Porceddhuzzi: Christmas Honey Sweets From Salento
This is one of my favourite childhood sweets which my grandma used to make all the times during Christmas time 🎄
These citrus flavoured crunchy bites are first fried then covered in honey, sprinkles & pine nuts 😋 They are super addictive & you will be loving making them over and over again during the holidays and even offer them as gifts to family and friends!
We cannot wait to make them with you on Sunday 28th at 3pm UK time!🥰
ZOOM LINK BELOW
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/4446758909?pwd=Y29KVldtYlV0ZlBQTWMvVkZZSmtWdz09
Meeting ID: 444 675 8909
Passcode: cookalong
Ingredients for “I purceddhuzzi” cookalong:
For the dough
500gr plain flour
70gr sugar (I use cane sugar)
100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 orange peel + 1 lemon or mandarin peel
the juice of 1 orange
1 orange zest + 1 lemon zest
100ml white wine
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 espresso cup (or 4 tablespoons) of herbal spirit like anice, strega, limoncello, brandy etc
Sunflower oil for frying
For the decoration
250gr honey
Multi coloured sugar sprinkles & strands
Pine nuts (optional but highly recommended!)
Red glace cherries (optional)
My Childhood Easter Biscuits
Today I come here with a very special recipe. It’s very special one because to me it brings lovely memories from childhood, the Easter time in Italy as a child.
These simple biscuits are popular in all bakeries in Puglia over Easter time and they are made in all sorts of shapes. They are called “cuddhura cu l’ou” because they are pastries decorated with a hard-boiled egg.
The recipe for cuddhura cu l'ou always includes an odd number of decorative hard-boiled eggs; you can prepare just one big one or, like I did, have fun creating different shapes.
The cuddhura in a basket shape is ready to be cooked
Some traditional shapes are the woven basket (the panarieddu) like the one above or the tower bell (campanaru).
The bunny is also ready to go in the oven!
I’ve also decided to create a more contemporary shape so to make it more appealing to my kids, and that’s why you see a bunny too!
Ingredients for about 6 cuddhure cu l’ou:
400gr plain flour/all purpose flour
130gr sugar
2 eggs
100gr butter or vegetable spread ( better softened)
30ml almond milk or milk of your choice
10gr baking powder
1 lemon zest
For decoration:
6 hard-boiled eggs
extra milk for brushing
sprinkles
scissors & baking paper
kitchen brush
Even though the boiled eggs are just decorative, you can definitely eat them! Here the kids love to eat them too, but it’s entirely your choice!
Cuddhura are also great to offer as gifts for Easter and they would make your Easter table look super festive!
The kids love them!
We will be showing you how to make these yummy biscuits tomorrow at 4pm (UK TIME) so don’t miss out!
Use this link below to join our zoom cook-along ! :-)
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/82775790733?pwd=c1c3ak9OWEJsZUcxQzE4VHpnbDN5UT09
Cuddhura have a very festive look 🥰
Candy Cane Biscuits
What an amazing cook-along session we had making these candy cane biscuits on zoom and Insta live!🤩 And we have seen so many delicious biscuits made by the mini chefs in the session!
You will be able to watch a collage of the best moments very soon and hopefully it will help you making these cookies by yourself if you didn’t manage to join us live.
The kids loved making these candy cane biscuits!
These delicious candy cane biscuits are the perfect Christmas treat, right?
Here are the biscuits before going in the oven
Ingredients:
110gr sugar or your favourite sweetener - I’ve used erythritol
110gr butter - my preference is vegetable spread, soft at room temperature
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1/2 egg
175gr plain flour
Here they are! Ready to be eaten!
Start by mixing the butter and sugar in a bowl.
Then add peppermint extract, vanilla extract, pinch of salt, 1/2 egg. Mix well then add the flour.
You will end up with a dough soft & flexible. Divide the dough in 2 parts and add some red food colouring in one half.
Let both parts chill in the fridge for good 20 minutes.
Once out of the fridge make little balls out of each dough. Each ball should weight about 8g.
Now it’s time to turn the balls into a rope. Make one red and one white and make sure that they have the same length. Attach them one another and start rolling until you get the candy cane pattern and slightly bend the top to give it the candy cane shape.
Move the candy canes biscuits on a baking tray and once made them all, transfer the tray in the fridge for 30 minutes. This is to prevent for the biscuits to expand too much.
Transfer to a preheated oven and cook at 170 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.
Enjoy!😊
A closeup of this yummy candy cane biscuit
Intorcinati Pugliesi: My Childhood Cookies
Today I’m so excited to share with you the recipe of one of my absolute favourite childhood biscuits.
They can be called trecce, intorcinati, intorchiate, all names refer to the braid like shape of these biscuits, and they are typically from Puglia, the beautiful region where I'm from in Italy.
