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* Cookies, Cakes, Tarts, and Pastries |
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Walk by any pasticceria, or pastry shop, in Italy and just try to resist the tempting window display of cookies, cakes, tarts, and pastries. These desserts are beloved by Italians, and rightly so. Not only beautiful, they are also delicious. Most pastry shops in Italy double as coffee bars, so it is easy to sample whatever is on display, accompanied by your favorite beverage. Organize all of your own recipes with the Cook'n Recipe Software. Watch and see how easy it is!
Biscotti, or cookies, are the most beloved and most often eaten sweet in Italy. They range from hard, slightly sweet biscuitlike cookies eaten with the morning cappucino to more elaborate confections filled with fruit and nuts enjoyed on holidays and feast days. Biscotti means "biscuits." It derives from bis and cotti, literally "cooked again" or "cooked twice." Though all cookies are called biscotti in Italy, not all biscotti are actually baked twice. The cookies that actually are baked twice are the crunchy slices that are typical in Tuscany, Umbria, the Marches, and other regions of central Italy. The dough is formed into a long log and partially baked until it is just set, but slightly soft in the center. Then the log is cut into crosswise slices and baked again briefly until cooked through and toasted. Twice-baked biscotti are hard and crunchy. Do not confuse them with the kind of soft, buttery rich cookie you may find at your local coffee shop in the United States. Italians make biscotti very hard and dry because they want to dunk them in wine or coffee. The liquid is absorbed and provides all the softening the cookies need. To get this consistency, Italian cooks leave out most of the sugar and butter that would typically be used in this country. In fact, many Italian biscotti recipes have no butter or shortening at all. The hard, dry cookies are meant to be kept around for a while, and butter or other fats would hasten their becoming stale. Aside from the twice-cooked variety, Italians make a great variety of cookies. Hazelnut cookies are popular in northern Italy, while almond macaroons (amaretti) are made in various forms throughout southern Italy, where both bitter and sweet almond trees grow. Butter cookies and chocolate cookies are more prevalent in the north. In this chapter you will also find variations on Italian cookies that are made in the United States. These include biscotti rich in butter and sugar that are not quite as crunchy as the Italian kind. Though they often serve delicious cakes at teatime or for special occasion meals, most of my Italian friends who are home cooks do not bake. Because there is always a pastry shop nearby with a delicious specialty, even the best cooks in Italy leave fancy cake making to the professionals. On major holidays like Christmas and Easter, you will see crowds of customers filling the bakeries and pastry shops to purchase artistically prepared cakes. In Sicily, the holiday specialty might be a beautiful cassata, layers of cake and sweetened ricotta elaborately garnished with candied fruits and tinted almond paste. In Turin, look for torta gianduja, a rich dense cake made with chocolate and hazelnuts. Milanese bakers are reknowned for their panettone, a yeast cake with candied fruits and nuts. Homemade cakes in Italy are usually quite simple, whether sponge cakes or rustic cakes made with fruits and nuts. I find them delicious and uncomplicated to make. If a more elaborate dessert is desired, you can always dress them up with a special sauce or ice cream. This chapter includes a selection of basic and elaborate cakes that are well within the range of anyone who enjoys baking. Crostate and torte (tarts and cakes) always have pride of place in pastry shops in Italy. According to the season and region, they may be filled with gemlike glazed fruit, creamy cheese, nuts, or chocolate, and they are always appealing. Torte usually have a thicker cake layer as a base, while crostate are thin-crusted like a tart. Don't be surprised if the distinction between the two is blurred, however. And sometimes, a thin tartlike pastry is also called a pizza dolce. No matter what they are called, these are my favorite baked desserts. The crusts are buttery, the fruit and nut toppings intensely flavored, and the pastry cream and cheese fillings are smooth and light. Special occasions, particularly in southern Italy, are a time for feasting, and no feast would be complete without pastries, which may be either baked or fried. At one time, many of these special sweets were prepared in bakeries operated by cloistered nuns. There are still a few of those bakeries left, and a visit to one is a glimpse into the past. Most special-occasion sweets today are made in pastry shops. Sundays and holidays all year round, there are lines out the door of famous pastry shops like Scaturchio in Naples or Stancampiano in Palermo, as customers wait to buy their sfogliatelle, cannoli, and other treats. For those who can't satisfy their cravings in Italy, I give you the recipes to make these delicious pastries at home. BASIC COOKIES Ladyfingers Semolina Cookies Vin Santo Rings Marsala Cookies Sesame Wine Biscuits Sesame Cookies Anisette Toast "S" Cookies Butter Rings Lemon Knots Spice Cookies Wafer Cookies Sweet Ravioli "Ugly-but-Good" Cookies CHOCOLATE COOKIES Jam Spots Double-Chocolate Nut Biscotti Chocolate Kisses No-Bake Chocolate "Salame" NUT COOKIES Prato Biscuits Umbrian Fruit and Nut Biscotti Lemon Nut Biscotti Walnut Biscotti Almond Macaroons Pine Nut Macaroons Hazelnut Bars Walnut Butter Cookies Rainbow Cookies Christmas Fig Cookies Almond Brittle Sicilian Nut Rolls PLAIN CAKES Sponge Cake Citrus Sponge Cake Lemon Olive-Oil Cake Marble Cake Rum Cake Grandmother's Cake CAKES WITH FRUIT Apricot Almond Cake Summer Fruit Torte Autumn Fruit Torte Polenta and Pear Cake CAKES WITH RICOTTA Ricotta Cheesecake Sicilian Ricotta Cake Ricotta Crumb Cake Easter Wheat-Berry Cake CHOCOLATE CAKES Chocolate Hazelnut Cake Chocolate Almond Cake Chocolate Orange Torte Chocolate Rum Raisin Cake CAKES WITH DRIED FRUIT AND NUTS Abruzzo-Style Almond Cake with Chocolate Frosting Rum and Currant Loaf Cakes Warm Amaretti Cakes Marsala Walnut Cake Crunchy Walnut Cake Piedmontese Hazelnut Cake Mantua Cake Christmas Sweet Bread (Panettone) BREAD PUDDINGS Chocolate-Raisin Bread Pudding Panettone Bread Pudding Biscotti Bread Pudding Pear and Apple Cake TARTS Single-Crust Pastry Double-Crust Pastry Berry Mascarpone Tart Summer Fruit Tart Blueberry Crostata Raspberry Cream Tart Sour-Cherry Jam Tart Apple Marzipan Tart Fig and Walnut Crostata Dried Fig Tart Lemon Almond Tart Almond and Peach Tart Pine Nut Tart Winter Fruit and Nut Crostata Ricotta Lattice Tart Roman Ricotta Tart Ricotta Jam Tart Chocolate Tart Rice Pudding Tart Cornmeal Berry Tart Spice and Nut Tart Cinnamon Plum Torte PASTRIES Cannoli Cream Chocolate Cannoli Cream Pastry Cream Cream Puffs St. Joseph's Fritters Honey Balls Feast Day Puffs Ricotta Fritters Bow Ties Honey Pinwheels Ricotta Pockets Crisp Ricotta Pastries Cannoli From "1,000 Italian Recipes." Copyright 2004 by Michele Scicolone. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sign up for our free monthly newsletter, with recipes, cooking tips and more! |
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