My Granola and rock n’ roll men

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My Granola

Music: Blonde In The Bleachers, Joni Mitchell. This is my comfort snack as the blonde in the bleachers even if I’m home and don’t tape my regrets to the microphone stand. There’s no song in the world that fits me better. Love Joni.

Ingredients:

350 gr rolled oats

50 gr sunflower seeds

20 gr sesame seeds

80 gr slivered almonds

6 dried apricots, diced

30 gr raising

100 gr dark chocolate, cut into small pieces

1 Tsb butter

80 gr water

100 gr honey

2 Tsb brown sugar

1 pinch salt

Mix butter, water, honey, sugar and salt, then place on medium heat and cook until the sugar dissolves. In another bowl, mix oats, sunflower seeds, almonds and sesame seeds and add it to the liquid mixture, mixing well. Place the granola on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake at 160° C for about 50 minutes. Let cool completely, then add chocolate, dried apricots and raising.

Apple, Chestnut Honey, Cinnamon & Vanilla Bundt Cakes and it feels like home

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Apple, Chestnut Honey, Cinnamon & Vanilla Bundt Cakes – Tortine alla Mela, Miele di Castagno, Cannella & Vaniglia

Music: Feels Like Home, Chantal Kreviazuk. Apples from our garden, chestnut honey my aunt makes (her bees, actually…), cinnamon and vanilla from my day-dreams. These small, sweetly pungent bundtcakes will make you wanna lose yourself and take you all the way back where you belong, no matter where you are. A window breaks, down a long, dark street and a siren wails in the night but I’m alright, ’cause I have you here with me and I can almost see, through the dark there is light. Well, if you knew how much this moment means to me and how long I’ve waited for your touch. And if you knew how happy you are making me, I never thought that I’d love anyone so much.

Ingredients:

180 gr flour

1 Tsb starch

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

120 gr butter, melted

50 gr brown sugar

50 gr chestnut honey

1 vanilla bean, seeds

cinnamon, powdered

2 apples, finely grated

2 eggs

1 pinch salt

granulated sugar and cinnamon, for the coating

Mix together the flour, the baking powder, the salt and the cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, the chestnut honey, the eggs and the vanilla seeds. Add the melted butter and mix. Add the honey mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the grated apples. Pour into bundtcake moulds and bake at 180° C for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, mix together some granulated sugar and cinnamon powder. Let the cakes cool a few minutes and when they are still warm, toss them in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Honey, Raspberry Cake and a piece of my heart

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Honey, Raspberry Cake – Torta al Miele & Lamponi

Music: Piece Of My Heart, Janis Joplin. I want you to take it, take another little piece of my heart now, baby! Oh, break it, break another little piece of my heart, darling! Have another little piece of my heart now, baby. You know you got it, if it makes you feel good. I’ll have a piece of cake! Love this song – the only and original version by genious Janis Joplin.

Ingredients (for 1 small cake + 6 mini muffin cups):

230 gr flour

2 tsp baking powder

120 gr butter

5 Tsb honey

2 eggs

milk

1 pinch of salt

raspberry jam

pumpking seeds (optional)

In a bowl, mix the flour, the baking powder and the salt. In another bowl, beat the butter with the honey until fluffy. Add the flour mixture and mix well. Add a couple Tsb milk and the eggs, beating after each addition. Pour into moulds (buttered and covered with baking paper), brush the dough with the raspberry jam, top with some pumpking seeds and sprinkle with a little granulated sugar. Bake at 180° C until golden (about 20 – 30 minutes, depending on the moulds you are using).

