warm water into the tin until it comes two-thirds of the way up the ramekins. Bake for about 50 minutes until the custard is set – it should only wobble faintly when shaken. Cool and then chill until cold.

Before serving it, scatter the tops of the cold brûlèes with caster sugar, and use a blowtorch or hot grill to caramelize the tops – if using a grill, you may need to put them back in the fridge for half an hour before serving to cool down again.