First and foremost Happy Mothers Day to all mommas, especially MINE! I love you very much, and appreciate all the loving things you have done for me, all the loving words you have said to me, all the loving devotion you put in me, and all the loving faith and support you have for me! I know its not only my momma, I’m sure we all feel this way, and I would like to take this well deserved time to acknowledge, and appreciate all the sacrifices they do for us!!
My Momma ❤Everyone has that specific dish, and/or specific dessert your momma makes that is soooo good, and they bring it to every dinner/event they attend! For my momma it is either her tiramisu, or her LEMON COOKIES! I promise to post her tiramisu one day as well, so just keep up with me on my blog! These lemon cookies were actually from my Nonna- Lina. I watched her, and made these with her practically my whole childhood. Once again, she never really measures or writes recipes that are fully accurate. Italians will understand hah..but nonetheless this is the recipe we bake today! If your Italian, then you know exactly what cookie I am talking about. They are on every dinner table with coffee after every meal!! Or they are being shipped to every person in the whole family for Christmas, with an assortment of different Italian Cookies. These are the family favorite though.
Not only are they good as the after dinner coffee/tea cookie, they are great to bring as a gift, or to a dinner party. My momma has fun, and tries to be cute and festive with them. If there is a holiday, or theme dinner party, she will color the icing with the appropriate color scheme. For example before my baby cousin Gianna was born, we had a pumpkin gender reveal party. It was a girl!!
Lemon cookie throwback!
BABY GIANNA
ITALIAN LEMON COOKIES
YIELD:20-25 Cookies
BAKE TEMP: 350°F 10-12 Minutes
INGREDIENTS:
Cookie Dough:
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Crisco Shortening
3 Eggs
2 Tsp Lemon Extract
1 Lemon Zest
1 Tsp Lemon Juice
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
Icing:
3 Cups Powder Sugar
1 Lemon Juiced and Zested
1 1/2 Tsp Lemon Extract
1-2 Tsp Milk
Cream shortening, sugar, and zest together. Scrape sides of the bowl, and add/mix in the eggs, lemon juice, and extract. Add the flour, salt, and baking powder. DO NOT OVER MIX! Just mix until incorporated. Grab a pinch of dough at a time and roll into logs, and then tie into a KNOT. ** Putting a touch of oil on the board, and your hands prevents the dough from sticking.
These cookies do not spread very much, so pack them in!! Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit 10- 12 minutes! You want them soft, DO NOT OVER BAKE! ICING: Mix all ingredients to an Elmers glue consistency. You want it pasty, but not liquidy. After the cookies have cooled down for 30 minutes. Dunk the tops in the lemon icing. After going through all the cookies, repeat the process a second time for a thicker coating. After all the cookies are glazed place in the cooler for 20 minutes so the coating can get hard, and you can store them!!!
Italian Lemon Cookies
Lemon icing glaze
Nala Loves them!
Once again HAPPY MOTHERS DAY (DOG MOMS TOO!!), and happy Sunday!! See you next week! Let me know what you think!!! Thank you, and come bake with me!! They need a Happy Dog Parents Day or Happy AUNTS/UNCLES DAY haha.
For starters growing up, Nutella was basically a main food group in my household. Nutella became popular in the states more so around 10 years ago. Unless you had European parents who gave you this as a child, and introduced it to all your friends(ME), you didn’t know about it. Nutella was created in 1964, by a pastry chef who lived in Piedmont Italy. It was first created as a chocolate cream for patisseries to use. The inventor, Pietro Ferrero had a son who perfected it into a chocolate spread that we eat today! My mom used to give it to us with BREAD, croissants, crepes, crackers, fruit, or the best way in my opinion…..ON THE SPOON! I have so many childhood memories with Nutella, and the tradition Has moved down with my niece.
I caught you Caramia!!!
You can use Nutella to bake with. In my opinion honey, and peanut butter are a match made in heaven with this spread!!! Considering mothers day is next week, I am giving the gift of Nutella! My mom personally loves peanut butter & nutella, so I decided to make a cookie for her!! These cookies are so rich, chewy, and moist. They are perfect with a glass of milk, tea(my favorite), or in this case her favorite which is COFFEE! I tend to show my love through baking as a gift. Material objects are over rated! Of course I need my professional tester…… CARAMIA!
