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Three-Nut Fingers and The Inaugural Italian Gals Cookie Exchange

Posted December 17, 2014 By Adri

A Pop-Up Cookie Event


Christmas Cookie Exchange


2014 is the inaugural year of the Italian Gals Christmas Cookie Exchange. One minute Linda, Domenica, Marie and I were gabbing about food (what else?) on Facebook, and the next we were doing what we do best – getting busy in the kitchen. Linda figured out the logistics, and we all baked and packed our goodies for shipment to one another’s homes. Linda sent her spiced Italian Christmas “Brownies.” Domenica tantalized us with Cranberry-Hazelnut Biscotti, a sample from her forthcoming book, Ciao Biscotti.


Christmas Cookie Exchange


Marie baked (literally) hundreds of her famous fig-filled, spicy, orange-kissed Cucidati. My Three-Nut Fingers made their way from California to Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia and into the homes of my partners in this project. We had a ball, and a tradition was born. Sweet Mouthfuls! Read more… »

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Biscotti di Nero d’Avola

Posted October 25, 2014 By Adri


Biscotti di Nero d' Avola


The holidays are coming and it is time to think about tiny treats. For an afternoon snack, an accompaniment to an after-dinner glass of wine, or tidbits for surprise drop-in guests, these biscotti are perfect. These little cookies bear a distinct resemblance to Sicily’s famous Biscotti di Regina, but they have a lot more going for them. Not too sweet, they are made with olive oil rather than butter or shortening, and they are perfumed with Nero d’Avola, one of my favorite wines. Cinnamon and white pepper provide added warmth and depth of flavor, while accenting the spice notes of the wine. Read more… »

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Quaresimali – Chunky Almond Biscotti for Lent

Posted April 11, 2014 By Adri

 

Quaresimali Cookie

 

Nobody does Easter like the Italians. From chocolate fantasy eggs and wonderful cookies to the famous Pastiera, celebration foods abound. Lent, or Quaresima as it is known in Italy, is the period from Ash Wednesday to Easter, a time of self-enforced culinary deprivation during which cucina magra, or the consumption of lean food, is the order of the day. This extends all the way to dessert. However, Italians have found plenty of ways to enjoy their treats during the Lenten season, and Quaresimali, a traditional cookie, is but one. Each region, each town, every bakery and every nonna has a unique rendition of this cookie. From tooth-breakingly hard and desperately in need of a dunk, to the delicate cocoa meringue alphabet cookies of Florence, these cookies are found throughout the country. Read more… »

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Biscotti – Italian Cookies

Posted October 23, 2013 By Adri

A Book Review

Biscotti Cover


“We decided early on that our biscotti would be piccolini – small – like a great Roman espresso…” – Mona Talbott


Good things come in small packages. Cookies and books. This diminutive book, by chefs Mona Talbott and Mirella Misenti, is the first in my series of suggestions for Christmas giving. The recipes come from the kitchen of a most unique school, The American Academy in Rome. Read more… »

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Brown Butter Hazelnut Madeleines – French cakelets with an Italian Accent

Posted January 11, 2013 By Adri

Madeleines


I can hear it now. What’s a French cookie doing in a site devoted to Italian food? Well, the answer is they are good, and I was having a craving, and so I am sharing. Besides, with almond flour from Piemonte and Frangelico, these Madeleines speak with an Italian accent. These small cakelets baked in shell shaped molds have a place of honor in culinary and literary history. They made the city of Comercy famous and Marcel Proust immortalized them in his “episode of the madeleine” in Remembrance of Things Past. Read more… »

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Bocconotti Calabresi – Italian Christmas Cookies

Posted December 16, 2012 By Adri

Adri’s Great Blog Cook-a-thon #6

Bocconotti-Calabresi-Christmas-Cookies-640x466-0896_923

My great Blog Cook-a-thon continues. Travel to Calabria for bocconotti – little mouthfuls – with Cooking with Rosetta. These “little mouthfuls’ are delicate lemon scented pastry cases with a chocolate, almond and cocoa filling warmed with cinnamon and cloves. These are addictive. Read more… »

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