Fig Raspberry Crostata

I mentioned this crostata before, it is amazing, beautiful, and tasty. The filling has figs and raspberries, an unlikely combination that works perfectly. I have many memories related with figs, which grow almost wild in Italy. My first and not too fond memory of figs was of the smell of rotting fruit fallen from a huge, ancient looking tree. This tree grew in the back of a fort, left over after WWI, located in a tiny island in the Venetian lagoon, called Isola di Crevan. We used to sail to the island to join our friends whose relatives owned this tiny paradise, and spent amazing weekends, hiding, jumping off the dock, eating cherries from the trees.

Like I mentioned before, there is a short time where you can find the first figs a tree produces in the spring, to be followed in the fall by a second more bountiful crop. I was able to find organic figs that were not too expensive so I had the perfect excuse to make this.


The recipe comes from Baking with Julia, and the contributing baker is Leslie Mackie. If you don't know this book, it is a trove of recipes, most very rustic and delicious. Maybe I should start a Baking with Julia challenge. Like...I have the time.

The crust has almonds in it and is delicious. I changed the recipe a little because the original recipe had too much butter and the crust was impossible to work with. The following recipe is plenty buttery but less sticky. The dough is still very soft and in fact can be pressed directly into the tart mold, but to cut the lattice strips I advise you to roll the dough and freeze it before cutting it. The other thing I did was to skip the sesame seeds in the crust, somehow I thought they were an over kill. The filling is almost the same with slightly less sugar.


The tart tasted even better with the lemon verbena ice cream I made the other day.


Almond Tart Dough
9" lattice tart

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup unbleached almonds
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
Zest of one lemon
6 oz cold butter, cut in 1/2" cubes

Whisk the eggs together with the vanilla extract. Process the almonds with a tablespoon of sugar until they are finely chopped. Add the remaining sugar, flour, salt, and zest and mix just to combine. Add the butter and mix until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the egg mixture and mix only until the dough is uniformly moistened, 15 seconds. Fully blend the ingredients by hand mixing gently a couple of times. Divide the dough in two unequal pieces (the smaller will be used for the lattice top). Press the bigger piece into the tart mold and freeze. After the rest of the dough has chilled for an hour, roll it in between two pieces of parchment paper until 1/8" thick. Freeze until ready to use.

Fig Raspberry Filling

12 oz. Figs, quartered
12 oz. Raspberries
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon butter

Put half of the fruit in a heavy bottom sauce pan and cook with the rest of the ingredients until bubbly. Turn the heat off and add the rest of the fruit. Chill completely before adding it to the tart.

To assemble the tart:
Add the filling to the frozen tart. Cut the frozen rolled dough in 1/2" strips, and use them to make the lattice top. Sprinkle with crystal sugar and bake at 350F until bubbly, rotating once.

Vera da Pozzo-Campo Santa Margherita

Photo courtesy of Oscar of Blu Oscar

I just stumbled into an amazing blog, Blu Oscar, while searching information for some friends who are going to Venice soon. Oscar is an amazing photographer, has an incredible collection of images of Venice, clearly adores this city, and has been doing a fantastic job photographing it. The picture above is of a well I spend time jumping off as a little kid, close to where I almost cut off the head of a pigeon while learning how to bike without training wheels, or next to where I played hopscotch million times. The memories....

The photos are not any typical photos of Venice, instead they offer the view of an insider, of someone who sees Venice with very special eyes.

Thank you Oscar, what a wonderful tribute to my beloved city!

Chicks were ordered!

I just put an order for five chicks! I will post pictures as soon as I get them in two weeks! Am I crazy? Time will tell....

Summer Vegetable Risotto

Remember those flowers? Now I am reaping the much awaited fruits, and it is going to be fun from now on.

This is my very first crop and I turned it into an early summer risotto that was light and delicious. The vegetables included, zucchini, string beans, and peas, with the addition of zucchini flowers. I used the trick of boiling the pea pods in the water to flavor it, that's how the traditional Venetian dish Risi e Bisi is made. If you want a heartier risotto you can use either a vegetable or a chicken broth.