She loves the cookies dough!!
Nutella & Peanut Butter Cookies
Yield:15-20 cookies
BAKE:350°F
INGREDIENTS:
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup NUTELLA
2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/8 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Honey
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Sticks of Butter
2/3 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
Directions:
1. Cream together the butter and sugar.
2. Add, and mix the peanut butter.
3. Add the eggs, vanilla, and honey.
4. Add the dry ingredients and mix: flour, salt, baking powder,
and baking soda.
5. Swirl in nutella with a fork.
6. Place the cookie batter in the fridge for 15 minutes before
scooping to become more firm.
7. Scoop golf ball size scoops “2” inches apart.***
8. Bake at 350°F for 8-12 minutes.
9. Let rest for 20 minutes, and ENJOY!!!!
**I like big CHEWY cookies. These will spread and baking to a thin chewy cookie that are softball size. If you want to get a higher quantity, and like smaller cookies, you can make them a smaller scoop size just watch the baking time. It might take 2-3 minutes shorter in time since they are smaller.
*** remember to bake just till the edges are golden brown, and a little on the top if you want them this chewy!! They carry over and cookie 3-5 minutes after taking them out od the oven as well!!
PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS!!!!
For my first post, I would like to take it back to the very beginning… #throwback #Italian
RIP June 27, 2015
For as long as I can remember, I have been in the kitchen. My family you can say was very traditional, and old-fashioned. The women stayed home , and men were the bread winners type thing (no point intended ha-ha). I am grateful for this, because it is what first started my love and passion for Baking. My heritage is Italian so naturally, when baking with my mother and grandmother, all the recipes were from their hometowns in Italy. A very popular bread My Nonna (grandmother in Italian) made was focaccia. All my family members and neighbors lined up at the door when she made this. Learning how to actually make it was a surprise to me, because my grandmother never measured anything. When I got old enough to make it with her; she would walk me through each step, and I would interpret my own measurements with what I saw her doing by eye. Today I can now call it a Pietrantonio Original.
Nonna’s Focaccia
Nonnas focaccia
Yield: 1/2 sheet pan
Prep time: 4 hrs
Cook time:45 minutes
Ingredients:
Dough: 8 cups All-purpose flour
2 Tbs salt
2 Tbs instant yeast
1 Tbs sugar
3-4 cups Warm potato water
1 Tbs oil
1/2 potato
Tuscan Topping: 1 Pint Cherry Tomatoes
I tsp Salt
1 tsp Black pepper
1 tsp fresh Copped Thyme
1 Tbs fresh Chopped Parsley
1 Tbs Fresh Chopped Rosemary
1 Tbs Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Directions: Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty, this one will be kneaded by hand until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
Boil 1 Idaho potato in 5 cups of water (leaving the skin on the potato will help prevent it from getting water locked). Boil the potato on high for approximately 12-15 min, or until you can stick a fork inside, and it slides right out. Let the potato cool down for 1 hr, and reserve potato water in the fridge.
Mix the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and mashed potato together till well incorporated.
Slowly stream 1 cup of water at a time, and mix it untill its incorporated (the dough should be very wet).
Dough should be wet and sticky.4. Drizzle 1 Tbs of olive oil on top. Cover with plastic untill it doubles in size (approximately 3 hours).
5. Grease a half sheet tray with oil, and line it with parchment paper. Place and spread the dough in the Half sheet tray. With your fingertips, poke and jab the dough a couple times sporadically. Let proof for 45min-1 hour.
Dont over poke it, you do not want to deflate it.6. Place Tuscan blend on top of the dough. Make sure not to weigh the focaccia down with too much topping. Just put enough to cover it evenly, and sprinkle one last pinch of salt (If you have maldon salt to sprinkle on top thats a great addition).
Make sure there is enough oil to make it golden brown! Also you can change the topping for different events and seasons!! I have even done it with caramilzed onions and sliced potatoes!!7. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-55 minutes. Rotate pan at 25 mintes.
8. Let the focaccia rest for 20 minutes before cutting into it! Congratulations you did it!!
Nonnas Focaccia. Great alone, or as Sandwich bread!
