Madly baking!

"Waiter there's something in my bread" really encouraged my bakery instincts! After the bread I baked yesterday my only thought was: "Bake! Bake! Bake!"!!! Plus I was truly inspired by some of the wonderful entries, and especially by Patricia's recipe, so I hope she won't mind if I made something similar, yet different, to her wonderful Berry Twist Bread!
It was days I was looking for something not to sweet for breakfast, but I didn't want to wait for an entire overnight fridge rise (as fo the French brioche), so I've used the basic recipe for Stollen, from Patisserie Maison, and I changed it just a little, to meet my objectives...

15 g of fresh yeast
13 cl of lukewarm milk
100 g of strong flour
300 g of flour
2 tablespoons of honey
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of grounded nutmeg
4 egg yolks
75 g of melted butter

60 g of raisins
40 g of pistachio nuts

4 tablespoons of marmalade

First make the dough. As usually I've used my wonderful Kenwood chef with the kneader hook.
In the kneader bowl dissolve the yeast in the milk, let it rest for 10 minutes, then add all the ingredients, except raisins, pistachio nuts and marmalade.
Begin to knead at the lowest speed and after 10 minutes, knead at speed 2 for 5 minutes, then lower the speed at minimum and knead for another 5 minutes.
Make a ball and let it rise for 1 hour and half, covered with a tea towel.
After the given time, knead a little (by hand this time) and begin to add raisins and pistachio nuts. Once they are completely mixed with the dough, roll it out on a floured surface on a rectangle 1 centimeter thick. Spread it with the marmalade (I've used homemade orange marmalade), roll it, fasten the ends, and let it rise for another hour in a cake pan.
Preheat the oven at 170° C.
Once is well risen again, bake it for 30 minutes.

Serve cold with a nice mug of coffee!
Enjoy!

B&B

With my friends sometimes I joke about the bed&breakfast treatment they get when they sleep over: I have to be forgiven for the crazy cat in some way! But at the end it's not so much of a joke! With the due advise, if someone is coming to sleep over I prepare something for breakfast: pancakes are a rare treatment (only best friends get them! ;-P), but yeasty floury stuff or puddings are normal.
Friday night I attended with Deirdré (among others) to the Pandemia dinner in Milan, and as she leaves outside the city, she slept over. So I prepared those little plum cakes for Saturday morning (after the cat woke everybody up at 6 am sharp!)!

2 eggs
90 g cane sugar
120 g flour
2 pinches chemical yeast
100 g melted butter
1 grated apple
50 g of pistachio nuts

Preheat the oven at 180° C.
Whisk sugar and egg until foamy. Add flour, yeast, melted butter, grated apple and pistachio nuts and mix everything.
I cooked them in four little pans, 10x5 cm, for 30 minutes. To be sure they are cooked, pierce the centre with a toothpick: if it comes out clean and dry, they are cooked.

Raisins and cinnamon swirl

Give me something light and not too sweet for breakfast. Give me something yeasty too. Give me a simple, quick, plain recipe, that can be made by everyone. Give me something I can made over the weekend and that will last at least few days. Give me something with LOADS of raisins in it.
Can you vaguely imagine how difficult is to find a recipe that satisfy all those components???
Very...
At the end I found something by Martha Stewart: I've changed a bit, but it's basically it... Lighting a candle under her shrine, just next to Nigella's...
And as I'm a bit neglecting this blog lately (sorry, too much going on...), especially from a photograph point of view, this time I've tried to recreate the picture published on Martha's website. You know, most of the time the right inspiration makes your best shot, said the humble Piperita...

250 ml warm water
10 g fresh yeast
150 g all-purpose flour
200 g of strong flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
150 g raisins
70 g cane sugar + 1 teaspoon
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 egg beaten

Crumble the yeast in the kneader bowl (normal large bowl, if kneading by hand), add a pinch of sugar, then dissolve everything with the warm water. let it rest for 10-15 minute, until it foams.
Add flours, sugar, and half the butter. Knead for 10 minutes on medium speed. Add raisins and knead for another 5 minutes. Form a ball and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic and let it rest until it doubles, for 1-2 hours.
Roll out the dough in a 30x25 centimetres square. Mix cane sugar with cinnamon, nutmeg and the remaining melted butter. Brush the rolled dough with some of the beaten egg, sprinkle with the sugar-cinnamon- butter mixture and rub everything together with the back of a spoon. Roll up the dough tightly, beginning from the short side. Close the ends and lay the sausage in a buttered plum-cake pan, 22x12 centimetres. Let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm enviroment.
Preheat the oven at 220° C.
When the dough is well risen, brush it with the remaining beaten egg and a teaspoon of cane sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature at 180° C and bake for another 15 minutes.
Let it coll before to slice it.
Warning: gives addiction...

Banana Pancakes

Hip hip hurrah for Nigella Lawson!
Pardon me my madness, but today in Italy is definitively spring (even 1 moth before is normally due), and there is a glorious sun in Milan: one of those rare day when the sky is blue and pollution seems to be blown away by some magical force...
So we wake up in a perfect mood and made pancakes! And Nigella suggests, in the Feast's chapter Breakfast, to make banana pancakes! And as I recently became addicted to bananas, why not?

For approximately 10 pancakes (it depends how big you make them...)
150 g of flour
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of chemical yeast
1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of sodium
200 ml of goat milk
50 ml of yoghurt
1 banana (very ripe)
1 egg

Measure all the ingredients and blend them in a food processor until you obtain a smooth batter.
Heat a teaspoon of vegetable oil in a heavy bottom non stick pan, clean it away with a pice of kitchen towel and add a bit of batter, something like a ladle full. Cook it until it bubbles, then turn it and let it cook for another 30 seconds.
Keep them hot while you are making the others.

I personally never tried a real American pancake, as I've never set foot in the States, but my husband says that Jamie Oliver's version is more like what you eat in pancakes bar... I like Nigella's too and the banana taste is very nice and subtle...