The ingredients are incredibly simple and typical of a Mediterranean cuisine, yet these biscuits are incredibly addicting! Must be because of the wine in them? Possibly!🤪
Are you ready to get baking?
Ingredients for about 12 biscuits:
250 plain flour
75 gr brown sugar
75 gr extra virgin olive oil
75 ml dry white wine
pinch of salt
For the decoration:
3 almonds per biscuit
1/2 cup of granulated sugar/brown sugar
Preparation: 30 min Cooking: 20/25 min
Start by measuring all ingredients and place them in a mixing bowl all together: flour, sugar, oil, wine.
Mix with your hands until you get a dough soft and elastic but not sticky.
Let it rest in the bowl covered with a towel for about 20 minutes.
Then pick the dough and start making intorchiate by rolling a bit of dough into twisted shape.
Line a flat baking tray with parchment paper and preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
Divide the dough into 24 approximately equal pieces. Roll 2 pieces of dough with the palms of your hands against a flat surface to make them into a rope shape of about 12cm. Pinch one end of the rope together with one end of the other rope, then twist the two ropes around one another to form a twist, with the dough strands crossing twice and meeting at the bottom to form three spaces. Press the ends together at the bottom to seal them. Continue forming the twists until you have filled the baking tray with 12 cookies.
Press three almonds into each cookie and sprinkle some sugar.
The intorchiate are ready to go in the oven
Transfer the intorchiate into the oven and cook for about 20/25 minutes or until they turn golden in colour.
The intorchiate are out of the oven!
the intorchiate cookies are sooo comforting!
I love to have these biscuits for breakfast and they are great dipped in coffee, in perfect Italian style!
These yummy biscuits are perfect with coffee
They can last up to 2 week in a airtight container but in this household they don't last more than 2 days!😁 I wonder why!
Buon appetito!😋
You can store intorcinati in an airtight container and they can last up to 2 weeks
The intorchiate biscuits are kids friendly. My son loves them!
Coconut, White Chocolate & Raspberry Cookies
In isolation like now there is no better way of enjoying the time with the kids than doing some baking together.
The kids love freeze dried fruits! And these ones from HoneyBerry are so good!
Also homemade food is always the best, mainly if it's in a shape of a cookie 😋
Kids ask constantly for snacks so when possible we try to make our own. This way I know exactly what they eat and try to avoid too much sugar intake.
These cookies are so comforting, yet healthy as dairy-free & refined sugar-free.
The kids were totally involved in the preparation of these biscuits and were so proud with the result!
You can watch them making these cookies here!
Ingredients for about 18 cookies:
1 cup + 2/3 cup plain white flour (you can replace this with gluten-free which I finished!)
1/3 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup dairy-free butter
1/2 cup brown sugar or your favourite sweetener
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons potato starch
1 egg
1/2 cup white chocolate chunks
1/3 cup freeze dried raspberries
Preparation: 20 min Cooking: 20 min
Start by mixing the dry ingredients in a bowl except for the chocolate and raspberries which will be added at the end. Once well mixed, put aside.
Now mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. First the sugar with the egg, then add the melted butter.
Transfer this mixture in the dry bowl, add the chocolate & freeze dried raspberries and make it into a dough.
Mixing all ingredients together!
Out of the dough, make little balls and position them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Then slightly flatten the balls down.
The cookies are ready to go into the oven!
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for about 20/25 minutes or until the cookies turn light golden in colour.
Buon appetito!😋
The yummy white chocolate & raspberries cookies are ready!
The kids can't wait to try the cookies! Just wait a minute to take a pic kids!
Arianna loved the delicious combo!
And Raffi too! You can see crumbles near his mouth!
Choco Almond Italian Biscotti
Food is comfort, food is memory which tells a story.
These biscotti della salute (literally health biscuits in Italian) tell the story of my roots and my childhood..each bite brings lovely memories to mind.
These biscuits are a very easy and quick treat to make for all the family and a yummy one too.
They are crunchy and nutty, the perfect combo for my chocolate and roasted almond loving kids!
Ingredients for about 12/15 biscuits:
200gr self-raising white flour
50g self-raising brown flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
60gr brown sugar
30gr coconut sugar
80gr roasted almonds
35gr good quality extra virgin olive oil
20gr coconut butter
2 eggs
30gr dark chocolate chips
Preparation: 15 min Cooking: 40 minutes
Start by roasting the almonds in the oven at 180 degrees for about 10/15 minutes. In the meantime mix all the other ingredients in a bowl.
When the almonds are ready let them cool down before adding them to the mixture.
Then you make 2 rolls out of the pastry and slightly flatten them directly on a baking tray.
Transfer the tray in the oven and cook for about 20/25 minutes at 180 degrees.
Let them cool down then cut the rolls so to have biscuits about 1.5 cm wide.
Put again in the oven at 180 degrees for another 15/20 minutes or until they are golden in colour.
the yummy biscuits are ready to eat!