Baked Chocolate & Pear Mousse and desperate housewives

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Baked Chocolate & Pear Mousse – Mousse alla Pera & Cioccolato al Forno

Music: SheDaisy, God Bless The American Housewife. Look at me I’m beautiful and glamorous in rubber gloves, look how my tiara can be bent back to the shape it was, I can do the laundry and make dinner while I’m on the phone, look at me I’m sexy as the devil when I mow the lawn. This song just popped into our heads as we saw our friends’ four-year-old girl devouring this baked mousse. Chocolate was everywhere, both on her face and clothes, and her mother looked desperate. I’m sure being a mother ain’t an easy job and this song makes it no doubt clearer! Love the song and the whole album “Fortuneteller’s Melody” by SheDaisy. Check out the video here.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 egg whites

50 gr sugar

50 gr butter

180 gr dark chocolate, chopped

1 pear, finely grated

20 gr rice flour

1 pinch of salt

Beat well the eggs, egg whites and sugar until very pale. In the meantime, melt the chocolate and the butter, and when they are almost completely melted, add the grated pear and mix well. Then turn off the heat and let cool.  When the chocolate mixture has cooled, add it to the eggs and mix. Finally, add the rice flour and the salt. Pour into a well-greased mould and bake at 200° C for about 10 minutes.

Date, Dark Chocolate Cake when you’re feeling just a little too tense

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Date, Dark Chocolate Cake – Torta ai Datteri & Cioccolato Fondente

Music: Some Days You Gotta Dance, The Dixie Chicks. Some days you gotta dance, live it up when you get the chance, ‘cause when the world doesn’t make no sense and you’re feeling just a little too tense, gotta loosen up those chains and dance. There are million reasons to dance, and this wonderfully soft cake adds to the list.

Ingredients:

180 gr flour

3 eggs

100 gr sugar

120 gr butter, melted

dates

50 gr dark chocolate, cut into small pieces

2 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale, then add the flour, the melted butter and the salt. Dice a few dates, leaving some for the topping (cut these into halves). Add the diced dates and the chocolate to the mixture. Mix briefly and pour into a well-greased mould. Bake at 180° C for about 40 minutes.

Milk Chocolate, Walnut Biscotti & white flags

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Milk Chocolate, Walnut Biscotti – Biscotti al Cioccolato al Latte & Noci

Music: Abilene, Sheryl Crow. These biscotti are perfect for the calm after the storm. That’s why I always  keep a few in my kitchen, sometimes changing milk chocolate into dark or white, and substituting walnuts for pistachios or almonds, they always work great. Small and old-fashioned, these crunchy biscotti look so effortlessly sweet that no one will resist your white flag – especially your sweet-tooth boyfriend.

Ingredients:

250 gr flour

50 gr oat flour

150 gr sugar

3 eggs

140 gr milk chocolate, cut into pieces

2 tsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

Walnuts

Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale. Add the flour, the cocoa powder, the baking powder and the salt. Add the chocolate and the walnuts . Divide the dough into two and roll each half into a log that is 1 1/2 inches in diameter and place the logs on a sheetpan lined with parchment paper. Flatten the logs a bit and bake at 180° C for about 20 minutes. Let them cool completely and cut with a serrated knife into individual biscotti, then place them on the same sheetpan and bake another 20 minutes at 180° C until lightly golden.

Ricotta, Chocolate Cake when it’s so fucking cold

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SORRY for being away so long, but we’re having some busy days: the guitarist is locked in the studio recording, while me – well, I am currently living at the shop, which I love! Unfortunately there is NO kitchen!

Ricotta, Chocolate Cake – Torta di Ricotta & Cioccolato

Music: Northern Lad, Tori Amos. We had snow in Florence last Friday, and still it is real cold. The combination of this romantic song and such a comforting chocolate cake is just perfect at beating freezing winter days.

Ingredients:

110 gr butter

110 gr sugar

4 eggs

4 amaretti, powdered

110 gr almond flour

300 gr Amedei dark chocolate

150 gr ricotta

1 Tsb cocoa powder

Beat the sugar with the butter until pale. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the almond flour, the melted chocolate, the ricotta, the cocoa and mix well but briefly. Cover a buttered mould with the powdered amaretti, then pour in the cake mixture. Bake at 180° C for about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, if you like.