Fabulicious!: Teresa's Italian Family Cookbook (27 page)
Read Fabulicious!: Teresa's Italian Family Cookbook Online
Authors: Teresa Giudice
5.
Using a small knife, cut a deep, inverted cone out of the center of each cupcake, and remove the cones. You won’t need the cupcake cones, but I’m sure you can find a willing customer to help you eat them. Use the plastic bag to fill the cupcakes with the cream. Use a knife to smooth the top of the filling flush with the cupcake.
6.
To make the cocoa whipped cream: In a chilled medium bowl combine the heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar, and cocoa powder and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until the cream forms stiff peaks.
7.
Snip ½ inch from a closed corner of a gallon-sized resealable plastic bag. Insert a large star tip (such as Ateco 825) in the bag and poke it through the snipped end. Transfer the cocoa cream to the bag. Pipe swirls of the cocoa whipped cream over each cupcake. If you want, sprinkle each with about 1 teaspoon of mini chocolate chips. Refrigerate, uncovered, until ready to serve.
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Juicy Bits from Joe
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T
he key to delicious cannoli cream is using the right ricotta-ricotta
impastata
. It’s a ricotta that’s already been drained so it’s very thick and creamy. It’s definitely worth looking for at your local Italian deli. They even sell it at the Costco near us. You can use regular ricotta, but you gotta drain it first. There are a couple of ways to do this. The quick way is to wrap the ricotta in cheesecloth and wring it out. The long way is to put paper towels in a sieve, fill it with your ricotta, hang it over a bowl, and then let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.
Happy to See Me Chocolate Salami
Makes 12 to 16 servings
Chocolate salami is a traditional Tuscan fudge-like dessert that’s easy to make, doesn’t require baking, and looks so pretty when it’s sliced and arranged on a plate. However, it does involve using raw eggs. Since I have a no-raw-egg rule in my house—too many babies and old people around (and you know I respect the elderly . . .)—I came up with my own version. It’s got the same wonderful texture and chocolatly taste, but with less calories than the traditional four-eggs-and-huge-chunks-of-butter version.
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 (14-ounce) can nonfat sweetened condensed milk
3 cups coarsely crushed dry cookies, such as tea biscuits, vanilla wafers, or animal crackers (they should be about the size of your fingernail, minus the nail extensions)
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1.
Combine the chocolate chips and condensed milk in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium (50% power), stirring at 1-minute intervals, until the chocolate is melted.
2.
Stir in the cookies and vanilla. Let stand until the mixture is firm enough to shape, about 10 minutes.
3.
Place a 20-inch-long piece of waxed paper on a work surface. Sift the confectioners’ sugar over the waxed paper. Transfer the chocolate mixture to the waxed paper. Shape the chocolate mixture into a thick, 12-inch-log about 1 inch from the bottom of the wax paper. Tightly roll up the log in the waxed paper, and twist and scrunch the ends closed to make a salami shape.
4.
Refrigerate until the salami is firm enough to slice, 2 to 3 hours. To serve, let stand for about 30 minutes at room temperature to soften slightly. Remove the waxed paper and slice diagonally.
Pretty Pizzelle “Ice Cream” Sandwiches
Makes 6 servings
We do make our own pizzelle cookies for special occasions, but they require a special cooking iron (kinda like a waffle iron) that not everyone has at home. But since a lot of grocery stores now carry delicious premade pizzelle cookies (you can also find them online), and since my kids think every night is a special occasion, we started making these pretty pizzelle cookie sandwiches. Here’s the catch: while they are super-easy to make—and great fun for kids—they do have to harden in the freezer for one to two hours before you can eat them. This makes them the perfect dinner bribe. On a night when you’re serving a healthy dinner they might normally resist, make this dessert with them first. They’ll clean their plates for the pizzelle prize, I promise!
12 vanilla-flavored pizzelle cookies
2 cups lowfat vanilla frozen yogurt, slightly softened at room temperature
½ cup mini chocolate chips or rainbow sprinkles
1.
For each sandwich, using a small ice cream scoop or a soupspoon, scoop 4 small balls of frozen yogurt (about ⅓ cup) onto a pizzelle cookie. Carefully spread the frozen yogurt to just beyond the edges of the cookie. Top with a second cookie to make a sandwich.
2.
Put the mini chocolate chips in a shallow bowl. Roll the edges of each sandwich in the chips, pressing them to adhere to the frozen yogurt. Place on a baking sheet or large platter. Freeze until the frozen yogurt is frozen again, 1 to 2 hours. Serve frozen.
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Designer Logos on Dessert
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P
izzelle are Italian wafer cookies that have been eaten—and given as gifts—at holidays for centuries. Each family or village had its own iron crest or special design they would imprint into the cookie before baking it. Delicious, personalized calling-card cookies! What could be better than that? Most electric pizzelle irons today make round cookies, but mine makes heart-shaped ones.
When in Rome . . .
Pizzelle = peet-ZELL-ay
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Teresa’s Tip
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M
ake sure you use vanilla-flavored pizzelles. The standard pizzelle cookie is anise, or licorice-flavored, not the most popular taste for tiny ones.
Makes about 40 cookies
These are classic Italian celebration cookies. Every family has their own special recipe. You can squeeze the dough out of a cookie press so it has ridges, or roll it with your hands. The important thing is to form it in the S-shape, and to use the multicolored nonpareil sprinkles (the little balls). Not jimmies, not colored sugar—it has to be the nonpareils!
If you’ve never had an Italian cookie, and eat one right out of the oven, it may seem a little plain. But put the icing on and some sprinkles, and it’s a party in your mouth.
Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Icing
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons whole or lowfat milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Colored nonpareil sprinkles, for decoration
1.
Position racks in the top third and center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 large baking sheets, or line them with parchment paper.
2.
To make the cookies: Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until pale yellow and light in texture, about 3 minutes. Gradually beat in the eggs, then add the vanilla. Using a sturdy wooden spoon, gradually stir in the flour mixture to make a shaggy dough. Switch to your hands and squish and mix the dough until it comes together. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 2 minutes. Cover the dough with a dry towel and let stand for 10 minutes.
3.
Roll the dough into 40 walnut-sized balls. One at a time, roll each ball on the work surface underneath your palms to make a 7 ½-inch-long rope about ½-inch thick. Roll each end towards the middle, with one curve facing up and the other facing down, to make an “S” shape. Transfer to the baking sheets, spacing the cookies about 1 inch apart.
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Teresa’s Tip
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T
his is a great sweet treat to make when you have a lot of people around because it makes A LOT of cookies! (And it’s rich, so you really don’t need to serve big pieces.)
4.
Bake, switching the position of the baking sheets from top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking, until the cookies are set and light brown on the bottoms (pick one up to check), 15 to 20 minutes. Do not overbake. Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.