Hot Cookie - the Archive

Biscotti di Pinoli go with vino or caffè . The cookie in front is shown bottom side up. Backdrop is a tufa stone wall, common in Civita. Tony, our resident architect here in Civita, is an excellent cook. His kitchen sports two encyclopedic series on Italian cooking I could only wish to find for myself. They are limited editions, and no one in all of Italy seems to be selling theirs. One volume is dedicate d to piccola pasticceria , or small dessert things, which include cookies, tarts, filled eclair-type pastries and fried pastries. Based on the photos, I selected a recipe for Biscotti di Pinoli. My overly wet mixture of almond paste and sugar. Of course, I had to compromise. The recipe called for almond flour; from Seattle I brought almond paste in a can. This almond paste contains some sugar and water, so I was concerned the end product would be too moist. I mixed the almond paste and the sugar with my hands, and unlike their photo of a dry mixture, mine clung together in ...

Written Sunday, April 10, 2011. Tony shows me around the garden.Our "apartment" is in the tall building in the background. My second suitcase arrived with my gardening clothes and cookie making equipment on Thursday, three days late, after missing the connection in Amsterdam to Rome. (See my April 1 post about how I found myself as a gardener in residence in Civita.) I was reluctant to wear my city shoes into the garden, but the fact was that I had work to do, so city shoes and clothes have been sacrificed. I know this is a cookie making blog, but sometimes cookies have to be set aside. I am here to help an architect care for the garden that helps feed academic fellows who come to this small architecture institute . Tony, the architect on site, has been working this garden for years, and I am careful to ask his preferences: Which tasks to prioritize: Besides weeding and planting, Tony wants a culinary bay leaf hedge trimmed (grows like a weed), and a gravel...

Energy bars for a long hike. I lined up all 11 ingredients for these cookies. The array seemed a bit of overkill. Worthy of the label "jumble," these require nearly everything from your baking shelf. The result is hiker-hearty and probably good-for-you, featuring dried fruit (raisins), nuts (pecans, my favorite), molasses and, of course, the oats. These quickly drop onto a baking sheet, but I'd watch that they don't get too near the bottom of the oven. They were done in 8 minutes at 400 degrees, or 10 minutes at 300 degrees. Bottoms were burned just two minutes later. Many ingredients in these "jumbles." These are so crisp (read that hard), I'd flatten them and bake for only 6 minutes if I wanted to serve them to pre-schoolers. Make them for your next backpack trip, or snack on them for energy.  But I'd make other choices for a special treat. I could not find this recipe online, but I recommend you find another. There are loads of promi...

If I'd reported I turned down a trip to Italy because I just had to work on my cookie blog, everyone would know that was an April Fools joke. Instead, I'm planning to make cookies in Italy. Really. Civita di Bagnoregio, north of Rome, and near Orvieto. Another passion - gardening - has qualified me for a position as volunteer gardener in residence at a small architecture institute in Civita di Bagnoregio . The call for "volunteers" said, "Duties include but are not limited to planting seeds and starts, mulching, weeding, managing compost and irrigation, some pruning and harvesting. Also, will need to keep hand tools in good working order. Knowledge of sustainable practices is helpful, as is the ability to speak some Italian." I figured a dozen horticulture students with no job prospects, but an interest in Italy, would apply. They may still, but I beat them to the punch. My 28 years of digging in the soil, with emphasis on organic gardening, quali...