Adri Barr Crocetti

Emilia-Romagna is the home of world famous sfoglia, rich fresh egg pasta rolled paper thin. From that divine pasta comes garganelli.

Ridged tubes of pasta formed from a square of pasta rolled around a bastoncino (stick), and passed over a ridged tool known as a comb or pettine (PEH-tee-nay), garganelli are one of my favorites, both to eat and to make. Read the remainder of this entry »

Another Nutella recipe, this one for Thumbprint cookies. Thumbprint cookies are easy to make, and every family has a favorite recipe. I figured why not Nutella Thumbprints? Once I had decided to make them, the rest came together quickly. Instead of the usual walnuts, I rolled the unbaked cookies in chopped and toasted hazelnuts. Then I piped a dollop of Nutella in the center of the baked cookies instead of the traditional jam. Finito. Make these for the Nutella fans in your house. They will thank you. Remember – save the seal on the Nutella and redeem cool Nutella stuff!

Nutella Thumbprint Cookies

yield: about 2 ½ dozen

1 cup hazelnuts

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg, separated

Nutella

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place hazelnuts on rimmed baking sheet and toast 10 to 12 minutes, until fragrant, stirring twice. Remove nuts from oven, place in a kitchen towel, and rub nuts together to remove skins. Chop finely and set aside.

Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees. Place flour and salt in bowl of KitchenAid mixer fitted with paddle. Combine briefly. Add brown sugar, butter, vanilla and egg yolk. Beat one minute to combine.

In a small bowl lightly beat egg white. Place chopped hazelnuts on a sheet of parchment paper or in a pie plate. Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls. Dip balls into egg whites and then roll in nuts to cover. Place on ungreased cookie sheets 1 inch apart. Make an indentation in the center of each cookie with your thumb.

Bake 15 minutes, until golden. Check cookies at halfway point, and if center depression has risen, press down again. Be careful! Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool. When cookies have cooled, pipe a dollop of Nutella in the center of each cookie. The Nutella will remain soft, so store these cookies in one layer.

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I like Nutella. I really like sweet yeast risen coffee cakes, the kind with a dough like brioche. And the other day I was craving a sweet coffee cake. Can you guess what’s coming? Just in time for Little Christmas, it’s Nutella Coffee Cake, of course. Nutella, that delicious concoction of hazelnuts and cocoa seems to go with just about everything in the bakery department. Developed during World War II by Pietro Ferrero, it was originally supplied in a foil wrapped loaf called pasta gianduja. Over time the formulation was changed to the spread we know today and it became known as supercrema gianduja. And in 1964 the name was changed to Nutella. It has been sold in the United States since 1983, and in recent years it has become extremely popular. With good reason, I’d say. I think of it as the Italian answer to peanut butter. Check out the Nutella USA web site and enter the Nutella Monthly Case Sweepstakes to win a case of Nutella. Oh, one thing more, when you open a jar of Nutella don’t throw away the gold seal. Collect them to use to redeem cool Nutella stuff like tee shirts, mugs and more. Really. I mean how good does life get?

Many cultures have sweetened filled yeast breads; Italians have their nut filled Gubana from Friuli, Eastern Europeans have Babka typically filled with nuts and dried fruit while Jewish bakers fill their Babka with chocolate or cinnamon and crown it with streusel. Now I have Nutella Coffee Cake, a sumptuous brioche-like concoction filled with Nutella, rolled up, twisted, plopped in a pan, topped with streusel and baked to tender yeasty sweet-filled perfection.

I started with a sweet brioche-like yeast dough, rolled it out in 2 batches, just to make it easier to put it in the pan, spread each piece of dough with half a jar of Nutella, rolled them up jelly roll style, gave them a twist and put them in a tube pan. I figured that although I was craving something sweet, maybe, just maybe the Nutella along with the sweet dough would be too much. So I opted for buttermilk, just to give the dough a bit of a tang to counteract all that sweetness. Then I got to thinking I needed maybe just a little something more than the dough and the Nutella, something more on top perhaps. The idea of a streusel sounded darn good to me. I went with it. Once the dough was in the pan, I spread some butter on top and sprinkled it with a streusel of sugar, flour, butter and, in a nod to the Nutella, toasted hazelnuts. This is for those who are serious about their Coffee Cake.

