Brutti ma Buoni

it's been raining all day long, before taking aiden to his weekly choir class today, i made these snacks for him to share with his little friends. brutti ma buoni is an italian cookie similar to a meringue cookie only it contains nuts. it has a crisp exterior with a texture that is soft and chewy inside. when you bite into one, there are lovely chunks of hazelnuts.

ingredients:

180g white sugar

120g egg whites

1 1/2 tsp pur vanilla extract

30g all-purpose flour

125g whole raw hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 170C

bake the hazelnuts in the oven for about 15mins, let cool completely and then coarsely chop

in a bown, placed over a saucepan of simmering water, cook the sugar and egg whites, whisk constantly, remove from heat, transfer to the bowl of your electric mixer and beat until thick and glossy. beat in the vanilla extract

add in the flour in two additions

add in the chopped hazelnuts

pipe the egg white onto the baking tray, bake cookies for about 30 mins.

these cookies are best the day the are made, but you can store at room temperature for a few days.

papa's multi-cereal bread

while doing my grocery shopping at city super last week, I chanced upon a shelf packed with different types of premix flour for baking bread. out of curiosity, I picked up a pack of mult-cereal bread premix and studied the instructions on the back of the package, I was surprised to find out how easy and convenient this bread can be made and i couldn't help to get one of these. after dinner tonite, i asked papa to try out the recipe together. it was a rather straight forward bread with very basic ingredients, all you need is patience.

ingredients:

500g francine multi-cereal bread flour

275ml warm water

1 1/2 salt

2 pack of francine instant yeast

preheat the oven at 240C

simple ingredients, the bread look wonderful on the packing.....

in a large bowl, put the flour and the salt and mix well

add the yeast in the warm water before putting into the flour

knead the dough for about 10 mins by hand until the dough becomes elastic.

place the dough in a greased mixing bowl and cover with a damp tower and allow the dough to rest for about 30 mins

simply give it a few knead and shape the dough and let rest for about 40 mins, then place the bread into the oven and bake for about 35 mins.

truly wholesome and healthy bread made by papa, the smell of the bread when it was fresh out of the oven filled the whole house, I really like the look of the rustic loaf!

currant scones

adding currants to a scone batter makes for a very tasty treat. I love how quickly these scones can be put together, cut the butter into the dry ingredients then add the milk and egg and you’re done.

ingredients:
325g all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2/tsp salt

14g granulated white sugar

113g cold unsalted butter

180ml milk

1 egg

30g medium currants

preheat oven at 200C

getting ready....

in a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs

add the milk and slightly beaten egg and stir until just combined.

place the dough on a lightly floured surface, blend in the currants and knead the dough gently until it comes together and is a smooth dough.

roll out dough to about a 1.25cm thickness, cut out scones with a lightly floured round cookie cutter.

place on prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with egg and bake for about 10 -15 minutes.

golden brown top and bottom with white sides, here's my first batch of successful scones!!

happy 2nd birthday siu yu!

photo taken by aiden

little photographer