Gelato……

Cool, refreshing, refined…..gelato and sorbetto are some of the great culinary symbols of Italy. The ancient Romans had their own version of gelato (literally “frozen pleasure”) that combined pureed fruit with honey and snow. The current version was invented by the Chinese who passed it to the Arabs, who in turn passed it - along with sugar -  to the Sicilians who are still considered some of the best gelato makers in the world.  It wasn’t until the 1500’s  that they learned to make it without ice or snow, and discovered the secret principal of water and salt used by hand cranked ice-cream machines today. Florentine cream and milk additions to the fruit base produced the world’s first sorbets. The Italian born Queen Catherine de Medici dazzled the French court with this confection.

Gelato!: Italian Ice Cream, Sorbetti & Granite

2. Gelato has less air whipped into it, creating a richer, creamier texture.

3.  Gelato contains much less sugar than ice cream, and consequently freezes more easily.

The Ultimate Ice Cream Book : Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More

 Frozen Desserts:  The Definitive Guide to Making Ice Creams, Ices, Sorbets, Gelati, and Other Frozen Delights

Great Italian Desserts

NOTE: It’s important to use fresh, whole milk, and to make sure the eggs are fresh and organic if they are called for raw.

Gingerbread has been baked in Europe for centuries. In some places, it was a soft, delicately spiced cake; in others, a crisp, flat cookie, and in others, warm, thick, steamy-dark squares of “bread,” sometimes served with a pitcher of lemon sauce or whipped cream. It was sometimes light, sometimes dark, sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, but it was almost always cut into shapes such as men, women, stars or animals, and colorfully decorated or stamped with a mold and dusted with white sugar to make the impression visible.

Gingerbread Houses: A Complete Guide to Baking, Building, and Decorating .

The term may be imprecise because in Medieval England gingerbread meant simply “preserved ginger” and was a corruption of the Old French gingebras, derived from the Latin name of the spice, Zingebar. It was only in the fifteenth century that the term came to be applied to a kind of cake made with treacle and flavored with ginger.

Ginger was also discovered to have a preservative effect when added to pastries and bread, and this probably led to the development of recipes for ginger cakes, cookies, Australian gingernuts and flavored breads.

The manufacture of gingerbread appears to have spread throughout Western Europe at the end of the eleventh century, possibly introduced by crusaders returning from wars in the Eastern Mediterranean. From its very beginning gingerbread has been a fairground delicacy. Many fairs became known as “gingerbread fairs” and gingerbread items took on the alternative name in England of “fairings” which had the generic meaning of a gift given at, or brought from, a fair.

Gingerbread-making was eventually recognized as a profession in itself. In the seventeenth century, gingerbread bakers had the exclusive right to make it, except at Christmas and Easter.

Of all the countries in Europe, Germany is the one with the longest and strongest tradition of flat, shaped gingerbreads. At every autumn fair in Germany, and in the surrounding lands where the Germanic influence is strong, there are rows of stalls filled with hundreds of gingerbread hearts, decorated with white and colored icing and tied with ribbons.

If you lived in Nuremberg in 1614, your family would have gone to the Christkindlmarkt in December. You would have bought carved Christmas decorations, special sausages, and the famous Nuremberg Lebkuchen flavored with ginger, which you probably would have thought was the best in the world. Nuremberg gingerbread was not baked in the home, but was the preserve of an exclusive Guild of master bakers, the Lebkuchler.

Nuremberg became known as the “gingerbread capital” of the world and as with any major trading center, many fine craftsmen were attracted to the town. Sculptors, painters, woodcarvers and goldsmiths all contributed to the most beautiful gingerbread cakes in Europe. Gifted craftsmen carved intricate wooden molds, artists assisted with decoration in frosting or gold paint. Incredibly fancy hearts, angels, wreaths and other festive shapes were sold at fairs, carnivals and markets.

Lebkuchen are made throughout Germany and large pieces of lebkuchen are used to build Hexenhaeusle (”witches’ houses,” from the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, also called Lebkuchenhaeusel and Knusperhaeuschen?”houses for nibbling at”).

