Travels with George and Marta

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our fifth bake.

Jerry at Jerry’s Thoughts, Musings and Rants! selected this week’s bake – Lemon Semolina Cookies. After reviewing the recipe, I realized these are a lot like a ginger molasses cookie that I make except the focus is on lemon – lemon juice, lemon zest and Lemoncello!

First task was to buy some lemoncello. Another run to the State Liquor Store. Fortunately, they had several in stock. Semolina was easy to find. Central Market had it in bulk so I could buy just what I needed.

First you combine the flour, semolina, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Next cream together the butter, olive oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs.

Zest and juice a lemon. Add to mixture with vanilla and lemoncello. Slowly beat in the dry ingredients.

The dough is much moister than the typical cookie. Chill for an hour first. I went out for a run. Then roll about a teaspoon into a ball and roll in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I put the dough into the freezer after the first batch to get it firmer to make it easier to roll the second batch.

Bake in 325 degrees for 15 minutes. My oven is cool so I baked them an additional five minutes. They were very light but cooked. Lemon aroma wafted thoughout the kitchen. I could not wait and bite into one. Yummmmm…

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our fourth bake.

This week’s selection is Grappa-soaked Mini Sponge Cakes from Dolce Italiano by Gina de Palma. This recipe had a couple of different challenges. First, I didn’t have a mini-bundt cakes pan. I don’t even have a bundt cake pan. I thought I would use a regular tube pan and then I remembered that I have a savarin ring pan. I thought that might be better than a regular tube pan.

Next challenge was to find grappa. I had found some locally produced grappa from Clear Creek in Oregon. But no luck today. So I ended up with some grape brandy from Bulgaria!

The recipe went together smoothly. I have not had too good of luck making sponge cakes. First you create a simple syrup of water, grappa and sugar. Sift together the dry ingredients.

Next separate 8 eggs. Beat the eggs yolks with sugar and honey until double in size. Add the flavoring (more grappa!) and melted butter.

Fold in the dry ingredients. Beat the egg whites until soft folds. Pour into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool cake for 5 minutes and then remove from pan. Brush with the grappa syrup.

Serve with berries and whipped cream.

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our third bake.

This week’s selectionis a savory item – Babbo’s Breadsticks. I had my doubts about it since I’ve only had the hard cellophane-wrapped breadsticks. Would it be worth the effort? G had a company party to go to Saturday and signed us up for cheese and crackers. The breadsticks would be great to take along with the cheese so I decided to do them on Saturday.

I tried to find 00 flour but no luck in my area. I tried Trader Joe’s and Central Market and neither store carried it. But I did find an locally grown and milled flour by Stone Buhr. The flour comes from Shepard’s Grain , an alliance of family farms who have been certified as “environmentally and socially responsible” by Food Alliance. I think that is so cool that I can find socially responsible local flour here in my grocery store.

The recipe went together easily. I was surprised by the recipe including a 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. These may have a little spiciness. I don’t have a standing mixer to knead the dough so I blended the ingredients and then turned them out onto a floured sheet and hand kneaded them for 5 minutes. The dough handled similar to pizza dough.

Our house is cool so for good measure I warmed a bit of water in a large soup pot and laid a cake rack on top to warm the dough. I placed the towel covered bowl on top the warm pan and left it to raise.

After the dough doubled in size, I punched it down and cut the dough into 1 inch pieces. It took a little bit for me to get the hang of hand rolling the dough into foot long pencil thin strands of dough. I’d always end up with one section really narrow. But the dough is really forgiving and you can push it back together and re-roll it out.

The instructions were to bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes. I had to bake for almost 20 minutes to get them lightly golden in my oven.

They were golden and crispy. The tangy salt with the peppery bite was addictive. G and I ate several right out of the oven. I placed them in a large pint glass and took them to the party. They were definitely attention grabbers and were gobbled up.

Here are a few of the other bloggers results:

• Destination Anywhere
• In and Out of the Gardens
• Jerry’s Thoughts, Musings and Rants!
• Old Shoes – New Trip
• Palmabella’s Passions
• Whistlestop Cafe Cooking

Next week: Grappa-soaked mini sponge cakes

Krista came up with a great idea for the bloggers on Slow Travel. We will pick a recipe from a cookbook and bake it some time during the week. On Sunday, we will all blog the results. Jerry came up with the name – Sunday Slow Bakers.

I missed the first week challenge – Italian Crumbly Cake so I didn’t want to miss this week’s challenge – Sicilian Pistachio Bars from Dolce Italiano by Gina DePalma chosen by Deborah.

First challenge was to find shelled unsalted pistachios. Fortunately, we have a great local market which has an excellent bulk food section. They have everything a baker (or cook) needs in bulk form. This save a lot of time and my finger nails.

The pistachios are ground fine in a food processor and added to the flour. The butter is creamed with the sugar and eggs. Next add the flavoring, vanilla, almond (extract or amaretto) and lemon. I completely forgot the lemon. I should have zested it before starting the recipe. They were good without it but I think the tangy sour lemon would have added a lot.

The cookies are baked in a rimmed cookie sheet or jelly roll pan 18×13 that has been lined with parchement paper. The dough is dense so it can be difficult to spread evenly. The recipe recommends an off-set metal spatula which would have been great. I didn’t have one so I used a hard plastic spatula. The cookie dough forms a thin layer. You will want to watch the browning depending upon your oven. My oven is a little cool so the 35 minutes were fine to create a light browning along the edges but lightly golden in the rest of the pan.

Let them cool 30 minutes and slice up. Excellent with coffee or milk. These can also be frozen.

Here are a few of the other results:

• Old Shoes, New Trip
• Jerry’s Thoughts, Musings and Rants!
• In and Out of the Garden
• My Place in the Sun
• Whistlestop Cafe Cooking
• Palmabella’s Passions
• What I really think

Next week – Babbo’s Breadsticks.