These biscuits keep very well for a few days but I warn you! They may be gone in a day like it happens in our house! 😁
Kids love these biscotti!
Crunchy nutty biscuits for all the family!
Lemon, Ginger & Poppy Seeds Cookies
Are you a big fan of lemons and cookies like me? If so then you have come to the right place!
This is a very easy and quick recipe that you can make with your kids too!
Daughter enjoyed making these cookies.
Ingredients for about 15 cookies
2 1/3 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut butter softened
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup agave syrup
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ginger powder
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
Preparation: 15 min - Cooking: 12-15 min
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until you get a nice fluffy dough.
Then out of the dough make your biscuits on the parchment paper.
The cookies are ready to go in the oven.
We used a round cookie cutter to make our biscuits, my daughter has lots of fun making them and we all loved the delicious result! 😋
Store your cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Buon appetito!
Son tries to get one as soon as the cookies are ready!
My little helper is so proud of the final result!
These cookies are full of lemon flavour! Yummy!
Vegan Rum Shortbread Cookies
This was a great recipe for Father's Day cookies!
Our dad loves rum so decided to add some in the cookies Arianna and I made for him!
So delicious! The rum wasn't strong at all, just enough to give a nice aroma! In fact it's a perfect kids friendly recipe too!
Ingredients for about 24 cookies:
200 gr all-purpose flour
50 gr coconut flakes
200 gr vegetable spread
60 gr coconut sugar
2 tablespoons light rum
½ teaspoon pure almond extract
½ teaspoon pink Himalayan salt
Preparation: 20 min - Cooking: 20 min
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Transfer in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Then transfer the dough on an oven tray lined with parchment paper and get the little one's help to cut out nice shapes.
Our medal cookies are ready to go in the oven!
We made stars, hearts and round cookies. In particular for the round ones as they were our medals for daddy, we made a hole at the top with a straw.
Arianna is so proud of her cookies!
Transfer in the oven and cook for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees.
They store very well for a few days and can be frozen too!
Buon appetito!
Our number 1 medal for daddy!
Daddy is so happy to wear his n.1 cookie medal!
Lots of surprises for daddy on Father's Day! Here our cookie medals with number 1 and dad written on them!
Gluten-Free Eggless Orange Cookies
I'm constantly craving sweet for breakfast, even on holiday! My mum clearly doesn't like to share her kitchen but the idea of making these vegan biscuits intrigued her and she allowed me to use freely her sacred space! 😁
And being very close to Easter, I decided to surprise the kids with some fun shaped small cookies. I’ve used this very cute cookie cutter set.
Ingredients for 30 tiny cookies
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 + 1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup coconut flakes
3 tablespoons grated orange peel
1/3 cup orange juice
1 cup coconut sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Preparation:15 minutes Cooking: 15 minutes
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Then line a baking tray with parchment paper and transfer the mixture on it. The mixture is a bit sticky and fragile so I advise to flatten it with your hands directly on the paper and when it's about 1cm hight use the cookie cutter of your choice to make your biscuits.
Transfer in preheated oven at 180 degrees and they are ready once you smell orange all over the kitchen. Normally after 10/15 minutes! They cook fast so keep an eye on them!
Buon appetito! 😋
The Easter orange cookies are ready!
A little bunny shape orange cookie!
Banana & Coconut Choco Chips Cookies
These cookies are incredibly tasty yet healthy and nutritious. A Gluten-free and refined sugar-free treat full of goodness and perfect for a sweet desire attack like it happens to me mainly at breakfast time!
That comes mainly from my Italian origins and my habit since I was a child to have a sweet breakfast. Although I love savoury, breakfast to me has to be sweet somehow or it has to have a sweet element to it.
And that’s why I baked these biscuits! The perfect guilt-free sweet addition to your breakfast without being overly indulgent! These cookies are also the perfect work snack or healthy kids treat, they remain fresh in container for about 5 days and freeze very well too!
Ingredients for 15 cookies
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup cassava flour
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1 tsp baking power
1tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 small banana, mashed well (about 1/3 cup)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 large egg
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
Preparation:10 minutes Cooking:15 minutes
The cookies dough
Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a try with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, coconut flakes, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, cinnamon and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine mashed banana, melted coconut oil, coconut sugar, maple syrup, and egg (room temperature). Stir well until egg is thoroughly mixed in.
Add wet banana mixture to large bowl of dry ingredients and stir until dough forms.
Add in dark chocolate chips and mix until well combined.Refrigerate dough for up to 1 hour.
Using rounded tablespoon, or cookie scoop, drop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Slightly flatten cookie dough, they will not spread much while baking.
Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes, allowing to cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to cooling rack.
Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in airtight container.
Buon appetito! 😋
The cookies are ready to go in the oven.
the cookies are ready to eat!