Ring-shaped cookies with lactose free whipping cream

Sorry if I left aside my blog ...but I got flu.

Fever, cough, sore throat...full package.

I know, it sounds weird and ridiculous, but actually that's the way it goes.

I was far from flu all the winter , but  this sudden last weeks cold snap in North Italy stitched me up.

After all I wrote that I am meteoropathic ...and my body (sigh! not only it!) was upset by feeling again such temperatures.

Yesterday it seemed Christmas time ...not May!

I felt really depressed,I don't hide it, and I comfort myself with cookies ...my favourites.

This time they are ring-shaped and with whipping cream, obviously lactose free .

Ingredients:

200 g corn flour

50 g corn starch

150 g potato starch

100 g vanilla-flavoured fruit sugar

 (it is enough to put the used vanilla bean with fruit sugar for a while, and then whisking the fruit sugar only with the blender  so it will be icing)

200 g margarine

1 egg

half glass lactose free whipping cream

a pinch of salt

1 yolk

Preparation:
I sift the flour in a bowl and I add both starches.
I make a hole in the middle and I put inside the egg.
I beat it and I add fruit sugar, stirring from the centre.
Then I add the margarine , previously melted in a double saucepan and let it cooling down.
Last, I pour the whipping cream (not whipped) and a pinch of salt.
I knead the dough for some minutes and then I roll it.
With a round cookies cutter I make some rounds and with a small always round cutter I make the hole in the centre.
So to have ring-shaped cookies.
I brush them with a beaten yolk and I bake them for 20 minutes at 180° (low temperature).

Meanwhile  we wait for Summer coming , Spring prefers other places...I think that I will use the oven still for a while...but it is a cold comfort, I make baked pasta also in August!!

Carrot cake

I prepare this cake thinking about my mum. Today is mother's day.
We live apart but...ideally I order up a slice of this cake that she likes a lot.
I'm sure that when we will see again, I'll prepare one just for her.
Many wishes mum!

Ingredients:
4 medium carrots
120 g fruit sugar
200 g almonds flour
3 eggs
100 ml corn oil
20 g corn starch
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
lemon extract
100 g pine nuts
50 g almonds flakes
a pinch of salt

Preparation:
I stir the oil with sugar fruit and I add yolks with electric beater up becoming like a mousse. I add almonds flour, the vanilla powder  and the lemon extract.
I grate the carrots.
Then I put them to dry on a dish cloth and I join  the vegetables to the dough later.
Apart I beat until stiff the eggs whites and I add them last.
I pour the dough in a baked pan covered by baking paper and I pour on the surface of the cake some pine nuts and almonds flakes.
I bake for 40° at 180°.

It's a cake suitable for gluten, lactose and yeast intolerant...but above all is soft and tasty.

Spring vegetables risotto

Spring , at least in the North of Italy,is making fool of us.
It kids us and makes fun of our weaknesses.
Whatever happened to beautiful days?
the Sun prefers Southern places we know that...but it's May, it could have pity of us!
As incurable optimist, I think that there will be not such endless grey  and rainy days any longer.
Meanwhile I take comfort with a risotto.

Ingredients:
1 scallion
150 g shelled broad fresh beans
250 g carrots julienne strips
50 g chopped parsley
100 g grated pecorino cheese (Italian sheep cheese from Tuscany)
50 g margarine
200 g rice
extra virgin olive oil as needed
salt as needed
a sprig of rosemary
a cube of vegetables yeast, sugar or gluten free stock

Preparation:
I stew the  chopped scallion in a pan with extra virgin olive oil and I add broad beans and carrots.
I let them flavour together with a sprig of rosemary for five minutes stirring often.
I pour some water to cover vegetables and I let it cook for about 15 minutes.
Then I put them apart in a bowl.
In the same pan with the remaining drops of sauce, I pour the rice and I toast it with some oil and the remaining rosemary. Then I pour some vegetable stock and I let it cook (total 12 minutes more or less, depends on rice).
Five minutes before finishing cooking, I add  the vegetables and I make the risotto creamy with some margarine.
Last I pour some grated pecorino cheese and I stir out of flame.

Sooner or later the Sun will company more often and we will claim because it will be too hot 
(I won't ,actually. I feel good at 30°)... but meanwhile let's enjoy a nice risotto with season vegetables.

Short-pastry baskets with mixed berries

Short-pastry baskets with mixed berries

Ingredients for 8 baskets:
Short crust pastry
100 g corn flour (fumetto type in Italy)
80 g rice flour
75 g almonds flour
115 g margarine
1 egg
1 tablespoon lactose free milk
lemon juice

Cream
200 g lactose free mascarpone cheese (I buy it in an organic shop)
5 tablespoons unsweetened natural yogurt
50 g icing fruit sugar (it means fruit sugar blended in the blender up icing)
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
some drops rum extract
350 g blackberries, blueberries and strawberries

Preparation:
I sift the flours and the icing fruit sugar in a bowl and I stir almonds flour also.
I combine the margarine with my fingers up the dough is nubby.
Then I add the egg and the milk and I stir all with a cake slice.
So I knead it by hand up softening.
I wrap it with plastic wrap and I let it stand in the frige for 30 minutes.
Then I roll the dough and I cut with round cookies -cutters some circles of pastry.
I put them on a silicone  muffins moulds.
I cover the baskets with aluminum foil so to let not burn in the bottom and I bake for 15 minutes at 180°.
After that, they are making a little bit golden, so I remove the foil and I finish cooking for other five minutes.
Meanwhile the baskets are cooling down out of the oven, I start preparing the cream.
I whisk the mascarpone cheese with yogurt and the fruit sugar for 10 minutes up becoming a cream.
I add the rum extract and the vanilla powder and I stir well.