Summer Vegetable Risotto

1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 cups mixed vegetables, diced
2 quarts boiling water
1 cup arborio rice
EEVO
1.5 oz butter
Grated parmesan to taste
Zucchini flowers, roughly cut
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Cook the shallot in the olive oil until translucent. Add the diced vegetables and cook for few minutes. Add the rice and stir until it becomes translucent and has absorbed any liquid in the pan. Add a ladle of the boiling broth at a time, only when most of the previous liquid has been absorbed, stirring often. Cook for 20-25 minutes until al dente, add the zucchini flowers, parsley, cheese and butter and let rest for 2 minutes. Serve immediately, piping hot.

Buon Appetito!

Bread Baker's Apprentice #6-Challah Bread

This photo was taken with my friend Jeanne's phone as I forgot to take any picture before I went to her house for dinner and I was surprised by the good quality of this picture. My friends did some extensive work in their house, and now they have a gorgeous kitchen with a huge isle that is perfect for food photography, what an amazing space. Jeanne and I already plan to spend time in her kitchen as she wants to learn more about baking, and what a great space that will be to work in.

This is the sixth week of the challenge started by Nicole at Pinch my salt. We are baking through Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker's Apprentice. We are going in alphabetical order because that is how the recipes are organized, and we are not publishing the recipes not to break any copyright laws. This book is a treasure of information, techniques, and stories on the different breads so if you are into bread or would like to start somewhere this is a great book to start. The amazingly prolific Peter Reinhart is coming out with another book this fall and I am looking forward to buying it. Last week it was Casatiello's week, but I left my bread in the fridge too many days, it barely rised, and since I didn't like the taste one bit I didn't write about it. This week was challah's week so I knew it would be good as I love this bread, and what a perfect thing to bring to a friend's house, a bread to break together.

I had made challah before, but this recipe was superior. It resulted in a soft and delicious bread that disappeared in no time with the help of many voracious little kids. It got the seal of approval from my friends who are Jewish, so I know it was good. I was able to take a piece home to make sure it passed the bread and jam test, and it did! Delicious!

Bread Baking Buddy-Asparagus Bread

Lien of Notitie Van Lien belongs to a group of 12 accomplished bakers, called BBB or Bread Baking Babes, that bake a new bread every month. You can bake the same bread as a BBBuddy, which is fun to do because all the things I made so far where delicious. The deadline for this month has passed but if you want to know how to join in the future check Lien's post.

For this month's challenge Lien selected this intriguing bread, which has all ingredients I love so I imagined it would be good. The dough was easy to make, but the addition of all the ingredients was harder than I thought as the wet asparagus kept sliding on the dough instead of sticking to it. It took a lot of coaxing to get the greens and the walnut pieces to mix evenly in the dough. Maybe next time I will do it in the mixer.

When the bread reached 190 internally I took it out of the oven but my little test roll was still chewy so I cooked the loaves for 10 extra minutes, upside down. I brought it to a friend's house to eat for dinner and before eating it we toasted the bread 10 extra minutes as it had gotten soggy. Everyone loved this bread, and one loaf disappeared in not time. I would assume that the same bread can be made with walnuts and black olives.

The recipe below is copied verbatim from Lien's blog.

Asparagus Bread
(with Parmesan Cheese and Walnuts)
125 g green asparagus
25-30 g rocket
50 g walnuts,
50 g freshly grated parmesan cheese
450 g strong bread flour (you can also use half whole wheat and half white or white whole wheat if you can get that)
12 g fresh yeast or 1 1/4 tsp dry instant yeast
250-270 g water (whole wheat version may use a little more water)
25 g olive oil
10 g (sea) salt

Boil 3/4 liter of water with a pinch of (sea) salt. Clean the asparagus, set two of them aside, cut the rest into 4 pieces. Boil these pieces for 2 minutes in the water, scoop them out (so you can use the water for the rocket as well) and rinse under cold water (to stop them cooking).

Put the rocket in the boiling water for a few seconds (until wilted), drain and rinse under cold water and drain again. Press the water our of the rocket, chop it coarsely and cut the asparagus into 1/4 inch (± 1 cm) long pieces, set aside.

Crush the walnuts coarsely and grate the parmesan.

