Want a recipe for a classic Italian Chocolate Chip Cookies? Italian cookies are lighter than European shortbread, and have more crunch than chewy American cookies. Sometimes we crave a buttery cookie, and sometimes a super sweet chewy American chocolate chip cookie. Lighter crunchy Italian Cookies also have their place. In Italy we eat cookies for …
The sun is shinning and the temperature is rising here in Como. The first Pesche Noce have arrived at the Como Market! My mind immediately thinks of Italian Peach Gelato. Hurray! This is my favourite time of the year, the market is full of fresh fruits all ready for me to make Italian Gelato with. …
Today I discovered a packet of hulled barley grains in the cupboard. Part of the lockdown shopping madness! While I could have made a nice tuscan Barley Salad, the kids here aren’t that crazy about that, so I decided to prepare some Barley Sourdough Bread. I have been making sourdough bread rolls and traditional Rounded …
Who doesn’t love a warm bowl of soup to wrap your hands around on a cold day? Fennel Soup is one of my personal favourites, the soothing sweet flavour of sautéed Fennel, even the kids here love it! Onions add a little sweetness and the potato in this recipe adds a creaminess to the final …
Easy Thai Fish cakes are just the thing for a quick but yummy dinner during this lockdown. It has been seriously difficult having to cook every single meal, from breakfast to dinner, every day for all four of us, during this lockdown. It isn’t always possible to find all the ingredients we want, and we …
With Home Schooling still happening here in Italy, afternoon tea break is a big part of our day. What could be nicer than a delicious slice of Banana Bread accompanied by a perfect cup of hot Irish tea ? It certainly feel like I deserve it after all the extra duties our days stuck at …
Who Doesn’t love a light icy Italian Gelato? Full of flavour and refreshingly light. Most summer evenings in Italy we enjoy a Gelato while strolling around Como. My husbands family in Sicily had two ‘Pasticcerias’ in Sicily and they made incredible Gelato every day, using all the wonderful fruits and nuts that Sicily has to …
This week called for something from home, Tea Cake or Brambrack as we call it in Ireland. Here in Como, the morning air is still fresh, so a cup of Irish Tea for breakfast with something not too sweet but full of flavour is what I wanted. Mam used to make Brambrack for us for …
Create your own Sourdough Starter, it is really very easy. During the COVID Lockdown we are all spending much more time at home, and its isn’t always possible to go out daily to find fresh bread, or to find yeast in the supermarket. Luckily most small shops and supermarkets still have flour, and that is …
7 Easy Steps to Create your own Sourdough Starter Read More »
1. How often should I feed my sourdough starter? The minimum is once a week for a starter kept in the fridge, or once a day for a starter kept out in room temperature. It all depends on how often you want to bake with your starter each week. If you don’t use it at …
Are you new to baking with Sourdough? This is a great easy recipe for delicious light sourdough bread rolls with that distinctive sourdough crust. Have you just created you every own Sourdough Starter and you are now ready to bake? If you don’t yet have a starter you can follow my 7 easy steps to …
#Easter #Baking #LessYeast #SaveTheYeast #Buns #HotCrossBuns #QuarantineRecipe #Ilovecooking #yummy It’s Easter time and we are still on Lockdown. I made these with my Daughter Aoife and it was a lovely activity to do together. This recipe is adapted from Paul Hollywood, I changed the amount of yeast and the proofing times for a quarantine lockdown …
Running out of yeast? Want to let your yeast stock last longer? You can use WAY LESS dried yeast than you think. Read on for my special Lockdown yeast bread recipe and tips on how to save that precious dried yeast. Recipes usually call for a full sachet of dried yeast that’s 7g for 500g …
Save your yeast! Easy Lockdown Yeast Bread Recipe Read More »
During this lockdown I am making bread rolls almost every day, they are perfect for filling for lunch time sandwiches, Hamburgers for dinner or just sliced up and toasted for breakfast the next day. Learning how to shape bread rolls is such a handy skill and it doesn’t matter what dough you start with, whether …
Today is another day in COVID-19 Quarantine in Como. It is Sunday and the kids wanted to do something fun for this sunny day, so we took them to the roof to restore our charcoal BBQ, Clean up our neglected roof terrace and see if we could cook some burgers for lunch and just enjoy …
This Gluten free soda bread recipe, is the result of lots of experiments and home, and lots of tastings by the kids! So this one is kid and mum approved! When my son was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease a few years ago, we embarked on a Gluten-Free diet. For a passionate baker and lover of …
#quarantine #corona #IrishSodaBread #bakingbread #easybaking #noyeast #quickbread #healthybread This soda bread started me on my bread making adventure many years ago, but that’s a story for another time. Right now in the middle of quarantined Italy, we all need to be able to make breads easily and with the kind of simple ingredients we all …
#Piadina #lockdown #quarantine #iostoacasa #stayathome #cookingduringcorona What ever the hashtag, this recipe is perfect during this period of staying at home during the Corona virus lockdown. It is week 4 of our lockdown here in Como, and this recipe was one of the first I went to, when we ran out of fresh bread for …
This is a great first bread to begin with. It couldn’t be simpler. You need a nice freshly fed sourdough starter (see my 7 days to make your own on), good wholegrain flour although ANY flour is good to get started, this is a VERY forgiving recipe. No Kneading. and here I have also included …
Sourdough prepared the old fashioned way, before added gluten and fast-rising yeast became the norm, may be one solution for those who can’t tolerate gluten. Long fermentation process allows bacteria to fully break down the carbohydrates and gluten in bread, making it easier to digest and releasing the nutrients within it, allowing our bodies to …
Sourdough bread. A solution for those with gluten intolerance? Read More »
“It’s a momentous time for bread. That’s especially satisfying, given the years it spent as a bad word in our diet vocabulary: High carb! High gluten! Unhealthy!” “…it’s bread that’s standing out right now. Compare it to the best fried chicken, the best bowl of noodles you’ve had recently. Great bread is truly everywhere.” Just …
We had great fun recently at our Colourful pasta class, where we made fresh egg pasta, coloured with beetroot & spinach to create some beautiful colourful Italian dishes. Thanks to all who came & of course to Yohena for these wonderful Photos!
This is the traditional Neapolitan Pizza Dough recipe that we use in our Cooking Class in Como, no oil, not too much salt, just perfectly elastic for gently shaping pizza by hand. Wafer thin base in the centre and bubbly crispy flexible crust. For a healthier option you can swap out up tp 50% of …
During our Pizza cooking classes, we have been making lots and lots of yummy Neapolitan pizza dough. But one household can only eat so much pizza in one week! So here are my tips on how to freeze pizza dough easily so you can have a homemade pizza quickly at home. Instructions 1. Prepare the …
Todays class was very special because of the wonderful group we had from New Jersey, USA. Thanks for all the laughs guys, I hope you had as much fun as I did! Game on for the boys versus the girls… About to go into the oven is one lovely loaf of rosemary bread from the …