I fill the short- pastry baskets with this cream and I garnish with fruit, washed and dried well and last a sprinkle of icing fruit sugar.
They are so nice ...even home-made.

The flavour of rum in the cream make these baskets so tasty and delicious.That's amazing.

Khorashan wheat bow pasta with zucchini,turmeric powder and prawns

Khorashan wheat bow pasta with zucchini,turmeric powder and prawns

At last some beautiful days is coming.
I change totally mood if the sky is blue and the sun lights up everything on which it places.
That's just me, a little bit meteoropathic.
Food colours, are also therapeutic.
This pasta that I'm finishing preparing for lunch, should tempt anyone.
Not only because tastes good but because colours are great and brighten your meal up.

Ingredients:
1 round zucchini
1 spring onion
2 teaspoons turmeric powder
10 prawns
10 cherry tomatoes
4 tablespoons natural unsweetened yogurt
3-4 basil leaves
50 g grated parmesan cheese
salt as needed
extra virgin olive oil as needed

Preparation:
I chop the spring onion and I brown it in the oil , then I grate a zucchini and I let them flavour together for a couple of minutes.
Then I put prawns, a pinch of salt and 2 teaspoons of turmeric powder and I stir all well.
I add half glass of water and I cook over a low flame for 15 minutes.
Apart I parboil the cherry tomatoes for about five minutes and then I add them to the sauce.
I cook the bow pasta in salted boiling water.
During 10 minutes of pasta cooking I mix yogurt with parmesan cheese and chopped basil.
Two minutes before finishing the pasta cooking, I add yogurt cream to the sauce out of flame and I stir well.
I drain the pasta and I pour in the pan with the sauce , mixing softly.

Creamy, coloured and tasty this pasta...is right for this springy Saturday lunch time.

Apple delicacies

Do not give up even if your try doesn't work.
Even if you follow the recipe carefully, but it doesn't work.
For a moment  (maybe also two or three) we get angry but we haven't to lose heart.

In my kitchen, there is always a Plan B.
Most of the time it works ( I don't know why but I don't care. It works, no questions).
And better of what I scheduled and studied with attention to the smallest detail but it has no more of working.

These apples cakes are the umpteenth ...well done plan B.

Ingredients for 6 cakes:

150 g spelt flour

50 g corn starch

100 g cold sparkling water

1 egg

100 g vegetable whipping cream

50 g fruit sugar

100 g cubed apples

2 tablespoons cinnamon powder

a pinch of salt

spelt flour to sprinkle

lemon juice

margarine as needed

Preparation:

I pour in a bowl the flour, the corn starch and the fruit sugar, a tablespoon of cinnamon, a pinch of salt and I mix well.
I make a hole in the middle and I put an egg inside.
I beat it with a fork and I add the cream and later the sparkling water.
Little by little with a whisk and making round moving I mix powders around.
It must result a creamy batter , not liquid.
I cut an apple in cubes, soaking it with lemon juice.
I roll the cubes in the spelt flour and I sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon powder.
I oil with margarine and then covered with flour the moulders.
I pour some tablespoons of the dough in the bottom and I put some apples cubes, finishing with the same dough.
I bake these very tasty mini-sweet-cakes in pre-heated oven at 180° (low temperature) for 20 minutes.
 Thanks to sparkling water, they grow up as volume and the soft apple heart ...are an amazing surprise.

Mini-cakes with parmesan cheese and oregano

I come back  to plum cake but this time I try to make it savoury.

If an experiment works , why do not doing again in new versions, new matches?

One of the things that I miss more is bread...these mini-cakes comfort a lot and remind the softness of the guts meanwhile parmesan cheese adds more flavour.
  . 

Ingredients:

150 g spelt flour

50 g potato starch

3 eggs

70 ml corn oil

252 g unsweetened natural yogurt

a pinch of salt

a pinch of fruit sugar

100 g grated parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon oregano


Preparation:

I proceed as for a sweet plum cake, I beat the eggs as much as double with a pinch of fruit sugar.

Then with a cake slice, I mix slowly from down to up, the remaining ingredients.

I start with yogurt and oil, then the flour and the starch, salt, parmesan cheese and oregano.

The secret is stirring slowly and mixing a tablespoon at a time.

I know that requires more time than usual, but the result refund us of  labor and time-wasting.

I bake at 180° for 25-30 minutes around in mini-moulders for cakes.

The smell coming out the oven will swarm your house, your ladders... soon you 'll have to be ready to receive your neighbours!