La Lama Mountain Ovens
Old Italian family recipes
and archives, baking tips, and bakery gifts
Family Secrets
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La Lama Mountain Ovens |
The best of the recipes, techniques, and methods practiced by our large extended Italian-American family - with emphasis on the legacy handed down to us by the original immigrants. This is a cookbook-in-process project. If you try any of these recipes please let us know how they turn out, whether or not you had any difficulties, and any clarifying improvements you might recommend to make them foolproof. We will of course acknowledge genuine "test-kitchen" assistance. |
Family Secrets #40Biscotti By CeCe Dove, La Lama Mountain Ovens |
| Family meals in an Italian household generally do not include desserts. A piece of fruit and perhaps a taste of cheese is the usual way to end a family dinner. There are, of course, some spectacular desserts for the special occasions. Cassata comes to mind with its many layers of tender cake interspersed with creamy ricotta filling studded with candied fruit and slathered with butter cream. Wonderful, but not practical for serving the endless parade of people through the house at Christmas. |
| The mainstay for Italian entertaining large style is the cookie tray. Baptisms, weddings, funerals, and all holidays bring out the silver trays heaped with traditional favorites. These were not baked by the dozens, but by the hundreds. Every household in our extended family had their specialties, and it was expected that they would produce a prodigious quantity of that specialty to share with others, in addition to whatever else they had time to add. Aunt Mary comes to mind, with her fabulous Mostaccioli, a difficult cookie to master, but worth the effort; rewarding you with a complex chocolate spice flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture. My next family secret will share this recipe with you, compliments of her daughters efforts to keep this tradition alive. |  Orange-Walnut Biscotti |
| The baking for the
Christmas season started early in our family. Our mother
had her "cookie book", the only recipes she
ever wrote down. As soon as the Thanksgiving turkey was
disposed of to her satisfaction she began assembling and
cleaning her huge assortment of tins for storing the
Christmas bounty. She would take out her cookie book and
make her shopping list for fruits, nuts, jams, chocolate,
and vast quantities of butter and flour, all to be
consumed in the next month. Every spare moment would
result in yet another variety added to the tins in our
cool basement. Each day during December she would
re-assemble a cookie tray for the dining room to serve
the drop-in guests or her own ravenous four children. It
seems we could never get enough of the pizzelles,
biscotti, nut rolls, cenci, and other treats. A bottle of
anisette for the ladies and a bottle of whiskey for the
men were always on the sideboard next to the cookie tray,
but only during December. A week before Christmas she and
the other women of the extended family would pack up
boxes of their own efforts and deliver them to each other
and to neighbors. This would only add to the variety and
nuances of each household's cookie trays. One of the first cookies to get baked was the biscotti. The obvious reason is that, properly stored, it keeps forever. They also ship beautifully for the loved ones far away. In recent years, the term biscotti has come to be a generic term for Italian cookies, but the proper meaning of the term is twice baked. It is baked first in a loaf form, then sliced and baked again to attain the hard biscuit-like texture of the original cookie. There are hundred of recipes for biscotti throughout Italy, but other than flavoring they fall into two distinct categories: those made with butter and those made without butter or any shortening. The butter enhanced cookie results in a more tender shortbread-like texture, while those without butter are drier and harder. The butterless ones are best served with a cup of coffee or tea, or a glass of Port or Vin Santo in which to dip them. One quick dip and they melt in your mouth. These have always been and remain my favorite. They are such a favorite in our home that I make them all year round, because they have the added advantage of being low-fat. They are perfect when you have that midnight sweet craving or mid-afternoon slump. These were the original low-fat cookie before anyone even knew we needed them! Enjoy, and next time we'll progress to a full fat delight. _______________________________________ Chocolate-Almond Biscotti Preheat oven to 375.
Makes 1 lb. 6 oz. dough, approx. 30 cookies
Grind half the cooled almonds finely, the other half coarsely. A food processor is perfect for this. Mix almonds, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, salt and allspice in mixer bowl. Lightly beat eggs with almond extract in small bowl. Use the paddle attached, and with the mixer running, add egg mixture to the flour mixture. Add chocolate chips and beat only until dough forms. If too dry and crumbly add a tablespoon or two of milk. The dough should just hold together. Turn out onto floured board, knead lightly a few times to make a cohesive dough. Divide into four pieces, form into logs about 14 inches long and 2 inches around. Place on two cookie sheets lined with parchment or lightly oiled, spacing at least two inches apart. Flatten each log slightly with your hand. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm to the touch, switching rack positions half way through the baking. Leave loaves on sheets and place on cooling racks for 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 350. Slice each log on a diagonal about 3/4 inch thick, and place cut side up on the cookie sheets. Bake for 7 minutes, turn each cookie over and bake for another 7 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks. When completely cooled, store in tins for up to one month. Orange-Walnut Biscotti Preheat oven to 300. Makes 1 lb. 4 oz. dough, approx. 25 cookies |
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| In mixer bowl place
flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In small bowl mix
eggs, yolk, vanilla and zest. With paddle attachment,
blend flour mixture, then add egg mixture. As soon as it
begins to ball up, add walnuts. Mix just until dough
forms. Turn out to floured board. If the dough is too dry
add a tablespoon of cold water. Knead once or twice to
form a cohesive dough. Divide into two pieces and form
logs 12 inches long by 2 inches wide. Place on a cookie
sheet lined with parchment paper or lightly oiled.
Flatten them slightly with your hand. Bake for 45-50 min
until firm. Cool on rack for 10 min. Cut on diagonal
about 3/4 inch wide, lay on cut side and bake for 7
minutes. Turn each cookie over and bake an additional 7
minutes. Cool completely and store. Altitude Adjustment: At altitudes over 5000 ft. decrease baking soda in both recipes to 1 tsp., and decrease sugar to 3/4 cup. |
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