For those of you who do not make yeast breads, fear not. Do not be daunted by the thought of working with yeast. I use SAF Instant Yeast, a baker’s dream. No dissolving, no worrying about the temperature of your liquids and no proofing. Just mix it in with the dry ingredients and you are ready to go. SAF Gold Instant Yeast is particularly good for use in sweet breads. Baked goods with lots of sugar can take forever to rise. Why? The sugar attracts the water and the yeast can not get any. Thirsty yeast will rise slowly. The yeast in SAF Gold needs less water, thus no conflict in your dough, only peace, harmony and a most remarkable rise. You will love it. You may not find it on your grocer’s shelf, however it is available from the King Arthur Baker’s Catalogue, along with just about every other cool item for baking.

I have called for 00 flour because I love the soft, tender dough I get when I use it. If you do not have it, you will still get a wonderful result with all-purpose flour. For more info on 00 flour, see my post on Crostoli.

A word about the hazelnuts – you will need to toast and skin them. Toasting brings out their wonderful flavor and allows you to skin them with some degree of ease. To toast the nuts, place them on a rimmed baking sheet in a 325 degree oven for ten to twelve minutes, stirring the nuts once or twice. Remove them from the oven, place them in a kitchen towel and rub them vigorously to remove as much of the skins as you can. You will never be able to remove all of the skins, and that is alright. Toasting and skinning is an important step because if left on, the skins will impart a bitter flavor to your final product.

I like to use a 2 piece non-stick angel food cake pan for this coffee cake. Even though I direct you to line your pan with parchment paper, the added benefit of a non-stick pan makes it that much easier to remove the coffee cake. If you are not familiar with yeast breads and rolled coffee cakes, this might all seem like a bit of a challenge, but press on. Your efforts will be rewarded and after you have made it once you will wonder what all the fuss was about. A nice thing about this recipe is you can do the second rise in the refrigerator overnight. You can even make the streusel days ahead and keep it in the freezer until you are ready to use it.

When you assemble this coffee cake you may find that the ends of the dough do not meet, especially with the second piece of dough that will lay around the outside of the pan. Do not worry. Do not fuss. Just place the dough pieces in the pan so that the ends of one piece are on the opposite sides of the pan from the ends of the first piece. The dough will rise sumptuously, you will have luscious pockets of Nutella, and your Coffee Cake will have character.

I hope you try this Coffee Cake. It is just as good the day after as it is the day you make it. Do not think of this as a lot of work, but rather several steps. And since all you have to do for the filling is open a jar of Nutella, it is almost easy. (I have to be careful saying a recipe is easy. My sister Toni never believes me.) Try this one. It’s great for breakfast or brunch, and it is just in time for Little Christmas. I bet that like me, you will leave your fork on the table and pick it apart with your hands.

Nutella Coffee Cake

Nutella Coffee Cake

makes one large 10 inch coffee cake

For the dough:
2 3/4 cups 00 flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft, cut into 16 pieces
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

extra butter for bowl and pan
flour for dusting work surface

For the streusel topping:
1/2 cup 00 flour
1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned, about 2 ounces
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced and chilled

For the filling:
1 13-ounce jar Nutella

To make the dough: combine flour, sugar, instant yeast and salt in mixer fitted with paddle attachment and mix briefly to combine. With mixer on low, add buttermilk, whole eggs, egg yolk and vanilla. Beat until dough comes together. Remove paddle and switch to the dough hook. Beat medium-low until dough is shiny and elastic, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Add one stick of the softened butter, piece by piece, blending completely after addition. Beat on low for about 5 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in buttered bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free area. Let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

When dough has doubled in size, remove plastic. Press dough down. Cover tightly and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

To make streusel topping: place flour, hazelnuts and sugar in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse briefly to coarsely chop nuts. Add butter and pulse briefly to form a crumbly mixture. Place streusel in freezer until ready to use.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 10″ angel food cake or tube pan, preferably with a removable bottom. Line bottom and sides of pan with parchment paper. Butter parchment paper.