Measure the flour and yeast in a large bowl, mix in most of the water and knead for a few minutes (on low speed), add the olive oil and knead for 10-12 minutes. Add the salt and knead on medium speed for 5 minutes until very elastic.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Work the asparagus pieces, rocket, walnuts and parmesan in with care so that they're evenly distributed. The dough should be very supple and elastic, hence the long kneading time. For me the best way to incorporate all the ingredients is to spread the dough out into a large slap, sprinkle all the ingredients on and roll it up. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes, press flat and fold... rest 5-10 minutes press flat and fold. Shape into rounds.
Place the dough in a greased container, cover and let rise for about 2 hrs.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.
Make round balls, cover with a tea towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
Flatten the balls and fold into taut breads with slightly tapering ends. Lay one asparagus in lengthwise in the middle of the bread and press in slightly. Sprinkle with wheat flour and cover to rise for 70 minutes or until doubled. Before baking you can sprinkle a little grated cheese on the bread if you like (optional).

Preheat the oven (preferably with stone) to 460ºF.

Place the loaves directly on the stone. Spray with water (or poor some hot water in a metal container on the bottom of the oven that you preheated to create steam)
Lower the temperature after 5 minutes to 400ºF. Open the door after another 10 minutes to let some air in. Repeat twice during baking. (I must admit I forgot about this step)
Bake for 40-45 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

This was another great bread, soft and very tasty, so thanks to Lien and all the other Babes for creating this great challenge month after month. If you want to check out what other BBBuddies did this month, check Lien's post here.

Daring Bakers-Bakewell Tart with Fig and Raspberry Jam

Once again I find myself doing this on the last possible day. Luckily we are having dinner at some friends' house tonight so I won't have to eat it all by myself. Naturally today had to be one of the hottest days we had in more than a month, so it will be a challenge to take a picture of the ice cream before it melts. But I won't be a daring baker if I didn't try in the worst possible conditions.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

To read the whole recipe click here, I will tell you about my version.

To be true to the challenge we had to make two things from the original recipe, the short tart dough and the frangipane. We could be daring, however, and change the rest of the elements. Some of the comments that had been posted in the daring kitchen private forum made me decide to decrease the amount of sugar in the frangipane as some people found the tart overwhelmingly sweet. The frangipane recipe given is very different from the one I normally make, which calls for less sugar and just one egg for the same amount of butter so I was curious to try it. I only used 80 gr. of powder sugar instead of 125, and added extra ground almonds to compensate for the super liquid frangipane.

I decided to make mini tarts so they would bake faster and will look more elegant in individual plates.

For the jam, I initially thought of using the blood orange jam I made few months ago, but then I saw some beautiful figs at the market and couldn't resist. I made a quick fig and raspberry jam inspired by Julia Child's book Baking with Julia, in which you can find a fig raspberry crostata to die for. Fig trees produce figs twice a year, once right when they put out new leaves, which results in a very small fruit crop, and later in the summer for a more bountiful fall crop. I love the combination of the two fruits so I decided to use that under the frangipane. I didn't strain the seeds out since they add texture and I don't really mind them. I only added a teaspoon of jam at the bottom of each frozen tart, and piped the frangipane on top.


To finish the dessert I made the always pleasing lemon-verbena ice cream. Lemon verbena goes so well with more stone fruit and berries, so I figured it would work with the flavors of this tart as well.


Fig Raspberry Jam
1 pint figs
1 pint raspberries
1/4 cup brown sugar
zest of one lemon

Cut the figs in small pieces and add to a pan with the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a soft boil and cook until thick, stirring occasionally. Cool completely before adding it to the tart shells.

Lemon Verbena Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cup reduced fat milk
1 cup lemon verbena leaves
3/4 cup sugar
5 yolks
pinch of salt

Bring the cream, the milk and sugar to a boil and steep the lemon verbena for an hour. Re-heat the cream mixture to a boil, and slowly pour onto the yolks whisking to temper them until they thicken into a custard. Add the salt and strain the yolk custard into a bowl set onto an ice bath. Chill completely and then freeze the ice cream base in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

The resulting tarts were very good, the jam was delicious and the ice cream worked well with the rest of the flavors. The frangipane was a little on the dry side, having to do with the reduction of the sugar amount. It was still plenty sweet so I am glad I cut the sugar.

Thanks Jasmine and Annemarie for choosing this recipe and teaching me a new tart I didn't know.