Nuremberg merchants, in fact, were so well known for their spices that they had the nickname “pepper sacks.” From early on, Nuremberg’s Lebkuchen packed into one recipe all the variety of flavorings available to its bakers?cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, white pepper, anise and ginger.

During the nineteenth century, gingerbread was both modernized and romanticized. When the Grimm brothers collected volumes of German fairy tales they found one about Hansel and Gretel, two children who, abandoned in the woods by destitute parents, discovered a house made of bread, cake and candies. By the end of the century the composer Englebert Humperdink wrote an opera about the boy and the girl and the gingerbread house.

At Christmas, gingerbread makes its most impressive appearance. The German practice of making lebkuchen houses never caught on in Britain in the same way as it did in North America, and it is here still that the most extraordinary creations are found. Elaborate Victorian houses, heavy with candies and sugar icicles, vie in competition with the Hansel and Gretel houses, more richly decorated and ornamented than most children could imagine in their wildest dreams.

The Good Cookie: Over 250 Delicious Recipes

3/4 cup Golden Crisco or Butter-flavored Crisco (shortening)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Coloured decorations or icing

Preheat oven to 375?F.

Cream Crisco, sugar, eggs and vanilla in large mixer bowl at medium speed of electric mixer until light and creamy. Cmbine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture, mixing on low speed until well blended. Cover dough and chill 1 hour, if desired, for easy rolling.  Roll half of dough at a time. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut in desired shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Roll leftover pieces. Sprinkle with coloured decorations or leave plain to decorate when cool. Bake at 375?F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are light brown. (Time will vary with cookie size.) Cool slightly, then remove to cooling rack.

Easy Double-Decker Fudge

A 2-layer fudge with a bottom peanut butter layer and a top chocolate layer.

Makes about 60
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups marshmallow creme
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Butter an 8″ square pan and set aside. Put peanut butter chips in one medium bowl and chocolate chips into another. In a large heavy saucepan over medium heat combine sugar, marshmallow creme, evaporated milk and butter. Stir constantly until mixture boils and then continue to stir while boiling for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour half of this mixture into the peanut butter chips, stirring both until chips are completely melted. Pour into prepared pan. Pour other half of milk mixture into the chocolate chips, stirring until chips are completely melted. Immediately spread over peanut butter layer. Cool and cut into squares.

Yuletide Cranberry Bread

Yield: 1 Loaf

2 c Flour
1 c Sugar
1/2 ts Baking powder
1/2 ts Baking soda
1 ts Salt
1 c Cranberries, sliced in half
1 c Chopped nuts
Juice and grated rind of 2 oranges
2 T Shortening
1/2 c Boiling water
1 Egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350F. 

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Add the cranberries and the nuts.
Combine the juice, rind, shortening, and water. Add the egg to the juice and blend into the cranberry mixture.
Pour into a buttered loaf pan, and bake 1 hour, until a toothpick comes out dry.

Makes about 30

1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1-1/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 370F
Beat together the margarine and cheese until creamy, then blend in the flour and water. Chill the dough for 4 to 5 hours. . In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the preserves and sugar until the mixture boils and is smooth. Set aside. Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into a 10 inch square, cut into 2 1/2 inch squares. Put a scant teaspoon of the preserves in the center of each square, fold over diagonally and seal the edges. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes.

The Healthy Oven Baking Book: Delicious Bake-From-Scratch Desserts With Less Fat and Lots of Flavor 

Sweet Maria’s Italian Cookie Tray

The Naturally Sweet Baker : 150 Decadent Desserts Made With Honey, Maple Syrup, and Other Delicious Alternatives to Refined Sugar 

The Art of Chocolate: Techniques & Recipes for Simply Spectacular Desserts & Confections

Oh Fudge!: A Celebration of America’s Favorite Candy 

FOR FUN!

 
The Classical Cookbook

Find out what the Ancient Greek & Romans ate! Try a few recipes for yourself. Great resource for your school Latin or Greek Club. Or throw an ancient banquet for your friends!

Greek Pastries and Desserts

The Ottoman Kitchen: Modern Recipes from Turkey, Greece, the Balkans, Lebanon, and Syria

The Foods of the Greek Islands