Divide refrigerated dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll one half of the dough into a 13 x 8-inch rectangle. Use an offset spatula to gently spread half the Nutella over the rolled out dough to within 1/4 inch of the edges. Trim edges. Beginning at long end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll; pinch seam to seal. Holding one end of the roll in each hand, carefully twist the roll several times to make a spiral. Nestle dough in prepared pan, wrapping dough around central core, leaving ends loose. Repeat with the remaining dough and Nutella; place second roll in prepared pan, arranging it around the outer perimeter along side the first roll with the ends of the second roll on opposite sides of the pan from the ends of the first. The coffee cake will rise a bit unevenly. Don’t worry. I don’t. And by leaving the ends loose you will get some terrific pockets of Nutella in your finished Coffee Cake.

Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter and brush it over the dough. (If your butter is very soft, you can spread it over the dough.) Sprinkle streusel mixture on top of dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise about 2 hours, until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place tube pan on a baking sheet and bake in center of oven about 45 to 50 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of comes out clean. Cool pan on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before removing coffee cake from the pan and serving.

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Palle di Neve, Snowballs, Russian Teacakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes – call them what you will, these cookies are great. Palle di Neve is Italian for snowball – some say these cookies remind them of the snow topped Alps. Okay. I’ll buy that. These cookies have a lot going for them. They are buttery and tender and bursting with the flavor of nuts. Once I start I can not stop eating them. And what’s more – you can make them in your food processor.

A few points about the nuts – you can use any nuts you please. I have called for pecans, but walnuts, hazelnuts (a favorite in Italy), pistachios and even Brazil nuts are all great. Use what you have in your freezer (yes, store nuts in your freezer. They will remain fresh much longer that way.) For a greater depth of flavor, toast the nuts. Don’t be put off by the toasting step. It is quite simple. Place the nuts on a baking sheet (preferably with sides!) and toast on the middle rack of a preheated 325 degree oven. For this recipe you want to toast the nuts until they just become fragrant, about 6 to 8 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let them cool. Done. Easy step. Last thing – you need to know how to chop them in a food processor. As efficient as the food processor is, you can quickly go from finely chopped nuts to nut paste. Nut paste is a step too far for these babies. To guard against over processing (and this is true for any recipe) place some of the flour or sugar called for in the recipe in the bowl of the processor with the nuts. Then pulse the processor several times until the nuts are the desired consistency. For this recipe place 2 tablespoons of flour in the work bowl along with the nuts. You will never go wrong if you use this method.

The Nuts

The Dough

Scooping the Dough

Dusting with powered sugar

This recipe is extremely versatile. As I mentioned, you can use just about any nut that strikes your fancy. About the spice factor – I have called for cinnamon, but you may omit it if you wish. These are great without any spices, but since it’s Christmastime, go for the tastes of the season. Try 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg or 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice. And don’t forget cardamom, one of the most neglected spices of all; add ½ teaspoon for an old time flavor. If you are using walnuts, try adding ½ teaspoon of maple extract. For a wide array of fresh and fragrant spices try Penzeys Spices. You can shop online at Penzeys.com, and they have brick and mortar stores throughout the United States.

These cookies are a Christmas favorite. As good as these cookies are the day they are baked, they are even better the next day, once the flavors have had time to marry and mellow. They store well in an airtight container and are a most welcome addition to any holiday cookie exchange, cookie plate or gift box. Buon natale!

Palle di Neve

makes about 80 cookies

1 rounded cup pecans, about 5 ounces
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
generous pinch kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar, to coat cookies

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spread pecans on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast on center rack until fragrant, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool.

Place cooled pecans and 2 tablespoons flour in workbowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse several times until nuts are finely chopped. Add sugar and salt. Pulse to blend. Add cinnamon. Pulse to blend. Cut butter in chunks, and add to processor. Pulse until mixture is creamy. Scrape sides down. Add vanilla and pulse to blend. Add flour. Pulse several times until mixture begins to clump. Remove mixture from processor, and place on parchment or plastic wrap. Form into a block. Wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes or up to 1 hour. Well wrapped, dough may be frozen for up to one month for later use.

Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment. Form dough into ½- inch balls. Place balls 1½ inches apart. Bake on center rack until firm and slightly browned on bottom, 10-12 minutes. Cool cookies. Roll in powdered sugar.

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